Ferner Canned!!!

[MJCO5]

The Kamloops Blazers did the first smart thing in a long time to today with the firing of Head Coach Mark Ferner (woo hoo) for the mean time GM Dean Clark will take over the coaching ranks along with assistant Ryan Thorpe

[langdak]

Bye Mark!!!

[GF71]

It is about time. Good move by the Blazers.

[Flathead]

I know myself included, a lot in Swift are crossing our fingers.

[Chipper]

Is it official or speculation? I can't find any press release.

[MJCO5]

BLAZERS MAKE COACHING CHANGE

KAMLOOPS, BC - The Kamloops Blazers announce that as of today Mark Ferner has been relieved of his head coaching duties. General Manager Dean Clark will also assume the role of Head Coach for the remainder of the season. Assistant Coach Ryan Thorpe remains on the coaching staff.

The Blazers Board of Directors made the decision to proceed with a coaching change following reports made by Clark, CEO Gerry Bell, and the board's Hockey Committee during a board meeting on Wednesday.

Ferner leaves the team with a regular season record of 35-41-6-2 since taking over as Head Coach in November of 2004. He was 4-8 in 12 career playoff games behind the Blazer bench.

Clark returns to the bench with a career coaching record of 318-194-55 in the regular season and 61-45 in the post season

[GF71]

I am thinking Thorpe will take over next season...he had a stellar record with the BCHL Surrey Eagles, before he bolted for the Blazers. He is young, but he knows his stuff.

[scamperdog]

I am thinking Thorpe will take over next season...he had a stellar record with the BCHL Surrey Eagles, before he bolted for the Blazers. He is young, but he knows his stuff.
That would be my guess to, on the tv news tonight board of directers were saying what I have been complaining about, that the team was not responding to his coaching and thing were getting worse,now we will see if this makes a difference. I think the amount of empty seats in the building probaly helped towards the decsion to, the last game they annouced I believe around 4600 but I bet there might have 4000 there. this organization is in a real tail spin and its not over yet

[MJCO5]

The Blazers have two big games this weekend Friday agaiinst PG who just pulled 1 point ahead to them into 4ourth in the BC division and then Saturday against the Rockets who they hold a perfect record against this season it will be interesting to see if Dean can get them rowled up for these two games if they win look out Vancouver and Kelowna as the Blazers could be back in the hunt after the weekend if they drop these weekend decisions look for there to be a possible trade early next week to shake this team up

On another note the head coach position should be given to thorpe i have a faith in him lets see what he can do after have great success in Surrey

Ferner Finally Fired I'll drink to that

[Tinner]

One of the problems that "community" owned teams have is that there always seems to be a ton of bosses. No matter who is the chair, everyone wades in knee deep with opinions. Sometimes, to turn things around, someone has to step in and buy the team. This way you have 1 opinion running the team. It certainly sounds like this is the situation in Blazerland.

[MJCO5]

Well said yes that is a big problem around here and will be for a long time to come

[Sput]

Maybe we will get lucky up here in Cougarville and Brodsky will seel the Cougs to a local interest, and he will buy the Blazers!! THEN you will really have something to complain about. :D :clown:

[Tinner]

I think you're pole is going to give you the desired result you want to see, but its a very "unfair" pole because Kamloops is struggling both on the ice and in the backroom. Certainly, anything will spark improvement, not just a change of head coaching. I'm not supporting Ferner or against him, but a pole should be a based on a fair question.

[scamperdog]

I think you're pole is going to give you the desired result you want to see, but its a very "unfair" pole because Kamloops is struggling both on the ice and in the backroom. Certainly, anything will spark improvement, not just a change of head coaching. I'm not supporting Ferner or against him, but a pole should be a based on a fair question.
Fair comment, there is a lot of problems here on and of the ice and as you said earlier there is to many want to be chiefs, so yes the soapopera will continue

[Jovorock]

Being comunity owned has its positives and negatives. Community owned you have a bunch of old folks who move very slow in any decision. The other side you can have a owner like Brodsky in PG that has the money and doesn't make the moves to improve the team.

I was the first to knock Hamilton in the early days about the Rockets not getting out of the first round. Then he hired Habcheid, the scouting staff started doing their jobs and the rest is history.

Scamper, KBF and the rest of the Blazer fans have called this for awhile, wait and see if it was the right decision?

[scamperdog]

Blazers fire head coach www.kamloopsnews.ca
by Gregg Drinnan

For the first time in franchise history, the Kamloops Blazers have fired their head coach.

Mark Ferner, who took over as the WHL team’s head coach on Nov. 12, 2004, was fired on Thursday. General manager Dean Clark, who takes over as head coach, informed Ferner at 12:15 p.m.

Clark told the players at 1:20 p.m., and a news conference was held in the Blazers’ boardroom at the Interior Savings Centre at 4 p.m.

Gary Cooper, the vice-president of the Blazers’ board of directors, announced the board “unanimously accepts the recommendation of the hockey committee, the CEO and the general manager” to terminate Ferner’s contract.

Also in attendance at the news conference were Clark, Gerry Bell, the organization’s CEO, Don Moores, who chairs the hockey committee, and Dennis Coates, a member of that committee. Team president Case van Diemen and board member Murray Owen, who also are on the hockey committee, weren’t in attendance.

Bell said that if the move hadn’t taken place “it would have been saying to the public that what we’re doing is good enough … and that’s not the case.”

The Blazers, who have lost their last three games, are 16-16-0-0 and are in last place in the B.C. Division, one point behind the Prince George Cougars.

The Blazers play host to the Cougars tonight and the teams meet in Prince George on Dec. 16 and 17 in the last games before the Christmas break.

Bell said he has been concerned about the Blazers’ play since Oct. 1.

At that point, he said, he realized that he didn’t like what he was seeing. He referred to inconsistent effort, undisciplined penalties and a poor power play.

“I said then that we’ve got to fix this,” Bell said, adding that there were two meetings with the hockey committee and “three additional meetings with the hockey guys” from that point on aimed at doing just that.

“Termination,” Bell said, “wasn’t discussed until this week.”

Bell, Clark and Moores said repeatedly that the Blazers’ record didn’t have anything to do with the decision to terminate Ferner’s contract. Rather, it had everything to do with inconsistent play. Bell even referred to the team’s “lacklustre performance.”

“We need a consistent effort,” Bell said, “and we haven’t done that.”

“We expected to see the effort,” Bell added. “We’re not getting the effort or the energy.

“It’s the right decision for the hockey team at this moment.”

Ferner, 40, was the club’s associate head coach under Clark until Nov. 12, 2004, when Clark moved into the general manager’s office and Ferner became the head coach. Ferner was signed through the 2006-07 season.

“Did I think this would happen after 1-0, 3-2 and 1-0 losses?” Ferner said, referring to the Blazers’ last three games. “No, I didn’t.”

Still, Ferner said, he had heard the rumours.

“Probably two or three weeks ago,” he said. “Or perhaps even before that …”

Clark, who has been friends with Ferner since they played together with the Jr. Oilers, the franchise that turned into the Blazers, and the Blazers in the early 1980s, said his first priority is to get passion back into the lineup.

“We need more passion,” Clark said. “We should have it every night, especially in our building.”

The last time a Kamloops WHL team fired its head coach was in 1981-82 when the Jr. Oilers, who would later become the Blazers, replaced Lyle Moffat — the first-year team was 6-21-1 — with Ron Harris, whose contract later wasn’t renewed.

Marc Habscheid’s contract as head coach wasn’t renewed after 1998-99 and the same fate befell Dean Evason after 2001-02. Troy Mick’s ill health prevented his return after the 2002-03 season.


Emotions run high for Ferner
by Gregg Drinnan

With all that has happened to Mark Ferner over the last 18 months, he knows what he is going to do in the short term.

“I think it’s important that I spend some time with my family,” an emotional Ferner said Thursday evening, six hours after he was fired as head coach of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers.

“With everything that has happened the last couple of years … My passion is coaching but my family is the most important thing.”

Ferner’s father, Ed, a longtime Blazers scout, died of heart-related problems on July 2, 2004. Then, on Feb. 13, Kelly Ferner, Mark’s 48-year-old brother, collapsed and died while preparing to play in an oldtimers hockey game in Cranbrook.

Asked if he still wanted to coach, Ferner replied: “Oh, absolutely.”

Ferner, 40, was fired with the Blazers at .500 (16-16-0-0) and in fifth place in the five-team B.C. Division. They are one point behind the Prince George Cougars and eight behind the Kelowna Rockets and Vancouver Giants, who are tied for second place.

“We started off 7-and-3,” Ferner said. “Yeah, we had our bumps in the road. Was I happy with our record at .500? Absolutely not. But we know we’re in a tough division and we played pretty well against our division rivals.”

The Blazers are 2-0 versus the first-place Kootenay Ice and 3-0 against the Rockets, whom they meet in Kelowna on Saturday.

Kamloops is 1-2 against the Cougars, who are in town tonight, and 1-3 versus the Giants.

“I don’t know what to think,” Ferner said, when asked what he felt went wrong. “We’re a .500 hockey team. We’re having problems scoring goals. Were we in hockey games? Absolutely. Did I think we competed pretty hard in the last few games? Absolutely. We just couldn’t score goals.”

With 66 goals scored in 32 games, the Blazers are averaging 2.06 goals, the worst offensive record in the 58-team Canadian Hockey League. However, their defensive record — 2.38 goals against per game — is one of the best in the WHL.

“Obviously, they weren’t happy with the way I was coaching the hockey team,” Ferner said. “Like I told (general manager Dean Clark), I firmly believe what I was coaching these guys is the exact same thing they’ll be taught at the next level. I’ve had the best coaches in the world and that’s the things they taught me.”

Ferner said that despite the rumours he had heard concerning his impending firing, he was still shocked by the news.

“You take over a hockey team in November of last year … Everything I heard from when I took over to the end of the (season) was a positive feedback,” Ferner said of a season that ended with a six-game first-round playoff loss to Kootenay. “There was a good buzz in the summer from what I heard.

“Knowing what I know now, would I do things differently? Obviously. What are they? I don’t know, but if it was for me to save my job, I would have to.

“I was coaching … I was teaching the way I was coached and taught. If it’s not good enough, then it’s not good enough.”

[Jovorock]

Drinnan always writes a good artical, Ferner seems pretty shocked that he actually got the boot.