Fraser Valley – University of the Fraser Valley Cascades women’s volleyball head coach Janelle Rozema was named the 2025 recipient of the U SPORTS Marilyn Pomfret Award (Fox40 Coach of the Year) on Wednesday evening at the national championship banquet in Winnipeg, MB. The award is given yearly to the nation’s top university women’s volleyball coach.
Just a week after receiving the Canada West conference’s top coaching honour, Rozema becomes the first UFV head coach to earn the prestigious national award.
Other nominees for the award included: Patrick Murray (Dalhousie), Olivier Trudel (Montréal), and Melissa Bartlett (Western)
Rozema led her team to the program’s first top seeded finish in the 2024-25 Canada West regular season with a 17-3 record. The Cascades season came to an end in the conference quarterfinals but proved to be yet another historic season for the young program at this level.
Since joining U SPORTS and the Canada West conference in 2021, the Cascades women’s volleyball program has finished in the top four of the regular season standings three times and put together a record of 61 wins and 23 losses in the regular season all led by Rozema.
“When we entered into U SPORTS we knew that being a new team in the league wasn’t something we could control,” Rozema explained when asked about how she has built her team culture. “We could control two things — how fit we were, and our culture. We put a lot of emphasis and hard work into both of those aspects,”
After receiving the award, Rozema was asked about her advice for up and coming coaches.
“For awhile I was withholding applying for jobs because I didn’t think I was perfect. I was like, I have to be perfect before I can be a head coach and there was lots I needed to work on, but Laurie [Eisler] encouraged me to apply for this job and I knew that I had a lot of skills and a lot of talent,” Rozema explained.
“No coach is ever perfect, so don’t wait to chase opportunities because you’re asking am I ready. Female coaches often question am I ready. If you are questioning if you are ready, you probably are because you’re still humble and you have an attitude to work hard, learn and give your all to your team.”
Click Here to read the full release on major awards from U SPORTS
