VIU Mariners

06/02/2026

VIU women's basketball has announced five new commitments for the 2026-27 season. This is the first recruiting class for new head coach Luke Holmes as he aims to steer the Mariners back to the CCAA national championship.

Reigning national champions welcome five new additions

05/07/2026

Congratulations to Kai Leighton: the fifth year Vancouver Island University men's basketball all-star has been named a 2025-26 CCAA - ACSC Torchbearer Scholarship recipient, presented by FieldTurf!

He's been a top student-athlete with VIU and his work with Special Olympics Basketball Nanaimo and Kw’umut Lelum Child and Family Services demonstrates his leadership and dedication to community. Congratulations again, Kai!

Kai Leighton CCAA Torchbearer, presented by FieldTurf

04/24/2026

⭐️⭐️ At the VIU Mariners Award Night earlier this month, the Mariners inducted two new members into the Mariners Wall of Fame: Jamie Hatch (Broder) and Marilou Leonin. Congratulations!

Jamie, an outside hitter, played three seasons with Mariners women's volleyball (2003-06) and won two conference gold medals and two CCAA medals before transferring to UBC, where she won a CIS national championship. After that, her beach volleyball career took off and she became of the top performers in Canadian history. In 2015, she and her partner Kristina Valjas became the first Canadian women to win a FIVB World Tour gold medal and followed that by representing Canada at the 2016 Rio Olympics. 🇨🇦

Marilou was the Mariners' first superstar in women's basketball program history. She played four seasons (1994-98) at VIU (then Malaspina University-College) and was a conference all-star in three of those seasons. However, it was her final season in 1997-98 that really cemented her legacy as she led the Mariners to the first women's basketball conference title and national championship in team history. Marilou also became the first Mariner to be named women's basketball conference player of the year, CCAA women's basketball All-Canadian, and the CCAA women's basketball national player of the year. 🇨🇦

Jamie and Marilou: we are proud to forever add your names and banners to our Wall of Fame in the Vancouver Island University Gymnasium! 💙

Athletes Jamie Broder (Volleyball) and Marilou Leonin (Basketball) are named to the Mariners Wall of Fame

04/24/2026

Vancouver Island University women's volleyball announces five commitments for the upcoming season: welcome Kendall, Phaedra, Cadie, Maria, and Gabi!

For more information on each student-athlete, check out our story on the Mariners website.

Mariners add four new names and one familiar name to the 2026-27 roster

04/22/2026

🏀✨ GIRLS BASKETBALL CAMPS ARE HERE ✨🏀

Take your game to the next level this summer with our Mariners in Training Girls Basketball Camps run by the 2026 CCAA Women’s Basketball National Champions 🏆

📅 July 6–10
• Junior (9:00 AM – 12:00 PM)
• Senior (1:00 PM – 4:00 PM)
📅 August 24–28
• Shooting Camp (9:00 AM – 12:00 PM)
• Perimeter Development (1:00 PM – 4:00 PM)

Whether you’re building your fundamentals or sharpening your skills, our camps are designed to help you grow, compete, and have fun 🏀💙

Register now, link is in our bio!

04/20/2026

The ball and the torch have been passed as we welcome (back) Eric D’Andrea – our new head coach for VIU MENS BASKETBALL!

D'Andrea, from Nelson, BC, played at Vancouver Island University for four seasons between 2012 and 2017 under outgoing coach Matt Kuzminski and was on VIU’s 2013 CCAA national championship team. He becomes the twelfth head coach to lead the Mariners men’s basketball program.

"Being part of the program and playing here for as long as I did meant a lot to me," D’Andrea said. "I look forward to taking on the challenge of building on the success of the program and building the culture that made playing here such a great experience."

D’Andrea will be joined on the bench by two other Mariners alumni and CCAA national champions on the bench as assistant coaches: Connor Billett and Jon Bethell.

D’Andrea’s first ID camp for prospective Mariners (ages 17+) runs Saturday, May 2 at the VIU Gymnasium in Nanaimo. Interested parties can register via the Talent ID Camp link on the VIU Mariners website (linked in story). Time to get to work! 🏀

Eric D'Andrea named 12th head coach in Mariners men's basketball history

04/14/2026

Congratulations to Jada Kamerman: her outstanding and award-winning season led her to be the first Mariner soccer player voted PACWEST BC (Pacific Western Athletic Association) Female Athlete of the Year (Across All Sports) since the award was created in 2000! ⚽️⭐️

VIU's Jada Kamerman named PACWEST Conference Female Athlete of the Year Across All Sports

04/01/2026

Check out this great PACWEST BC (Pacific Western Athletic Association) conversation with VIU Women's Basketball guard Mackenzie Cox: reflecting on her fifth year, the national championship, and what comes next!

Guard Mackenzie Cox wins a national gold medal for the second time to cap off her career

03/27/2026

To the CCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship ‘green team’: thank you!

Sport tournaments of any size don’t spring together organically; it takes effort, dedication, and belief. The people you saw at the tournament in green shirts were a mix of VIU staff, student workers, the table crew, volunteers, camera operators, photographers, ticket takers, even family members—many more than you see in this photo, folks who all put in long hours, steadfastly believing that hosting a CCAA national championship would be a valuable and memorable experience for our students, the Vancouver Island basketball community, and VIU at large.

This effort goes back years: to preparing and submitting a host bid, finding like-minded and supportive sponsors and partners, arranging travel and accommodations, getting the gym into shape, training on stat keeping, designing logos and graphics, selling tickets, with the goal of giving student-athletes an environment to play their best basketball of the year on the biggest stage many of them will ever play on. And it all came together in a tournament where eight of the 13 games were won by five points or less and another went to double-overtime.

Run with your passion, find the best teammates, and great things can happen!