VIU Mariners

VIU women's basketball has announced five new commitments for the 2026-27 season. This is the first recruiting class for new head coach Luke Holmes as he aims to steer the Mariners back to the CCAA national championship.

2026-27 Commitments: Women's Basketball Reigning national champions welcome five new additions

⭐️⭐️ At the VIU Mariners Award Night earlier this month, the Mariners inducted two new members into the Mariners Wall of Fame: Jamie Hatch (Broder) and Marilou Leonin. Congratulations!

Jamie, an outside hitter, played three seasons with Mariners women's volleyball (2003-06) and won two conference gold medals and two CCAA medals before transferring to UBC, where she won a CIS national championship. After that, her beach volleyball career took off and she became of the top performers in Canadian history. In 2015, she and her partner Kristina Valjas became the first Canadian women to win a FIVB World Tour gold medal and followed that by representing Canada at the 2016 Rio Olympics. 🇨🇦

Marilou was the Mariners' first superstar in women's basketball program history. She played four seasons (1994-98) at VIU (then Malaspina University-College) and was a conference all-star in three of those seasons. However, it was her final season in 1997-98 that really cemented her legacy as she led the Mariners to the first women's basketball conference title and national championship in team history. Marilou also became the first Mariner to be named women's basketball conference player of the year, CCAA women's basketball All-Canadian, and the CCAA women's basketball national player of the year. 🇨🇦

Jamie and Marilou: we are proud to forever add your names and banners to our Wall of Fame in the Vancouver Island University Gymnasium! 💙

Class of 2026: Mariners Wall of Fame Adds Two Athletes Jamie Broder (Volleyball) and Marilou Leonin (Basketball) are named to the Mariners Wall of Fame