puckmam
04-27-2007, 05:00 PM
Schoneck was an 'A' student at U of C's school of coaching
Former Dino guides Cougars to final four
Kristen Odland, Calgary Herald
Published: Thursday, April 26, 2007
Drew Schoneck made his Western Hockey League head coaching debut this season -- but it wasn't too long ago that he was dominating as a Dino.
After five years on the WHL's blueline, the native of Abbey, Sask., hit the campus stage, spending three years at the University of Calgary -- from 1994 through '97 -- under the direction of then-Dinos coach Tim Bothwell.
"I knew from the time I was probably 20 years old, my last year of junior, that probably the NHL wasn't going to happen for me," says Schoneck via telephone from Prince George, where he's got that north central British Columbia city abuzz by leading the Cougars to the WHL's Western Conference final.
"I kinda started setting my sights on possibly getting into coaching. I started to watch the coaches that I played for all the way through, and Tim was certainly a guy I got to learn a lot from."
In November, Schoneck left his post as head coach and GM of the junior 'A' Powell River, B.C., Kings to take over the Cougars' bench, after the slumping WHL club fired Mike Vandekamp.
Five months later, he's taken the surprising Cougars to the WHL's final four for the first time in seven years -- eliminating, along the way, the Everett Silvertips, who'd finished with the league's best record and earned the Canadian Hockey League's No. 1 ranking for 14 of the last 15 weeks of the regular season.
Heading into Wednesday night's game at CN Centre, the Cougars needed a win to avoid a four-game sweep at the hands of the Vancouver Giants, who'll host the Memorial Cup next month.
Back when he was playing for Bothwell, Schoneck went to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport national championship tournament twice.
And during the 1997-98 season, he played for the now-defunct, Calgary-based Canadian national team, learning from coach Andy Murray, now of the St. Louis Blues, and GM Mike Johnston, now an associate coach with the Los Angeles Kings.
"You kind of see how coaches react in all different situations," says Schoneck, 33. "You take the good and the bad out of every coach you play for and try and mould that into your own style."
Bothwell, a former assistant coach with the Atlanta Thrashers, currently heads up the University of Vermont women's team.
"He didn't panic," recalls Schoneck of his former varsity coach. "He stuck to his game plan. There wasn't a panic level with him where he wanted to change a lot of things up."
And if Schoneck took the good, the bad, and the ugly with him, Bothwell is flattered.
"I think any good coach draws from all his experiences, both as a player and a coach. You're continually borrowing things from people," says the former U of C bench boss via telephone from an NCAA hockey coaches' meeting in Naples, Fla.
"(Detroit's) Mike Babcock likes to say the best coaches rob and do: They rob people of their ideas and they do them themselves.
"That's an important part of coaching, always being open to learning and seeing new ways to do things," adds Bothwell, the 1997 CIS coach of the year. "(Schoneck's) an intelligent guy and he had a good understanding of the game.
"It's not surprising to me that he's had some success."
Schoneck's coaching resume includes WHL stints as an assistant with Kelowna, Tri-Cities and Prince Albert. He also helped coach the ECHL's Las Vegas Wranglers two years ago.
kodland@theherald.canwest.com
© The Calgary Herald 2007
Former Dino guides Cougars to final four
Kristen Odland, Calgary Herald
Published: Thursday, April 26, 2007
Drew Schoneck made his Western Hockey League head coaching debut this season -- but it wasn't too long ago that he was dominating as a Dino.
After five years on the WHL's blueline, the native of Abbey, Sask., hit the campus stage, spending three years at the University of Calgary -- from 1994 through '97 -- under the direction of then-Dinos coach Tim Bothwell.
"I knew from the time I was probably 20 years old, my last year of junior, that probably the NHL wasn't going to happen for me," says Schoneck via telephone from Prince George, where he's got that north central British Columbia city abuzz by leading the Cougars to the WHL's Western Conference final.
"I kinda started setting my sights on possibly getting into coaching. I started to watch the coaches that I played for all the way through, and Tim was certainly a guy I got to learn a lot from."
In November, Schoneck left his post as head coach and GM of the junior 'A' Powell River, B.C., Kings to take over the Cougars' bench, after the slumping WHL club fired Mike Vandekamp.
Five months later, he's taken the surprising Cougars to the WHL's final four for the first time in seven years -- eliminating, along the way, the Everett Silvertips, who'd finished with the league's best record and earned the Canadian Hockey League's No. 1 ranking for 14 of the last 15 weeks of the regular season.
Heading into Wednesday night's game at CN Centre, the Cougars needed a win to avoid a four-game sweep at the hands of the Vancouver Giants, who'll host the Memorial Cup next month.
Back when he was playing for Bothwell, Schoneck went to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport national championship tournament twice.
And during the 1997-98 season, he played for the now-defunct, Calgary-based Canadian national team, learning from coach Andy Murray, now of the St. Louis Blues, and GM Mike Johnston, now an associate coach with the Los Angeles Kings.
"You kind of see how coaches react in all different situations," says Schoneck, 33. "You take the good and the bad out of every coach you play for and try and mould that into your own style."
Bothwell, a former assistant coach with the Atlanta Thrashers, currently heads up the University of Vermont women's team.
"He didn't panic," recalls Schoneck of his former varsity coach. "He stuck to his game plan. There wasn't a panic level with him where he wanted to change a lot of things up."
And if Schoneck took the good, the bad, and the ugly with him, Bothwell is flattered.
"I think any good coach draws from all his experiences, both as a player and a coach. You're continually borrowing things from people," says the former U of C bench boss via telephone from an NCAA hockey coaches' meeting in Naples, Fla.
"(Detroit's) Mike Babcock likes to say the best coaches rob and do: They rob people of their ideas and they do them themselves.
"That's an important part of coaching, always being open to learning and seeing new ways to do things," adds Bothwell, the 1997 CIS coach of the year. "(Schoneck's) an intelligent guy and he had a good understanding of the game.
"It's not surprising to me that he's had some success."
Schoneck's coaching resume includes WHL stints as an assistant with Kelowna, Tri-Cities and Prince Albert. He also helped coach the ECHL's Las Vegas Wranglers two years ago.
kodland@theherald.canwest.com
© The Calgary Herald 2007