Jean-Philippe Asselin’s coaching skills are being recognized again.
The Ravens offensive co-ordinator was named to the coaching staff for Team Ontario going into the 2015 Football Canada Cup, the annual championship for amateur football.
Team Ontario captured the 2014 title in Saskatoon over Saskatchewan-Green.
In the upcoming tournament, the former Ottawa Gee-Gees head coach will be keeping the Ravens’ needs in the back of his mind.
“This is great for our program in terms of recruiting,” Asselin said. “It’s one thing to evaluate a player on the field from the outside looking in, it’s another to get to know them a little bit. You get to see how fast they can learn and what kind of person they are. That’s a huge process for our program, so I’m pretty excited for that.”
Asselin has a big history in university football, going back to his playing days where he captained the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees to a 2006 Yates Cup while working towards a degree in economics.
Before coming to Carleton, the Quebec City native explained his long resumé attached to his name.
Asselin was assistant offensive co-ordinator in 2008-09 and head coach in 2010-11. He helped the Gee-Gees get to the Yates Cup in 2010.
Asselin was also the offensive co-ordinator and offensive assistant for Team Ontario from 2007-10 and an offensive co-ordinator in the Wilson Challenge Cup.
Now with the Ravens, Asselin helped the team to a 4-4 record in its sophomore season.
“The record speaks for itself,” he said. “We knew coming in that we had gotten better. Sometimes you have wins and losses you don’t totally control, but it was great to put a couple wins under our belts.”
He said he has high hopes for next season.
“We approached each game trying to win this year, which was a change from our first year. We had two close games against Windsor and Ottawa. You start to learn that in order to win it all you are going to have really close games,” he said. “I think that was a really big plus on the season, learning to win the close ones. Now we need to put our head down, work away and make sure we put together the best team we can for next year.”
Before he gets to the Ravens’ third season, Asselin said he is looking forward to the Canada Cup.
“It’s a very fun tournament. [Ontario] won last year, so anything less might be a bit disappointing, but I think the main thing with those tournaments as well is getting those kids to compete hard and making sure they learn a lot. I’m really looking forward to it all,” he said.
