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souvenir stalls outside the main gates. Sidoo improved the on-eld product by enticing Blake Nill, one of the top collegiate coaches in Canadian football history, to join UBC in 2015 from the Uni- versity of Calgary, where he had built a Prairie juggernaut. Nill- brought along key members of his sta€, including Steve Buratto, who steered the BC Lions to a Grey Cup win in 2000. He also recruited a few impact players, most notably Michael O'Connor, a riˆe-armed fresh- man quarterback who transferred from U.S. powerhouse Penn State. A self-described "hard-ass," the granite-jawed Nill worked to stamp out complacency and instil a winning atti- tude. "I have more will than the lot of you combined," the six-foot-six, 270-pound coach told the players at one of his rst practices. Sidoo is condent that Nill's ability to gather the right talent will pay huge divi- dends in the next few years: "It's Blake's recruiting that sets him apart," he says. "Recruiting is everything in this game," Nill observes. "Basically, it's sales, and it's very competitive." Today more than ever, the process starts with coaches not only scouting but getting to know prospects as early as Grade 10. At the end of its Cinderella 2015 sea- son, UBC continued its Laval-inspired makeover by hiring Lepine, the Quebec university's longtime director of athletic excellence, who has impeccable creden- tials. Sidoo reportedly began wooing the gregarious 61-year-old only hours after the T˜Birds won the championship. Lepine believes artful presentation is the secret to drawing crowds. "I-look at sport as a thing to sell, a product. It's theatre," he says. "And when you create good theatre, people come." R ain is pelting the picture window of David Sidoo's home ofšice. On this November morning, low-hanging clouds obscure his sprawling mansion's spectacu- lar view of the North Shore mountains. Some of the gloom seems to have found its way inside. Sidoo's nor- mal upbeat demeanour has been taken down a notch or two by a nasty stomach ˆu he picked up in Argentina. He went to South America to close a deal on a property that he believes may hold major reserves of lithium. Appointed CEO of Vancouver-based Advantage Lithium just two months ago, he's already formed a team and raised $9 million in funding. Sidoo reckons that the mineral, a key component in electric car batteries and computers, will soon become a hot commodity. The UBC Thunderbirds' 2016 season was less successful. The team nished fourth in its conference with a disap- pointing 3˜5 record. Injuries to key play- ers were a big factor, as was graduation: the squad lost six elite starters from its defence and kicker Quinn Van Gylswyk, all but one of whom went to the CFL. Still, UBC nearly pulled o€ another storybook ending. After squeaking into the playo€s, the T˜Birds upset the rst-place Regina Rams before being edged 46˜43 by Calgary in the Canada West nals. Sidoo downplays the team's uneven performance. "You need so many breaks," he says. "And when you're num- ber one, everyone prepares harder for you and has their best e€ort against you every

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