Coaching the Thunderbirds

A new look hockey staff has been finalized and put into place for Sault Ste. Marie’s junior A hockey team.

Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League have confirmed the all-local coaching staff that will assist new head coach and part owner Cole Jarrett for the 2021-2022 season.

For starters, ultra valuable, first year general manager Jamie Henderson will also help out as an assistant coach.

And Jeremy Rebek, Anthony Miller and Joey Miller are also on board as assistants, while the grizzled Terry Barbeau has been confirmed as the goalie coach.

Meantime, Cole Cloutier will move up to the Bird nest as assistant general manager to Henderson.

The 45-year old Rebek will be making a return to the Thunderbirds as he previously was an assistant with them from 2014 to 2016. He looms as a prize addition to the Jarrett-led coaching staff.

Rebek’s vast experience in the game includes three seasons as a standout Ontario Hockey League defenseman with the Owen Sound Platers that was followed by a lengthy professional career as a world class performer, mainly in Austria. He suited up for the Austrian national team and was an assistant captain.

In his previous tour as an assistant coach, Rebek helped lead the Thunderbirds to a pair of NOJHL championships and a Dudley Hewitt Cup, Central Canada crown, all in just two seasons on the job.

As for the Miller cousins, they were teammates on the Thunderbirds from 2012 to 2015 as productive forwards. And now, they are together again as fellow assistant coaches.

Meantime, Barbeau is back in the Bird house as a long-time goalie coach whose experience includes stints with the Soo Greyhounds and Saginaw Spirit of the Ontario Hockey League, and the Division 1, National Collegiate Athletic Association Lake Superior State Lakers.