Iacobellis, Joseph

Joseph Iacobellis is a Vancouver legend in his own right and was dubbed the ‘man with the midas touch’ when it came to the longevity and success of Capilano University’s (formerly Capilano College) athletics program. Retired now since 2016, Joe was Capilano’s second Athletic Director and built an elite soccer program by setting high athletic and academic standards.  During his tenure he captured 10 British Columbia Colleges Athletic Association (now PACWEST) championships. Capilano U also earned the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association (CCAA) Supremacy Award (25 years) for Men’s Soccer in 1999. Iacobellis also built the men’s and women’s volleyball program from scratch – and went on to coach the Blues to a BCCAA title in Women’s Volleyball. Iacobellis is an inductee into the CCAA Hall of Fame in the Coach Category.

Born in Italy, his family moved to Vancouver when he was five. It seems as if Joe was destined for sport. He attended Templeton Secondary school from 1965 -1970 where he was taught by “outstanding teachers with incredible sport history. My PE teachers included inspiring people like: Canadian Rugby Hall of Famer, Ted Hunt (BPE 57, MPE 61, PhD 76); Harry Jerome, Olympic sprinter and medalist; and Victor Lindal, the Women’s National team volleyball coach who introduced me to the sport of volleyball and was my high school coach. These teachers all had an impact on my young sporting development.”

“I was accepted into the faculty of science at UBC in the fall of 1970 and made the UBC soccer team under the tutelage of head coach, Joe Johnson and assistant coach, Joe Molnar. I have many fond memories of road trips with the team. At the completion of my second year of science, I chose to apply to the School of Physical Education and was accepted into the Exercise Science program where I could incorporate my interest in science with my passion for sport. I was fortunate to have been taught by some great professors such as Dr. Coutts, Dr. Schutz and Dr. Sinclair to name a few. These professors had an influence in my decision to apply for the Master’s of Physical Education program in 1974.”

It was the summer of 1974 when he was travelling Europe with friends that he received an offer from the UBC athletic department. “I was in Belgium and I got a call from Marilyn Pomfret at UBC, asking me if I wanted to coach the women’s varsity volleyball team,” he says. That’s how, as a master’s student, he ended up in charge of the UBC Thunderbirds, one of the country’s top university teams.

After graduating with an MPE in 1977, he found full-time employment as a faculty member at Capilano College in North Vancouver.  Joseph worked at Capilano for 40 years claiming three Canadian championships and 11 provincial titles – in two different sports – as a head coach, and dozens of other provincial and national medals that were won under his watch as athletic director. Entire programs were built from scratch, teams crafted by an energetic man with a shoestring budget. Scholarships were created, rising from basically zero when Iacobellis arrived to a robust system that now supports more than half of the student athletes on campus.

However, Joe was an educator as much as a coach and in 1992, he co-articulated an entry level Physical Education program and states that he is “proud of later developing the first Human Kinetics two-year diploma program in 2001, offering studies in Exercise Science and Physical Education.”  Later on, Iacobellis would hand the program over to Milt Williams (UBC BPE 77) who grew the program from the first class of 62 applicants to over 400 applicants years later. This program has recently been developed by Capilano University into a degree program in Kinesiology which will open its doors in the fall of 2021.”

Being an athletic director at a college or university is a demanding job, and likely few can say they did it better than Joe Iacobellis.