Entering 2019-20 season
Canada West conference record: 131-65 (42 regulation, 23 OT/SO) (.668)
Canada West playoff record: 22-14 (.611)
U SPORTS championship record: 5-4 (.556)
Canada West Championships: 2012-13, ‘15-16, ‘16-17
Canada West Coach of the Year: 2012-13
U SPORTS Coach of the Year: 2012-13
Graham Thomas is in his eighth season as the head coach of the UBC Thunderbirds women’s hockey team. In his time with the blue and gold, Thomas has built the Thunderbirds into one of the premier programs in U SPORTS, while continually setting new milestones for women’s hockey at the school. Nearly all of UBC’s major team and individual records have come with Thomas at the helm.
Last year’s squad went 14-5-4-5 in the regular season to place third in the highly competitive Canada West conference, giving up just 35 goals. The Thunderbirds swept Regina before falling to Manitoba in the league playoffs.
Thomas was named the U SPORTS and Canada West Coach of the Year for the 2012-13 season, his first at UBC. He led the Thunderbirds on an improbable run from a one-win team in 2011-12 to Canada West champions the following year. It was the greatest turnaround in U SPORTS history across all sports.
The next season, Thomas’ squad became the first in school history to win 20 conference games, while in 2014-15, UBC earned its first-ever top-two finish in the Canada West standings by placing second.
Arguably the school’s most successful season was the 2015-16 campaign. The ‘Birds won their second Canada West title, and then the national silver medal at the 2016 U SPORTS Women’s Hockey Championship in Thomas’ hometown of Calgary.
The 2016-17 season was another historic one for the UBC women’s hockey program. Early in the year, they became the first UBC hockey team to be ranked No. 1 nationally. During the regular season, the Thunderbirds rattled off a school record 15 straight wins on their way to an all-time program-best 23 regular season victories, which also tied for the most in Canada West history. The team went on to win its second consecutive league championship, before earning the U SPORTS bronze medal in Kingston, Ont.
UBC went 14-5-5-4 during the 2017-18 regular season before beating Mt. Royal two games to none in the league quarter-final. The T-Birds fell to Saskatchewan 2-0 in the semifinal round.
Thomas came to UBC after working at Syracuse University, where he was with the women’s hockey team since it began play in the 2008-09 season, helping build the program from the ground up.
He served as an assistant/associate coach at Syracuse, working with all aspects of team operations and was the team’s recruiting coordinator. He helped build and develop the Syracuse NCAA Division I hockey team from the inaugural start-up year in 2008. Thomas signed and committed 40 players to Syracuse during his time, including two NCAA player of the year nominees.
Before Syracuse, Thomas served as head coach of the women’s team at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) in 2007-08. His squad finished in a first-place tie in the regular season standings of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference, with a record of 26-8-2.
Thomas also spent time as a coach and instructor at the National Sport Academy in Calgary before heading east to Syracuse. He has ‘High Performance 1’ and ‘Coaching Theory Level 1, 2 and 3’ qualifications and is certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association to develop players through off-ice training.
Through the Academy, Thomas imparted his insight to male and female players that have competed at the NHL level, Junior tier I and II, NCAA and national team levels.
In his playing days, Thomas suited up for the Drayton Valley Thunder of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. In 1998-99, Thomas also skated for Mannheim Jung Adler in Germany.
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