Danielle Cyr Announced as Director of Performance

HCU is pleased to announce Danielle Cyr as our new Director of Performance.
A multi-sport athlete from rural Nova Scotia, Danielle (they/them) - or more well known as D
on the field - fell in love with coaching at a young age growing up in Pictou County. They bring
experience working with all genders and ages in the game with a strong focus on youth and
senior performance and goalkeeping. Most recently, this past summer Coach D was at the helm
helping to lead the HCU premier women to their first provincial championship since 2006 and
supported the Team Nova Scotia women in capturing a bronze medal at the 2022 Canada Games
as an assistant coach.

Coach D is a staff coach with Soccer Nova Scotia provincial and Regional EXCEL/ Whitecaps
programs. They are passionate about leadership development and mentorship and are a coach
and leadership developer with CCAA and U SPORTS Female Apprentice Coach programs and
Canada Soccer and Soccer Nova Scotia coach liscencing programs. D is also the Director of
Soccer for Team Mi’kmaw Nova Scotia for the 2023 North American Indigenous Games.
D is coming off their seventh season as head coach of the Mount Saint Vincent University
women’s soccer program (their varsity alma matter). D has led the Mystics to continued success
under their tenure including a 42 (W) - 11(L) -19 (T) record, and six consecutive ACAA
conference championship tournament appearances including winning two ACAA championships
(2022, 2018) and two ACAA silver medals (2017, 2016). They were named ACAA coach of the
year in 2021.

D holds a National B Licence, National Youth Licence and National Youth Goalkeeping
Licence.

D is an associate faculty member, researcher and PhD student at Royal Roads University and
recently joined MSVU as part-time faculty. D's research focuses on performance sport for
leadership and community development as a conduit for safer sport experiences.
They also bring over ten years of experience as a communications professional working in non-
profit sport and health including working with Canadian Women & Sport, Doctors NS Healthy
Tomorrow Foundation and Soccer Nova Scotia. They have helped to lead local, national, and
international work on trans and nonbinary inclusion in sport and continue this work as an EDIA
consultant.

Danielle will be joining HCU in a part-time capacity focusing on performance programming.

A word from D:

Hello, HCU players and families,
I am excited to be starting this new role with HCU and to have the opportunity to work alongside
our awesome performance coaches and players. HCU as a club and the vision Jamie has set out
aligns with what I believe soccer can do to develop exceptional people and strong communities.

I am looking forward to shaping holistic and inclusive player and coach development programs
and ensuring our performance players and coaches are having a great experience and have the
support they need to excel.

My priority in the next month will be getting to know all our youth performance team players,
coaches and parents and leading an audit on our programming to build off the great work already
being done and the club’s strong legacy, while providing leadership and support in areas we’d
like to grow.

A word from Executive Director Jamie: