He’s the fairest in the land.
Red Deer College’s Keith Hansen will be honoured tonight as the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association athletics director of the year.
Hansen left for Vancouver Wednesday and will receive his award following the CCAA annual meeting at Whistler.
“I think this (award) has as much to do with the program and the staff at RDC,” said Hansen.
“We have a phenomenal coaching staff and phenomenal administration staff. It makes for a pretty good unit.”
Hansen has enjoyed nothing but success at RDC over the years.
He won nine national titles as head coach of the men’s volleyball Kings before becoming athletic director in 2007 and handing the Kings’ coaching reins to Aaron Schulha.
“Obviously, there’s a reason why I’ve stayed this long,” he said.
“It’s a great place to work with good people. The College also does a good job of supporting athletics to the extent where we can be successful. That’s a testament to everything at RDC.”
While it’s satisfying to be honoured on a national level, Hansen doesn’t go to work because he anticipates being publicly rewarded on a regular basis.
“Everybody who does these jobs does them because they enjoy being part of athletics,” he said.
“If things like this come by, that’s wonderful, but I wouldn’t say that they are motivation.”
Again, Hansen stressed that his fellow RDC workers deserve much of the credit for his national honour.
“I have to think that our administrative staff is pretty much second to none,” he said, in reference to athletics administration coordinator Carolyn Neufeld, program assistant Janis Makofka and marketing director P.J. Swales.
“Lots of time you get these awards for doing extra stuff and we have such as good administrative team that it has freed me up to do some of these extra things. That’s one of the reasons you can get such an award.”