Nick Sandhu

COPE 378 members are a tremendously diverse and talented group of people, and it is with great excitement to profile an Olympian that we have in our midst.

Nick Sandhu speaks very humbly about his afterhours work with the Canadian Men’s Field Hockey Team. He started playing in the late 1970s and played at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and again represented Canada in 1988 at the Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. In both these contests, Sandhu and Canada’s Men’s Field Hockey Team finished an impressive 10th place in a large international field.

In 1990 Nick retired from playing and soon after began coaching. In 1993 he became the National Team head coach, stepping down for about 6 years and returning as assistant coach from 1998 to 2000 before again stepping down.

However, Nick just couldn’t stay away from the game and returned in 2006, and is now the head coach for the Canadian team.

The Olympics are “very unique,” says Nick. “It’s something you have to experience to understand; it can’t be explained. It transforms people, especially the locals.” Nick added.

“We walked down the street right beside basketball players; Kobe Bryant, and Jason Kidd (U.S.) and Dirk Nowitzki (ballplayer and Germany’s flag bearer), tennis players, Rafael Nedall (Spain) and the William’s sisters (U.S.),” said Sandhu.

“China did a wonderful job putting the 2008 games together. You could see it from the people. So many volunteers came out to make it successful. The overwhelming feeling was people helping people and their willingness to do anything for you”.

The Canadian team is ranked 13th in the World and with no North American competition, they tour throughout Europe and Asia. This year and last they have been away a lot, playing in England, Ireland, France, Holland and South Africa. They tour for as many as 18 days at a time, playing teams ranked ahead of them in order to improve and build on their own games.

Every year certain criteria and events carry points towards a calculated ranking with only the top 12 being eligible to play. Canada was ranked 15th before the Beijing Olympics, and had no competition scheduled to pick up points. However, they qualified in July by winning the Pan American Games. The International body has now created another tier of events for teams like ours to gain point standings.

The athletes use up their own vacation days and give up wages to tour. Sports Canada provides some funding, along with membership and sponsorship but, as Sandhu says “there are lots of other costs the team has to incur. Some players are married with kids and mortgages and so on and put careers and studies on hold for the Olympics. It’s a difficult process, task and decision to make but they do it for the passion and love of the game.”

Nick is married with 3 children who all play sports, including field hockey. His older daughter has joined the national squad as well. He coaches his daughter’s club team and also finds time to coach her rep and Provincial teams too. “You want to spend as much time with your family as you can but for the last couple of years I’ve had trouble with that”, Sandhu says, and his new appointment will challenge it too.

Nick Sandhu works as an Instructor in the Training Department at Coast Mountain Bus Company and says he’s had tremendous help from his Employer in order to be able to pursue these goals. Nick says that CMBC has been very good in allowing him to take time off, and that he considers himself very lucky.

Article and interview by Karen McRae.

Want to be profiled in a COPE 378 member profile? Know someone you think should be profiled? Contact Sage Aaron at saaron@cope378.ca.