There has been a changing of the guard here in the Valley. The Comox Valley Glaciers Kings have parted ways with Jordan Kamprath who served the organization as a player, Associate Coach and Head Coach & Assistant GM. His latest posting came at the start of the 2018/19 regular season after Jordan Butcher informed the club that he was going to be putting his focus into schooling. Kamprath, who was young and eager, jumped at the chance of throwing his name into the hat for the vacant position. He envisioned a rebuild, a team of his own he could assemble. Unfortunately for Jordan, his vision also ended up being his downfall. He started with the youngest team in the VIJHL by a long shot. He knew it would be a trying season with so much youth, in fact, there wasn’t a single 20 year old on the squad. He was hoping for the majority of the players to return and build a veteran team for a few years. The only problem with the plan was the growing pains that come with such a young, unexperienced team which includes the losses that piled up. The team’s record since the start of last season is 5-53-1 and haven’t won a game this calendar year (Dec. 14/18 was the last victory). Kamper was always very focused, had tons of energy, was always positive, worked his team hard in practice and was always terrific with the broadcasters around the league but the numbers in the standings and in the stands ended up costing him his job. I can say I will not only miss him professionally because he was terrific with accommodating me with pre-game interviews, blog posts and insight that others weren’t privy to but also personally because I consider him a friend. He even dropped my stag party for a bit to say congratulations. The entire organization wishes him well in his future endeavours.
One of the governors Marsha Webb told me she respected Jordan and that he showed a lot of class during the exit interview. Captain Damian Rennie also talked about his former head coach.
“When I first heard Kamper was released from the head coach job I was a little bit surprised, and felt bad for him. I know he really liked the group of guys and really wanted to coach us and turn us around into a winning team. Jordan is a great guy and I would love to keep seeing him around the rink as he wasn’t just a coach he was a friend and a mentor for me and he made it enjoyable to come to the rink every morning.”
The organization has decided to go in a different direction and has hired former Alberni Valley Bulldogs assistant Jeff Dubois as their new head coach & GM. Jeff has a wealth of coaching experience in University, Junior ‘B’ and Junior ‘A’ hockey. He was the assistant with the Bulldogs the past couple of years. Before that he coached with the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League’s Creston Valley Thunder Cats, where he posted a record of 97 wins, 42 losses and 4 ties over three seasons. Following the 2016/17 campaign, Dubois was named the KIJHL’s Coach of the Year after guiding the Thunder Cats to a record of 36-9-1-1 and a first place finish in the league’s Eddie Mountain Division. Previous to his time in Creston, Dubois won two B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League championships as the head coach at Selkirk College.
Obviously everyone is looking forward to seeing what the new bench boss will bring to the table as a new era is set to begin. Rennie commented on Dubois’ hiring.
“I am really looking forward to meeting Jeff and see what he can bring to the team. I looked him up and I’ve seen he has won a lot of championships and coached a lot of good teams so I think he will be a very good coach for us and I really think he will bring a different mentality and will be able to turn our season around.”
Jeff watches a lot of Junior ‘B’ hockey, not usually looking at a team as a whole, but individual players that may be possible “call-ups” for the Bulldogs. That way of thinking is about to change as he must look at the deficiency’s of the team and try to correct it.
With his experience coaching at this level as well as his success, he seems to be a good fit. I asked him what interested him about the job.
“Having an opportunity to get back and run my own program is something I’m looking forward to. Being in Alberni was a really good experience, coaching in the BCHL and being around that calibre of players and coaches was a good professional development experience for me. I look at the Glacier Kings as a good opportunity for me to come in and hopefully help a good group of kids improve the performance on the ice. I’ve already talked to a couple of the captains and it sounds like the guys are really motivated to get things going in the right direction.”
Dubois’ first head coaching job was at Selkirk College in the BCIHL where the team finished dead last the previous season with a 5-19-0 record. In his first year, he led them to a 21-3-0 record and first place. In the playoffs, they went 4-0 to win the championship. Jeff said it was fun to take a team who had struggled for many years and help take them to the top. Unlike in Selkirk where he had a chance to recruit in the off-season, Dubois already has a team in front of him. He talked about his first order of business.
“I want to get to know the guys first and foremost. I’ve had a chance to watch the team a little bit in person and a little bit on video but until you get in the room and on the practice ice to get to know the guys and what kind of people they are and how they work, what their capabilities are executing within your system and structure, it’s really hard to evaluate so that’s the number one priority.”
Jeff also said that he wanted to know who would be part of this process long-term and admitted there will probably be some changes. He wants to start introducing a system and structure and see who is really willing to be part of it and can be counted on as part of the solution. The new coach talked about what type of team he would like to have.
“I like the game being played fast. Speed is the common denominator that most good teams have. It’s just the way the game is played now. I like a team that competes at a high-level and from what I have seen, the Glacier Kings are a hard-working group. My expectations are to really play with structure from the defensive zone out. I think the success my teams had at Selkirk and in Creston defended very well. That created opportunities offensively. If you want to have consistent success, you can’t cheat for offence. If you check well, play hard and defend with structure, you’re going to have the puck a lot and that’s going to give opportunities to create offence. There’s a way you’d like to play but when you inherit a group of guys you have to figure out if their strengths and weaknesses compliment what you’d like to be doing as a coach.”
The season is now a quarter over and the Glacier Kings are sitting last in the VIJHL with one point. That isn’t discouraging Jeff. I asked him what he would consider a success for the remainder of the season.
“I think making it into the playoffs is the minimum expectation. We’re 3 points behind Kerry Park for the final playoff spot and we haven’t played them yet so there’s 8 points up for grabs. Being in the playoffs is a minimum expectation but I’d like to think that we can push ourselves a little further than that. We can be competitive on a nightly basis as we move forward during the regular season and give teams all they can handle and at that point really compete at a playoff environment. We have 36 games left in the regular season and that’s more than enough time to make some adjustments and get pointed in that direction.”
His first game behind the bench will be Thursday when the Glacier Kings travel to Nanaimo. The Buccaneers are coming off a 4-1 loss to Campbell River on Friday. Comox Valley is 0-11-1 through the first quarter while the Bucs are 4-8-0.
Above The Pond 