2025-2026 ACAC Athletic Director of the Year
Edmonton, AB (May 11, 2026) – Provided by Portage College Voyageurs:
ACAC ATHLETIC DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR, JIM KNIGHT:
Portage College is proud to celebrate Jim Knight, who has been named the 2025–26 ACAC Athletic Director of the Year — a well-earned honor recognizing a groundbreaking year for Voyageurs Athletics and Jim is the trailblazer behind it.
Portage 2025-2026 Season has been great – with Portage hosting ACAC Curling Championships, Hockey Playoffs and many hockey and soccer home games.
This past year was nothing short of historic:
• Men’s Hockey made the playoffs for the first time in 12 years. Advanced to the second round for the first time ever.
• Portage had 6 All Conference award winners, the most is program history. Lilly Mangan (Soccer & Futsal Goalkeeper) Taylor Bridger (Soccer) Xavier Halterman (Hockey) Jett McCullum (Hockey)
• Men’s Hockey Head Coach Kevin McClelland ACAC Men’s Hockey Coach of the Year.
• Portage Hosted 2026 Curling Championships, Women Finished 4th in Women’s curling at ACAC Curling Championships.
• Stephen Moore (Men’s Soccer) Received the Northwest Territories 2025 Regional Tom Longboat Award from the Aboriginal Sport Circle Canada.
• Voyageurs Athletes Volunteered for over 2200 hours in the community.
What makes these accomplishments even more remarkable is that Jim sits on the Board for Kid Sport Lac La Biche Community Chapter. Sits on the Lac La Biche Tourism and Events Committee to promote sports and events tourism in Lac La Biche. On the Portage College Athletic Association (PCAA) for Portage Athletics. Just ended 6 Years as ACAC President.
Jim Leads by example whether its volunteering his time at Kid Sport event fundraisers in the kitchen making pancakes, on Gamedays as managing game sheets at Soccer home games or in the box at hockey home games. He is also seen preparing meals, cleaning dishes or serving meals at the college for students and staff such as Xmas lunch, Easter Dinner, Student Orientation, Pancake Brunch events there is never a time where he says it’s not my job.
Athletes Followed suit by Volunteering with Minor hockey or soccer, as well as community events. Each athletes are held to a high standard of community involvement with each athlete required to volunteer 30+ hours in the community in the academic year.
Jim Strongly Supports his head coaches to lead their programs to achieve success and excellence on and off the field. With the majority of athletes over a 3.0 the standard has been set in the classroom Jim Behind the scenes established a strong and very good relationships with Faculty and Instructors to help monitor and support student-athletes with their academic progress and attendance, to ensure that student-athletes that need extra assistance are being provided efficiently to ensure academic success.
Looking forward to 2026 – 2027 season – Portage is excited to host not only one but two ACAC Championships (Golf Championships in September 2026, Men’s & Women’s Futsal Championships in March 2026 as well as a futsal regional in February 2026)
We are excited to see Jim Knight and thrilled to see his passion, vision, willingness to host and seeing his hard work payoff to be recognized as ACAC Athletic Director of the year.
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About the ACAC: The ACAC is the governing body for intercollegiate athletics in Alberta. Its mission is to provide competitive collegiate sport experiences, promote academic achievement and be a leader of sport development in Canada.
For more information on the ACAC, please visit our website: www.acac.ab.ca
For additional information, contact:
Mark Kosak, Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference
Chief Executive Officer
403-875-7329
markk@acac.ab.ca
Emily Peterson, Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference
Marketing & Communications Coordinator
emilyp@acac.ab.ca