UBC’s Orazietti moving on

According to Paul Oraziettis’ social media, he has announced that he will be stepping down from his role as Assistant Head Coach at the University of British Columbia (Thunderbirds).

Orazietti has accepted a new position as Athletic Director at the Sault College for 2019.

Bio

A Vanier Cup champion as both a UBC player and coach, Paul Orazietti enters his ninth full season on the sidelines with the Thunderbirds.

His first seven years were spent as the special teams coordinator and running backs coach. He then moved into the offensive coordinator role last season before becoming the program’s associate head coach and special teams coordinator for 2018.

During his time as a coach at UBC, the blue and gold won the Vanier Cup national title in 2015, and made four Hardy Cup championship game appearances, triumphing in 2015.

Orazietti spent part of the summer of 2016 as the running backs coach of Canada’s Junior National Team, leading the squad – which included T-Birds Connor Griffiths and Trey Kellogg – to a gold-medal finish at the IFAF Under-19 World Championship in Harbin, China.

This was Orazietti’s fourth time representing our country as he was the head coach of the U-15 squad from 2011-2014. He was also the special teams coordinator for the U SPORTS East West Bowl in 2015 and 2016.

In the summer of 2017, Orazietti served as the offensive coordinator for Team BC at the Canada Cup leading them to a 2-1 record. This was also the fourth time Orazietti was selected to coach on the provincial team.

A member of the T-Birds’ 1997 Vanier Cup-winning squad, Orazietti first began coaching running backs at UBC as a guest coach in 1998 and from 2002-05 during Thunderbird spring camps.

Orazietti returned to his alma mater full time after a successful stint with the Victoria Rebels of the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL), where he served as head coach, offensive coordinator and director of football operations from 2005 until the spring of 2009.

A graduate of both Queen’s University (Arts, ‘93) and UBC (Education, ‘97), Orazietti spent six years as the athletic director and P.E. department coordinator at Canmore Collegiate in Alberta while also assuming the role of head coach and offensive coordinator of the Canmore Wolverines (high school) prior to leading the Rebels.

His extensive coaching and scouting resume has also seen him work with Football Alberta, the University of Calgary, NFL World League, as well as a guest coach with the Calgary Stampeders and BC Lions.

The former T-Bird’s on-field career began as a standout with Sir James Dunn Collegiate and Vocational School in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Orazietti then spent two seasons with Queen’s (1989-90), one year with the Edinburgh Eagles (BFA) in Europe in 1994, and then UBC from 1995-97.

Source: UBC Thunderbirds