By Kelly Friesen
Journal editor
[email protected]
The Humboldt Broncos have made major leaps forward in their hunt for a new head coach and general manager.
Following going through 34 resumes, the team is now headed into the interview stage of the process in replacing Dean Brockman, who left in late June to become the assistant coach of the WHL's Saskatoon Blades.
"About 34 applied and they have narrowed it down to a short list now," said assistant coach Brayden Klimosko, who is helping the board find the team's next head coach-GM. "They're doing interviews over the next week or so and then they'll go from there with the process."
In addition to Klimosko helping the board find the right coach, Brockman is playing a consultant role in the process to help his former team out.
"I'm more or less lending a helping hand to the team," said Brockman a couple of weeks ago. "I'll share with them my opinions and try to help them get the best guy in there. You could call it a consultant role. I'm doing what I can to help them out in their time of transition."
Brockman won't play much of a role once the new head coach-GM is hired, though. He feels Klimosko has the knowledge to bring the new hire up to speed on the team and league.
"Brayden will be able to give the new coach everything he needs to know on player evaluations and things like that," said Brockman. "He knows the team really well and will cover things like that."
The Broncos don't have a self-imposed deadline to hire a new coach-GM. They don't want to rush the process to ensure they find the right guy for the job.
"I don't think you can have one (a self-imposed deadline) for something like this," said Klimosko, who played three seasons with the Broncos before getting into coaching. "It's a process that you have to play out to get the right guy for the job. Dean left at a time where he left us enough time to be able take the time to be patience and get the right guy."
With Brockman in Saskatoon and no replacement hired, Klimosko has had a lot more responsibility on his shoulders this offseason than he originally expected.
"I've had quite a bit more responsibility this summer," he said. "Since Dean left, I've been signing players and doing transactions - a lot of stuff I wasn't normally doing. You really see how this job has a lot more to it than just coaching."
Sitting in the architect chair while the Broncos find Brockman's successor has been a valuable experience for Klimosko.
"It has been a great experience," he said. "I've learned a lot in the last month and a half and have been pretty busy on the phones. It has been a great learning curve for me."
With only one-year of SJHL coaching experience under his belt, Klimosko understandably didn't feel ready to throw his name in the hat for the head coach-GM position. He, however, feels that will change as he gets more comfortable with the coaching scene.
"I didn't feel I was ready this time around, but down the road I'd like to be a head coach," said Klimosko. "I'm not sure when that will be, but I hope to be one day."
The Broncos are holding a hockey camp for novice to peewee players from August 25-28. Their training camp starts shortly after that on September 5.
"I'm running the hockey camp and I'm looking forward to that," said Klimosko. "I'll also have some Broncos players helping me out with that. And it will definitely be good to get back on to the ice with the team in training camp."
