When Osoyoos Coyotes owner Randy Bedard announced in April that he would not be renewing the contract of head coach Ken Law, there was much puzzlement in the community.
Law had been the hockey team’s only coach since the team’s inception eight seasons earlier. During those years, they took division titles in six regular seasons. They even won the championship in their inaugural 2010-11 season.
Adding to the confusion, some online media reported – technically untrue – that Law had been fired.
Bedard explained that he felt is was time to inject some new life into the organization.
“You know when it’s time to make a change,” he said at the time. “You get that feeling when it’s time to freshen it up.”
As April ticked into May and then into June and there was no announcement of a replacement, some began to question Bedard’s gamble.
He’d narrowed the field of candidates by insisting – correctly we believe – that the new coach should live full time in Osoyoos during the hockey season.
That requirement eliminated many prospective candidates, such as those living elsewhere in the Okanagan or those with family ties to other communities.
Finally, at the start of June, Bedard announced the hiring of Mark Chase, the assistant coach and director of sales and marketing with the Melville, Sask. Millionaires.
They’d never even met in person, but they’d talked on the phone. Bedard had the impression that Chase was detail oriented, “somewhat youthful” (Chase is 32), and that they shared a philosophy about the culture Bedard wanted to create.
Two things that were critical to Bedard is that the Coyotes should be a development team and the coach should have strong communication skills. Players must know where they stand.
Chase had to hit the ground running and build a new team pretty much from the ground up – getting a very late start.
He moved to Osoyoos about three weeks ago and immediately had to run a training camp, which ended up being smaller than usual. Returning players had never worked so hard.
On the long weekend, Osoyoos fans got to see the new team, still in their training camp jerseys, and some with their numbers altered with crudely attached tape.
After 2-1 loss in Princeton Thursday, but still a game where the Coyotes outplayed their opponents, the Osoyoos team returned for a home-ice opener Saturday against the Summerland Steam.
They throttled them 5-1, although two of those goals were into an empty net.
The new team has a lot of learning to do, and perhaps some growing up, as indicated by their tendency to take stupid penalties.
But, as a first impression, this young team of rookies, and a good representation of local players, appears stronger than the Coyotes at this time last year.
We wish them success in their transformation, a strong season and … successful playoffs.
