Interim Head Football Coach Joe D'Amore has been named the OUA Football Coach of the Year, as announced by the OUA today.

In only his first season as the head coach of Lancer Football program, D'Amore was awarded the Dave “Tuffy” Knight  award as the OUA's top coach.

This season, he led the Lancers to a considerable resurgence, as the Lancers finished 5-3 and tied for fourth place in the conference. 

His Lancer squad earned an impressive road win over Laurier early in the season and just missed knocking off McMaster and Ottawa as well, falling in the final seconds in both contests.

In the playoffs, Windsor soundly defeated the Ottawa Gees 50-33 on the road in Ottawa to advance to the OUA Semi-Finals for the first time since 2003.

The Lancers dropped a hard fought 33-27 decision to the Mustangs in the semi-finals, falling just short of their goal of reaching the Yates Cup Final.

Perhaps most impressively, Coach D'Amore accomplished this despite not having a single player on the roster with any post season experience. The Lancers graduate only one starter from this season (Cory Fernandes) and appear to have a bright future behind star quarterback Austin Kennedy who is only in his second year.
 
D'Amore is the first Windsor coach since John Musselman in 1987 to take home the prestigious award.