Player Brad Morton packs his bag in the dressing room after a press conference by the football players of the University of Waterloo Warriors football team.DAVE CHIDLEY/The Canadian Press
Former CFL player and coach Joe Paopao has been named interim head coach of the Waterloo Warriors.
He served as Waterloo's offensive co-ordinator and assistant head coach for the past five years. The move comes two weeks after Dennis McPhee resigned after five years as head coach.
"We are enormously grateful to have Joe in this role," said Warriors athletic director Bob Copeland in a statement. "Joe commands respect from his staff and players and is a superb mentor and teacher whose influence will benefit our student-athletes and overall program."
Waterloo went 0-8 last season, a year after the school was rocked by a doping scandal that saw the football program suspended for the 2010 campaign.
The Warriors also announced Thursday that longtime assistant Marshall Bingeman moves into the role of interim assistant head coach and director of football operations. Paopao will also take on the role as the lead football consultant in developing a sustainable plan to build a program of excellence.
"Our focus is on today and building for the future," Paopao said in a statement. "We have tremendous character and emerging talent in our locker-room and it is a privilege for me to lead these fine young men. What we need is more depth and experience and this will come with time and a solid plan and that is part of my mandate."
Waterloo suspended its program for the 2010 season after nine of its players tested positive for human growth hormone and testosterone.
Paopao has held several coaching positions throughout the CFL, including a four-year run as head coach of the defunct Ottawa Renegades from 2001-'05. He spent 12 seasons in the league as a player after breaking in with the B.C. Lions in 1978.