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Sput
11-07-2006, 04:53 AM
From: http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/

Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Coach search a tough task
by JIM SWANSON, Citizen Sports Editor

It's the obvious question, with an equally obvious answer.

Now that the entire coaching staff has been dismissed, ushered out last Thursday, where in the dickens are the Prince George Cougars going to find the quality coach this club needs?

The best coaches are working at this time of the year, yet this is the third time in three years the Cats have chosen a bad time of year to go head hunting. Ed Dempsey was fired in October of 2003, and Lane Lambert left the post in August of 2005, leading to the hiring of Mike Vandekamp. Along with assistant Stew Malgunas, Vandekamp lost his job in last week's purge following a 9-2 home-ice loss to the Brandon Wheat Kings that dropped the team's record to 5-8-0-2.

Two road losses on the weekend, in Kamloops and Kelowna, has a team pegged by many in pre-season polls to be among the top five in the WHL now at 5-10-0-2, tied for dead last in the league with Kelowna and Chilliwack at 12 points.

"This is an awful time to be doing this, but we certainly didn't want to be in this situation," said Cougars general manger Dallas Thompson, who will spend his third game behind the bench as the interim head coach tonight when the Cougars play host to the Red Deer Rebels (7 p.m., CN Centre).

"It is what it is and we're going to build this and move forward.

"This is not a great time to hire a coach, and we didn't want to have to be hiring a coach right now. We want to find a guy who knows about the league, and who will make our players accountable again. The accountability is not only on the ice, it's off the ice, too."

Brent Arsenault, the former Spruce Kings head coach who is principal at St. Mary's Catholic School, will assist Thompson until a new coaching staff is in place.

In the mood for some names? Don't expect to hear that Bryan Maxwell, the veteran WHL and ECHL coach, is the new man, since he's now selling real estate in Victoria. Maxwell might be a perfect fit on the short term, but may not be up to the rebuilding program the Cougars could be in next season once this elderly crop graduates.

One name to get familiar with is Drew Schoeneck, the former Kelowna and Tri-City assistant who is the GM/coach of the Powell River Kings of the BCHL. Schoeneck, who worked under Don Hay in Tri-City, could figure as an associate coach for whoever is hired as the head man.

Thompson said he has 10 applications for the head job, and two of them will get consideration.

"We've had some resumes in, but we're going to be more pro-active and do some head hunting," said Thompson.

Thompson said there is no chance whatsoever he'll be behind the bench the rest of the season.

"I don't want to be the coach, but I will be around to help things get back on track," said Thompson.

Vandekamp was Thompson's first coaching hire (Lambert was added during Daryl Lubiniecki's watch), and owner Rick Brodsky came to his GM's defence on why that decision turned into Thursday's news.

"I believe we covered everything we needed to cover (in the Vandekamp interview), and I believe that when he sat on our deck (in Kelowna) and talked to Dallas and I and said what he was going to do, that he meant every word of it," said Brodsky.

"Something went off the rails after that, because things he promised he was going to deliver on, he didn't deliver. Something happened in the meantime. He gave all the right answers."

Sput
11-07-2006, 05:01 AM
Well no s*%t Sherlock. Any quality coach is either working right now, or not looking to start over with this team and management.

Drew Schoeneck, as the artical read, could be a fit for an assistant coach, but coming in from a cellar dwelling BCHL team (5-13-2-2), is this a step up?? The only thing that might intrigue a coach to come here would be the potential in this veteran group for this season, and getting to start young and build starting next season. I'm not in that 'loop' so I have no idea who may have been applying, or who they may be 'proactively looking at'. Who ever it is has a monumental task ahead of him to not only turn this team around and have them play as a squad, but also to make things at least respectible enough to bring a couple fans back to the CNCenter. That last one is going to be the hardest.