Dropping the Gloves by Barry Melrose

Author:Barry Melrose [Melrose, Barry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7710-5695-6
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Published: 2012-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

9

Coaching Attitude

I only spent one year in Medicine Hat. Russ Farwell, the Tigers’ GM, the man who hired me, was going to Seattle, another city in the Western Hockey League. Russ was a good guy, a great GM. He would end up as the Philadelphia Flyers’ general manager for five years – he’s the guy who orchestrated the trade that brought Eric Lindros to Philly. He’s back in Seattle right now as part-owner of the junior team.

Back when we were in Medicine Hat together, the Seattle owner had offered Russ a nice deal to turn the franchise around. The Thunderbirds had been a terrible team, the worst team in the league, but the owner had great plans for them. He wanted them to be a successful franchise, and he thought Russ could put it together for him.

Russ asked me to come with him to Seattle and be his coach. That was a tough moment, because Medicine Hat had just won those back-to-back Memorial Cups. After thinking about it, I told Russ I was going to have a talk with George Mazur, Medicine Hat’s owner, and tell him that I wanted both jobs – coach and GM – because I would love to take a run at winning a third-straight Memorial Cup for the franchise. That had never been done before. I thought we were going to be a pretty good team, and we had a definite shot at winning it again. Russ understood.

I went to George Mazur and told him I thought I could handle both jobs. I told him his team had a chance to win three straight Memorial Cups. George was very open to the idea. He thought it over and gave it the green light. The only problem was, he didn’t want to pay me to do both jobs. Once I realized that, I decided I should go to Seattle. But I always regretted leaving Medicine Hat and not having the chance to win a third-straight Memorial Cup.

I enjoyed working with Russ. I learned a lot from him. Going to coach in Seattle turned out to be a very smart move.

When you coach junior hockey, the kids almost become your children. You have a great impact on their lives. I’m still friends with a lot of the kids I coached. I was in Pittsburgh in 2011 to watch the Penguins play the New York Islanders. A guy named Dean Chynoweth was one of the assistant coaches with the Islanders. Dean had been my captain at Medicine Hat. I went to see him, and it was just like old times.

In Seattle, after the season, the kids who were in school stayed in the city to finish the semester. As coach, I was still keeping an eye on them, making sure they were tending to business. One day, I got a call from the school, telling me one of my kids was missing classes, not showing up. It happened that this boy was one of my favourite players. He was sixteen years old at the time.

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