Canada West Universities Athletic Association
| Canada West Universities Athletic Association (CWUAA/Canada West) |
|
|---|---|
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| Established | 1971 |
| Association | U Sports |
| Sports fielded |
Basketball Cross country running Field hockey Football Hockey Rugby Soccer Swimming Track and field Volleyball Wrestling (men's: Basketball Cross country running Football Rugby Soccer Swimming Track and field Volleyball Wrestling; women's: Basketball Cross country running Field hockey Soccer Swimming Track and field Volleyball Wrestling) |
| Region | Western Canada |
| Website | http://www.canadawest.org |
The Canada West Universities Athletic Association (CWUAA) is a regional membership association for universities in Western Canada which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs and providing contact information, schedules, results, and releases about those programs and events to the public and the media. This is similar to what would be called a college athletic conference in the United States. The CWUAA is one of four such bodies that are members of the country's governing body for university athletics, U Sports. The other three regional associations coordinating university-level sports in Canada are Ontario University Athletics (OUA), Atlantic University Sport (AUS), and the Quebec Student Sport Federation (known by its French initialism of RSEQ).
The Canada West Universities Athletic Association was founded as the Western Intercollegiate Athletic Association (WIAA) in 1920, but regular competition between schools at the time were often unfeasible due to the high costs of travel and existing rivalries with American colleges.
In 1971, the WIAA was split into the Canada West Universities Athletic Association and the Great Plains Athletic Association, the latter consisting of schools primarily from Manitoba. In 1988, the GPAA (also known as the GPAC or Plains Athletic Conference) was absorbed into Canada West.
In 2005, Thompson Rivers University, based in Kamloops, BC began competition in the conference.
In 2006, the University College of the Fraser Valley, based in Abbotsford and Chilliwack, BC started competition in the conference. The school has since changed its name to the University of the Fraser Valley.
On Sept. 1, 2010, the University of British Columbia at Okanagan (UBC Okanagan) was accepted as a member and commenced play in four sports the fall 2011. Also on Sept. 1, 2010, Thompson Rivers and UFV became full members.
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