Message from Athletic Director, Christine Stapleton

I want to congratulate inductees to this year’s Western Mustangs Athletic Sports Hall of Fame. Your contributions to our Mustangs athletic legacy are very deserving of this recognition, and I look forward to celebrating with you at the WMAA event during Homecoming this fall. This will be a wonderful opportunity to reflect and recognize Mustangs athletics alumni who made Western their home during some formative and memorable years.

I also want to take the opportunity to look forward; to show you more about how Western Mustang Athletics will continue to achieve great things in the future. Sports & Recreation is an integral part of the Western University experience. After extensive consultation with alumni, students, staff, and the community, we launched the Sports & Recreation strategic plan – Game Plan 2028 in January of this year. The plan identifies four key goals and outcomes aligned with the Western Towards 150 strategic plan and our vision, “Create communities of belonging where all Western Mustangs Thrive.”

Development of a transformational student-athlete experience in Western Sport.

We are working to execute a high performance, sustainable, and transparent sport model that lays the foundation for all student-athletes and sports teams to thrive. CJ Ireland, our new Director of Sport, is perfectly suited to help elevate our programs, design new curricula where needed, and ensure partnership with key collaborators in kinesiology, Fowler Kennedy Sports Medicine, and physiotherapy. Together, we will advance knowledge creation that provides a broad spectrum of high quality athletic programming opportunities through our 46 Western Mustangs varsity teams and clubs.

Support for these programs includes hundreds of full- and part-time coaches, athletic therapy in collaboration with the Fowler Kennedy Sports Medicine Clinic and the Faculty of Health Sciences Kinesiology program, which also provides vital hands-on learning opportunities for students. Student support for athletes includes providing strength training, academic and mental health supports, as well as financial and recognition awards. These programs are continually reviewed against best practices in sports.

Our student-athletes and coaches compete and participate in numerous international competitions including the Olympics and world championships, and our worldwide alumni are proud and passionate about giving back to the Mustangs. We want to ensure we are recruiting outstanding student-athletes through a bold, scalable, and intentional recruitment strategy.

In addition, we offer experiential and leadership experiences with our sport teams, outside of just being on the roster. We encourage all students to get involved with sports at Western through volunteerism, , supporting charitable initiatives, or attending one of our many signature events.

Building community spirit and engagement.

We want all Western students to see themselves as a Mustang. We work to improve immersive and engaging fan experiences that unite students, alumni, and fans with a passion for competition, teamwork and the Western Mustangs.

Sports & Recreation has strong connections to the broader community, including the WMAA and more than 13,000 athletic alumni. A key goal is to amplify opportunities for alumni to inspire, mentor and connect with our student-athletes, coaches and other members of Sports & Recreation.

Our plan also aims to ensure diverse communities, including in London and the surrounding areas, see Western Sports & Recreation as a vital part of the regional sport ecosystem and a preferred destination for students and signature events.

Offering a high impact recreation experience for all current Western students.

We want to position Western Campus Recreation to offer a world-class recreation service model, ensuring that all programming, intramurals and sport clubs are student-centered, accessible, enriching, and geared to all levels and abilities. Membership includes access to aquatics in our Olympic-sized swimming pool, fitness, intramurals, drop-in sports, and recreational sport clubs. We want all students, including equity-deserving individuals, to feel safe and comfortable in our spaces.

By participating in our active programming at on campus facilities, students are supported to create and maintain a healthy lifestyle, improve their stress management, and increase opportunities to enhance social connections within our campus community. Campus recreation is a busy hub with more than 720,000 visits each year.

Accessible spaces and places for everyone.

A key goal is to create and implement a ten-year Sports & Recreation Facilities Master Plan that reimagines how we use and access facilities and outdoor spaces in alignment with student and community needs, as well as university growth. This master plan will help to outline how we operate, renew, and build safe, accessible and inclusive world-class recreation, training, competition and event facilities and amenities.

We are also working to create and support a culture of inclusion at Western; to enable and develop a high-performance Sports & Recreation teams and programming; and to initiate a robust and innovative technology and accessible infrastructure plan.

We are invigorated by this strategic plan and continue to look for innovative ways to respond to the needs of the Western community through key partnerships. I look forward to sharing our progress as we implement this ambitious and achievable plan.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!