Entering 2022-23 season
NAIA Women’s Cross Country national championships: 2016, 2017
NAIA Men’s Cross Country national championships: 2017
NAIA Women’s Outdoor Track and Field national championships: 2019, 2022
NAIA Men’s Outdoor Track and Field national championships: 2017, 2019
Canada West Women’s Cross Country conference championships: 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022
Canada West Men's Cross Country conference championships: 2021, 2022
Cascade Conference Women’s Outdoor Track and Field conference championships: 2019, 2022, 2023
Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Women’s Cross Country conference championships: 2015, 2016, 2017
Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Men’s Cross Country conference championships: 2015, 2016, 2017
NAIA Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year: 2016, 2017
NAIA Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year: 2017
NAIA Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year: 2019, 2022
NAIA Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year: 2017, 2019
Cascade Conference Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year: 2019, 2022, 2023
Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year: 2015, 2016, 2017
Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year: 2015, 2016, 2017
Laurier Primeau enters his eighth season at the helm of UBC’s cross country and track and field teams.
Since he became the head coach of the programs on May 27, 2015, the Thunderbirds have reached historic new highs, winning four NAIA team titles in outdoor track and field and three in cross country.
UBC claimed both NAIA cross country banners in 2017, earning a repeat triumph – and fifth overall – for the women, and the first men’s championship in school history.
In 2018, the Thunderbirds competed in Canada West and U SPORTS cross country, and earned the women’s conference title, their first Can West banner since 1993, while the men were fourth. In the U SPORTS standings, the UBC women were fourth and the men eighth.
All four of the Thunderbirds’ NAIA outdoor track and field team championships have come with Primeau as head coach, with the men’s team coming first in the spring of 2017. It was the first time a Canadian school won a track and field team title in an American multi-sport organization.
UBC then swept the national banners at the 2019 meet, claiming the first NAIA women’s team championship in the program’s existence. 2022 saw the Thunderbirds women earn their second NAIA outdoor track & field national championship banner in their first return to the meet since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Primeau has won NAIA Coach of the Year honours seven times (three in cross country and four in outdoor track and field), Association of Independent Institutions Coach of the Year recognition six times in cross country, and Cascade Collegiate Conference Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year award three times..
From 2011 to 2015, Primeau worked to build Trinity Western University's cross country and track and field programs into powerhouses within U SPORTS competition.
In four years, TWU women's cross country progressed from an 18th-place standing at the U SPORTS meet to a spot on the podium, while in track, the Spartan women went from 15th to second. On the men's side, Primeau's cross country teams improved every year, going from 16th to seventh in four seasons. On the track, that rise went from 15th place at the national meet to seventh.
In recognition of his efforts, the Canada West conference honoured Primeau with its Coach of the Year award in women's cross country and track and field for two consecutive seasons.
Primeau took time off from the Spartans in the summer of 2012 to fill the role as head coach of Canada's Paralympic Team at the Summer Olympics in London.
Before TWU, he was the head coach of Scottish Athletics for two years – from 2009 to 2011 – where he guided his team to an 18th-place finish at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Between 2002 and 2013, Primeau was a coach with Canada's national track and field team, responsible for jumps, combined events and relays. He helped lead Canada at two World Junior Championships and three Pan American Junior Championships.
Primeau is no stranger to the UBC family. He competed as a Thunderbird in 2000, winning a bronze medal in the 60-metre hurdles at the Canada West championships in Winnipeg. He teamed with Alex Inglis, Steve Walters and Chris Williams to win silver in the 4x400-metre relay at both the Canada West and U SPORTS meets.
From 2002 to 2009, Primeau served as an assistant coach with UBC track and field in charge of sprints, hurdles, combined events, jumps and javelin. During this time period, he worked with some Thunderbirds' Olympians: javelin throwers Liz Gleadle and Curtis Moss and high jumper Mike Mason.
During the same span, Primeau was the head coach and administrator of the Vancouver Thunderbirds Track and Field Club.
He also served as teacher and head coach at St. George's School from 1997 to 2009.
In 2007 he was the recipient of the Outstanding Coach Award for BC Athletics and, in 1991, he was awarded Sport BC's "Harry Jerome Comeback Athlete of the Year" after returning to the competitive track after a battle with cancer.
Primeau has full NCCP Level 4 certification and also has a UKA Level 2 coaching licence.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (1995) from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. In 1997, Primeau graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree from Auburn University in Auburn, Ala.
