Sault Major names 8 coaches


By
April 12, 2017

Sault Major Hockey Association has confirmed eight of the coaches who will head its elite program teams for the 2017-2018 season.

Kevin Panco will return as bench boss of the Soo’s Great North Midget Hockey League entry while Jamie Henderson has been appointed as head coach of the new minor midget team.

Keith Coletti will coach the bantam majors and Jerry Lortie will be at the helm of the bantam minors.

Between pee wee and atom levels, Sault Major plans to have six teams. Of the six, four coaches have been selected — Jamie Greco, Mike Cowan, Jeff Lance and Chris Huckson — while the other two are still pending.


What you think about “Sault Major names 8 coaches”

  1. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Sault Major you continue to follow the path defined above.

    Your decision making is destroying the AAA programs within SSM.

    Shame on you, you owe it to our youth to select the best coaching staff available. You didn’t. You stuck with the same thing – see definition of insanity above.

    How many 02’s leave this year? Answer – You don’t care
    How many 02’s quit hockey? Answer – You don’t care
    How many 03’s leave this year? Answer – You don’t care.
    How many 03’s quit hockey? Answer – You don’t care.
    How many 04’s leave next year? Answer – You don’t care.
    How many 05’s go back to the Soo PeeWee – Answer – You don’t care

    Folks, AAA Hockey is in a bad place in SSM. It’s a direct result of poor leadership and the decision making of the board members at Sault Major.

    You had a chance to make change and correct things – YOU DIDN’T

    SHAME ON YOU.

  2. Gordie is right, can’t say much more. When is Sault Major going to listen to the parents/customers who are paying ridiculous amounts of money for sub par efforts by coaching staffs.

    Seems to me that Sault Major doesn’t care about the elite players that want to pursue hockey, instead, lets get rid of AAA all together. The President, Vice President and AAA Director all need to step aside. Bring in some people that want the elite players and program to succeed. The three I just spoke of have zero experience with AAA hockey, nor do they care about it.

    The way it looks like right now, they don’t have a coach for the Atom Minor AA team, the 05’s are a mess and some looking to make a team at the pee wee. The 04’s won’t have a AAA team, nor will the 03’s.

    So under this regime we are somehow going to lose 3 teams that have been around for a very long time. But what do those coaches/managers have to say, we will get enough kids to show up.

    So is that the program Sault Major is trying to run for the elite players, put a bunch of kids that aren’t capable of playing at that level in place, just because parents will pay.

    Sault Major inherited Sault Minor because they thought they could run everything, well that has back fired in the face of the three I mentioned above.

    The board has zero qualified people to make quality hockey decisions on AAA hockey. They have a lot of good volunteers that do care about house league and manage that side, but as for AAA, not one person on the board has been involved directly with AAA hockey. Maybe in the past, many many years ago, but how does the SPW bring on Craig Hartsburg to help with player development and Sault Major tells teams he isn’t allowed on the ice for practice with any of the Sault Major teams this past year.

    Give your head a shake Sault Major, you are the one and only reason ruining hockey in this town.

    3 kids drafted, one actually played here, players have left previous to those kids and apparently more are leaving this year. Has anyone from Sault Major asked the question as to why those kids are left? Wouldn’t it look better if kids were actually developed and drafted from the program in the Sault?

  3. 3 extremely talented kids got drafted this year. All 3 kids have very very deep hockey bloodlines. 2 of the 3 left and I would bet the farm that if the right coach, with real hockey experience, was in place they would have likely stayed here, because their talent, like Baber’s, would have got them drafted regardless. There is no doubt those two and several other 01s could’ve helped push the major midgets to a championship and brought some credibility back to the program. This situation of kids leaving this city will become progressively worse as parents start to become more aware of the endless opportunities out there. Make no mistake, centres like Vaughn and Kitchener will now welcome our kids after the successes of Nicholas and Cole. These 2 kids being drafted increase their programs credibility and has awakened the south to the potential of kids from the north. Wake up Sault Major, the rug is being pulled out from under you.

    I also heard Sir Craig Hartsburgh was asked to leave the ice when he was trying to help the coaching staff with his grandson’s team and correct me if I am wrong, because he doesn’t have a certain coaching designation? What a complete embarrassment to this league, if in fact that story is true. Teams ask Goalie coaches (Terry Barbeau) , power skating coaches (Findlay, Oliverio) etc etc etc to do specialized practices all the time, WTF, come up with some excuse to let him stay on the ice and give those poor kids the opportunity to have a world class gold medal coach instruct them.

    Pathetic and

    For shame for shame!

  4. Sault Major Executive is full of non-hockey people. These executives don’t have the knowledge or clue on operating a healthy strong hockey organization. A healthy Sault Major would include sound, knowledgeable hockey people, strong analytical people along with good decision makers. No different than any healthy successful business model.

    The AAA Convener (MC) is the puppet master for all other executives. The majority of the Executive Team follow his lead. Think what has happened since MC has been on the board. Sault Major has spiraled downwards. Wrong decisions after wrong decision have been the common theme.

    Executive, have a look around, see the damage you’re doing to the Rep Hockey system in SSM. Over time you’re destroying high level hockey for our youth.

    The decision to bring back the current Bantam AAA (Major & Minor) Coaching Staff is wrong. Both coaching staff’s are dinosaurs. Look at how they treat their players, look at how they conduct themselves while on the road, look at how them conduct themselves on the bench during games, look at how they operate practices, look at how their players conduct themselves on ice during games, look at what they teach their players in practice, last but not least go back 5 years and review the teams records. How can you possibly reward them with another year of coaching?

    This past seasons rankings for returning Bantam coaching staffs according to MyHockey Rankings (http://myhockeyrankings.com/rankings.php) were:
    02’s – ranked 54th out of 57 teams in Ontario
    03’s – ranked 51st out of 54 teams in Ontario
    The above results are embarrassing. Coaching staffs don’t deserve another AAA level team.

    You had some very good applicants for these teams. Why not give them a chance. Things truly couldn’t get any worse.

    Strong coaching staffs will stop our kids from leaving the city. Strong coaching staffs will develop many kids and bring positive results for our players and families.

    Listen to your customer base. They don’t like the product you’re selling.

    If you don’t change, you’ll be know as the group that killed Rep Hockey in SSM. Think about that. Something to really be proud of isn’t it.

    Shame, shame on you!

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