2014-15 was another strong year for Carleton athletes, but the contribution of individual coaches should be recognized as well.
The Charlatan will select one coach from this list of four in the upcoming issue for Carleton’s coach of the year.
Dave Smart – Men’s basketball head coach
He has won 11 national championships in the past 13 years, 11 Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championships, and he is an eight-time Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) coach of the year.
During his time at Carleton, Smart has won 493 games with only 45 losses since 1999.
He has had several players go on to play professional basketball, notably former guard Osvaldo Jeantry and forward Tyson Hinz.
Even though this was not the Ravens’ best regular season, finishing 17-2, they bounced back from two close losses and won their 10th OUA title and went on to take their 11th CIS championship, where they not only defeated the cross-town rivals University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, but dismantled them by a 93-46 margin.
At the Carleton athletics banquet, he was awarded Pat O’Brien memorial award for coach of the year at Carleton.
In the off-season, Smart will be an assistant coach for the Canadian men’s national team, which will be competing in the Pan-Am Games.
Eli Sukunda — Fencing coach
As the head coach of the Carleton Raven’s fencing team, Eli Sukunda has brought his knowledge and expertise to multiple generations of Carleton fencers.
Sukunda has been coaching with the Ravens since 1993. Prior to that, he competed in three Olympic Games, as well as multiple Pan-Am Games, Commonwealth Games, and Canadian Fencing Championships.
Additionally, Sukunda coached the Canadian national fencing team at three world championships.
During his time with the Ravens, Sukunda has coached the fencing team to six OUA championships, and was named coach of the year in 2009-10.
This year, Sukunda coached the women’s fencing team to a third place finish at their OUA championships, where the team also won a number of individual and team medals.
To end off the 2014-15 season, Sukunda coached the men’s fencing team to a back-to-back OUA championship, adding another banner to the program’s history.
Marty Johnston — Men’s hockey head coach
In his fifth year as the head coach for the Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team, Marty Johnston coached the team to a regular season record of 20-6.
Additionally, Johnston also won his first OUA coach of the year award for the 2014-15 season.
Despite missing out on the CIS University Cup tournament, the Ravens had a good season under Johnston, recording a streak of nine wins early in the season, and netting 106 goals in total.
In the 2013-14 season, Johnston was responsible for coaching the Ravens to an OUA regular season best record of 22-5-1, as well as taking the team to the CIS nationals for the first time in the program’s history.
Steve Sumarah – Football head coach
In his second season as head coach of the Carleton Ravens football team, the Ravens went 4-4 in the regular season.
The season before, the Ravens recorded a dismal 0-8 record. Largely on the back of the same players as in the 2014 season, Sumarah led his team to a respectable .500 record, narrowly missing out on the playoffs after a loss to the Queen’s Gaels in their final game.
Sumarah, a former CIS football coach of the year at Saint Mary’s University, was also named to the coaching staff for Team Canada at the 2015 International Federation of American Football world championships in Sweden.
