Frantti Departs Americans

[HAF]

Frantti Departs Americans

Created: Apr 3, 2007

Kennewick, WA – The Tri-City Americans today announced that assistant coach Gordie Frantti will not be returning for the upcoming 2007-08 hockey season.

“Gordie has chosen to pursue other hockey opportunities in 07-08,” said Americans general manager Bob Tory. “As an organization we would like to thank Gordie for the time he spent with our hockey club and wish him well in his future endeavors.”

[HolyBatman]

take his quote for what it's worth. nhl3

[Stay-Puft]

take his quote for what it's worth. nhl3

Are you implying that there was some dissent internally between the coaches and management?

[HolyBatman]

That's a nice way to put it. Between head coach & general manager.

[AmsPhotos]

That's a pretty big claim coming from an anonymous post. Care to attach your name to it and put some weight behind it?

[HolyBatman]

:burningma

[Stay-Puft]

If you have some insight to share, great. I'm all for discussion on this as to the why's and reasons, but don't make accusations without something to back it up or saying how you know.

Personally, I thought that there may be some issues when Tory took over behind the bench while Nauchbaur was suspended. From what I saw during Gordie's tenure, I thought that he could have handled it. I thought he was maybe even being groomed as a head coach if the team underperformed or Nauchbaur had another offer. Having been around sports for most of my life, I have seen head coaches not be able to show up for games for various reasons and the assistant always took over because they were confident in their ability. Granted, these were not "professional" games, but the assistant is there for a reason. I would have considered it a "slap-in-the-face" to not be able to run the team that I am an assistant on, if it happened to me. But it didn't happen to me, so they must have had their reasons. Any information you have to share, with support, would be greatly appreciated. If you don't want to post it here, you could PM me directly and we could discuss it. I just don't want the forum to become a "trolling arena" where accusations are made but not supported.

[AmsPhotos]

If the Americans had two assistants, like some teams, then the assistants probably would have handled the coaching duties. Its a lot to ask of one person at the WHL level to handle both the forwards and defensemen.

Also, an assistant's job at the WHL level rarely lasts more than 2-3 years. There are some exceptions, like Rob Sumner in Seattle, but in most cases its barely a livable wage when you have a family so if you don't get an opportunity to move up within a couple years you have to go find a better paying job. A lot of the assistants for Canadian WHL teams are actually volunteers who also have regular jobs.

[Stay-Puft]

I'm not suggesting that he would have handled both the forwards and defence. I'm saying that Gordie, to the best of my knowledge, has previous coaching experience, including head coaching local teams, why not let him take the reigns for those few games and Tory can assist. I would have liked to see how the team would have performed.

I'm sure there are a whole lot of things behind the scenes that contributed to this. All I'm saying is that I liked the energy that Gordie gave behind the bench. I perfer the fire and brimstone method to the constant whining that other coaches in our division give.

[AmsPhotos]

If by "taking the reigns" you mean the pregame prep and communication, do you have reason to believe that didn't transfer to him? I agree, even if just for contunity sake, that having Gordie doing that makes sense. Are you assuming because Tory was running the forwards on the bench that he had the reins?

I don't know what did or didn't go to Gordie during that stretch.

As for practices, game plan, planned matchups, etc...I would imagine that Nachbaur still headed that up.