Jim Flack, Sheridan's Director of Athletics and Recreation and Head Coach of the Men's Basketball team, is retiring from his role as the Director, but has agreed to stay on as the coach of the legendary basketball program.

A native of the village of Streetsville, in Mississauga, he was a standout basketball player at Streetsville Secondary and was a reserve on the 1984-1985 OUA Champion York University team coached by Bob Bain. Ironically, as a youth Flack considered the schools in Brampton to be rivals. He later became a teacher-coach at Brampton's North Park Secondary School where he taught history and lead a variety of teams, including baseball, track and field, and basketball. In 2014, North Park honoured Jim by inducting him into their athletics Hall of Fame. The Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) named him its 2001-02 Basketball Coach of the Year. Flack's influence within the Brampton athletic community was again acknowledged when he was inducted into the Brampton Sports Hall of Fame on May 9th, 2023. Coach Flack's community influence extends beyond the varsity sector, as he was a board member for PLAY (Physical Lifestyles for Autistic Youth), a Brampton non-profit agency that offers programs to support the wellbeing of the Autistic community through activation. For over a decade, he has acted as an advisor for PLAY. For now, he feels the need to scale back a bit.

"It will be nice to cut back on some of the insane hours I have dedicated to Sheridan. I'm excited to continue coaching the Bruins. Some of my early coaching heroes were on the sideline into their 70's, so as long as my health holds out and someone wants me running a program, I still want to contribute at the college level. Cutting back to one job will give me more time for self-care and family and provide me a chance to extend my coaching career. My family have sacrificed a lot too, and I need to pay attention to that part of life now."

In 1991, Flack joined the Sheridan as an assistant coach to Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) hall of famer Wayne Allison, a trailblazer who led the program to four Ontario and two National Championships, including1985, the first national gold in Sheridan's history . Flack then spent a season coaching at Seneca Polytechnic until he returned to Double-Blue when Allison announced his retirement.

Jim has been in the vanguard for Sheridan basketball since he started overseeing the team in 1993. During his time as Head Coach, the Bruins have been four-time national silver medalists, six-time provincial silver medalist, and a nine-time provincial champions. Over a career that has spanned for more than 30 years, Flack has claimed over 800 wins with the Bruins and has won eleven different Coach of the Year awards.

In 2000, Flack succeeded Dick Ruschiensky, the college's athletic director at the time who was preparing for retirement. Funding issues were plaguing the department when he took the assumed leadership over twenty-five years ago. Immediately, Jim founded the Sky-Blue Endowment Fund, which awards athletic scholarships to student-athletes of over $100,000 annually. Other achievements and accomplishments include:

• spearheading renovations for the Davis Campus Athletic Complex in 2004, including the building of a state of the art gymnasium and the renovation of the old gym that created a spacious fitness centre
• inaugurating the Sheridan Cup in 1994, an annual high school basketball tournament that Davis Campus hosts annually, and pushing that initiative out so that almost all varsity teams have a hosting/recruiting event every year
• establishing the first official gender equity policy/mission statement in the OCAA, and Sheridan now sits with six men's and six women's teams
• The Trafalgar Stadium, home to our soccer, rugby and flag football programs
• The new gymnasium and fitness centre in Mississauga at HMC

One of only three Sheridan athletic directors in the last 50 years, Flack pushed several initiatives that uphold the Bruins mantra: Study. Compete. Graduate. Succeed. He has been credited with designing the "Passport to Play" course that helps first-year student-athletes transition to post-secondary resilience and success. Jim is also credited with establishing the first ever full-time academic advisor position in the OCAA, and many other schools have since followed suit. His unwavering commitment to upholding the legitimacy of the "student" in student-athlete may be his biggest legacy as the Athletic Director.

"I have spent the better part of my professional life at Sheridan. I came here and faced a major re-build of the Bruin brand, and in doing so, I have really tried to bring some sanity and academic rigour to how the OCAA delivers the student-athlete experience. I know we've achieved that at Sheridan."

Jim Flack's commitment to setting student-athletes up for success after sport for graduation has left an undeniable stamp on Bruin's history and we thank him for everything he has done for Sheridan athletics. Congratulations, Jim Flack, for your well-deserved retirement. We look forward to watching you lead our Bruins basketball program in the next few years and thank you for the complete commitment to the double-blue.