The Sicamous Eagles will have a new head coach leading them into the 2019/20 season.
Leading the Sicamous Junior B bench will be Tyler Gunn, who has previous experience coaching minor hockey and the Princeton Posse of the KIJHL.
Gunn promises to deliver an Eagles team that will be a handful for the opposition.
The Vernon man spent four years as assistant coach for the Posse before taking some time away from junior hockey to help coach his son’s minor teams.
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“Dale Hladun up in 100 Mile house, I coached with him in Princeton, he sent me in the Sicamous Eagles’ direction. He knew I was ready to get back into the Junior level of coaching.”
Gunn described Hladun, the head coach of the 100 Mile House Wranglers, as a mentor to him when he was a young coach.
Gunn said he is in the process of contacting some of the players who were on last year’s Eagles squad to check in how their off-season conditioning is coming and if they plan to try out for teams at higher levels or return to the Eagles. He is also trying to recruit players for a training camp in August.
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“I think it’s always going to be stiff competition no matter who you play in this league,” Gunn said.
“Bottom line, we just want to bring a maximum effort every game and make it hard for other teams to beat us. As long as we’re playing an in-your-face style of hockey and making teams earn any goals they get against us, if they get any, I think that’s the ultimate goal.”
The coaching change comes off a season that saw the Eagles make it to the KIJHL playoffs but eliminated by the Wranglers in the first round.
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jim.elliot@saobserver.net
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