The Bayside Sharks have tagged a veteran coach to head up its men’s rugby program.
Last week, the South Surrey-based rugby club announced Angel Cividanes as the club’s new head coach of the senior men’s program, which includes first, second and third division sides.
Cividanes replaces Pat Kearney, who had been at the helm of the men’s program since 2011. Kearney, 26, stepped down from his coaching post so he could return to playing, according to Bayside director of rugby David Benoit.
Cividanes is a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina – where he played rugby for local club team, Curupayti – and has lived in South Surrey since moving to Canada in 2001.
He began his Canadian coaching career as head coach of the Meralomas’ U19 team, and won a B.C. title with the Vancouver-based club’s third-division men’s team in 2005, and a first-division crown in 2009.
He was an assistant coach on the Meralomas premier squad last year.
From 2009-2011, Cividanes also served as forwards coach with the BC Bears provincial squad.
“He has had a long and successful rugby career in Canada and abroad,” Benoit said in an email.
This fall, the Sharks’ top men’s team will look to regain a position in the B.C. Rugby Union’s premier league, after being relegated to first division after last season