Tag Archives: Head Coach
Winter Hawks announce new head coach
Winter Hawks get No. 1 choice Courtesy of Bill Doucet Three time’s a charm for Peter Crosby. After applying for the Cambridge Winter Hawks head coaching job the last two seasons – the Winter Hawks instead took Ryan D’Arcy, then Pat Conklin – general manager Ken Jeysman approached the Paris resident this year to take over behind the bench after the team has gone through four coaches in the last two Junior B campaigns. In fact, one of those coaches was Jeysman, who took over last season for Conklin prior to the Christmas break. Before Jeysman could hire Crosby, he had to fire himself. “Yeah, I didn’t like the guy,” Jeysman said, tongue firmly planted in cheek. In all seriousness though, the Winter Hawks coaching job has been anything but a laughing matter since the departure of Greg Bignell after the 2008-09 season. Jeysman said he is looking for long-term at the position and has confidence in Crosby, who brings an impressive resume to town. The 42 year old was assistant coach with the Brantford Golden Eagles in 2008 under head coach and close friend Jay Wells, before winning coach of the year in 2009 with the Junior C Paris Mounties. After that, Crosby moved to women’s professional hockey, where he coached Mississauga two seasons ago and was interim head coach for Brampton last season. “He was the guy I wanted right from the beginning,” Jeysman said. “He’s technically sound, he’s organized, he’s a local guy and he makes it all work. “We want some stability. So here’s a guy that’s been working his way up, hard. He’s a stabile, family-type guy, so I think he will be around for a bit.” Crosby said the decision to leave Brampton wasn’t an easy one, admitting he had a “really good gig going on”, but the drive was getting to be too much and he felt that it was the right time to move back to junior hockey. “I really enjoyed it, but coaching the guys, coaching at a high level like Junior B, coaching probably one of the storied franchises in the Junior B loop in Cambridge and coaching in the backyard of my adopted hometown is pretty exciting.” A teacher at Paris District High School since 1994 and founder of the Hockey Canada Skill Academy in 2005, Crosby says he already has a plan in place to get the Winter Hawks back to a championship calibre team. “It’s the approach of making sure we’re sound technically, and that leads into being tactically sound towards our system,” he said. “Without giving away too much, but people will figure us out quickly I’m sure, is that we’re going to be aggressive in all three zones. But that doesn’t mean total offensive-minded. It means being aggressive in the three zones defensively, and that’s going to create offensive chances.” He added that the team is also going to work specifically on special teams this season, with an emphasis of trying a different penalty killing system that is different than most Junior B teams play. But that also comes from working hard in every zone on the ice. “You go back to Bigs (Greg Bignell) and he was coaching in the league when Jay was the head coach of Brantford and I was his assistant, and you could see how his players bought into his technique, his systems and his plays, and he was a very sound coach, he said. “The whole mantra of the year is going to be buy into the process and enjoy the process, because where we start better not be where we finish.” Visit Cambridge Times for the original article, courtesy of Bill Doucet.
