Michel Roy has always had clear goals in mind since he arrived at the University of Hawai`i in 2003. Roy has been a man with a mission to consistently get the Rainbow Wahine water polo team to the NCAA Championships and ultimately win the school's first national championship.
This effort has resulted in three NCAA Final Four finishes in 2005, 2006 and 2009, a No. 3 national ranking in 2009, and numerous national rankings in the Top 10 poll through his tenure at UH. More to his credit, he has been twice named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation co-coach of year in 2005 and the coach of year in 2006.
In 2009, his team finished fourth at the NCAA Championships in College Park, MD, the third time he has taken the Rainbow Wahine to the NCAA Tournament. UH finished 19-10, ended the year ranked No. 4 in the national and was ranked as high as No. 3 in the national earlier in the season.
Last summer, Roy had four players represent Canada in world game tournaments. Juniors Serena Bredin and Saara Majuri and sophomore Monika Eggens vaulted the Canadian team to the final four at the FISU World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia. Junior Carmen Eggens also represented UH for the Canadian national team at the 2009 FINA World Championships in Rome, Italy and helped the team take silver.
Roy has spent more than 25 years as part of Canada's water polo program, including 17 as a professional coach. He was the co-head coach of Canada's successful qualification for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
Since 1985, Roy had been affiliated with the British Columbia Water Polo Association, serving as technical director, provincial coach, and as head coach of many provincial programs. There he won a total of 32 national Canadian titles in six categories, including 10 senior men's and seven junior men's titles, the most of any club coach in Canada.
In addition, Roy served as head coach of the Pacific Storm Water Polo Club, where he led the senior men's team to national championships from 1999-2002.
As a U.S. collegiate coach he has international experience working in his favor. This includes head and co-head coach of Canada's senior women's national team from 1995-99; co-head coach of the senior men's national teams from 1992-93 and 1985-94 on the staff of the Canadian men's national team program from the "A" team, "B" team and junior teams.
His job has taken him to many foreign countries including Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, England, France, Italy, Greece, Cuba, Australia and South America (Venezuela & Brazil).
"I'm using my connections to turn the Rainbow Wahine into a team made up of players from all over the globe," Roy said. "I want to attract players from all over the U.S. and a variety of foreign students. I want people to feel like Hawai`i is the place to be to train and play water polo."
Roy certainly feels like Hawai`i is the place for his wife, Linda, and his two daughters (Emilie and Tillie). He also feels it is the perfect location to continue to build a collegiate water polo powerhouse.
"My position at UH is a coaches dream job, one that can be a lifetime position," Roy said. "I'm very happy to be here and I want to stay here as long as I can. The obvious goal is to win the NCAA National Championship. But first and foremost, my goal is to make my athletes the best they can be and success will come with it."
