On Monday, the Canadian Premier League announced that Halifax Wanderers head coach Patrice Gheisar is one of three CPL Coach of the Year nominees.
Gheisar guided the Wanderers to several franchise records in his first season in charge of the club, including setting new marks for wins, points, goals scored, goal differential, goals conceded and total passes. The second head coach in club history, who joined the Wanderers following a storied career in League1 Ontario with Vaughan Azzurri, Gheisar led Halifax to unprecedented success after totally rebuilding the squad by bringing in 17 new players ahead of the 2023 season. Halifax’s third-place finish in the regular season standings, which was decided by a fourth tiebreaker after the Wanderers finished level with Forge, earned the club its first home playoff game. Gheisar was named June’s CPL Manager of the Month.
The other nominees are Forge FC’s Bobby Smyrniotis and Cavalry FC’s Tommy Wheeldon Jr. The winner will be decided through voting by CPL club technical leadership and selected media members representing local and national outlets who consistently covered the 2023 CPL regular season. The winner will be revealed at an in-person ceremony in Hamilton, Ont. on Thursday, Oct. 26 as part of the festivities surrounding CPL Final weekend.
The first Awards nominees for 2023 are here!
Patrice Gheisar of @HFXWanderersFC, Bobby Smyrniotis of @ForgeFCHamilton and Tommy Wheeldon Jr. of @CPLCavalryFC are this year's candidates for Coach of the Year.
More 📖 : https://t.co/zWTHbuL1Lu
Who's taking it home on Oct. 26?
— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) October 16, 2023
The Coach of the Year award winner will receive a unique piece of Inuit soapstone art, conceptualized by artist Palaya Qiatsuq. The Owl statue symbolizes wisdom, guidance and knowledge, while its heightened vision gives it the ability to see what others cannot. The Coach of the Year requires similar attributes to earn the honour.
The 2023 CPL Awards ceremony will be broadcast live on dedicated soccer channel OneSoccer, available as a linear channel on Optik TV (Ch. 980), the pay-TV service operated by Telus, one of Canada’s “big three” telecoms companies, as well as on streaming service fuboTV Canada. OneSoccer is also offered as an affordable streaming service through the OneSoccer.ca website, via Roku, Chromecast and Apple TV devices and with the OneSoccer app for iOS and Android devices.