The Battlefords Midget AAA Stars were going to have a new head coach this season.
No one could have expected them to have two different bench bosses before they kicked off their 2016-17 campaign Thursday night.
The Stars elected to part ways with head coach Darren Martens, who was hired to replace Jody Reiter in August, Monday and replaced him with Jean Fauchon.
“It was a combination of things,” Stars chairperson and governor Bruce Yockey said. “In a nutshell, it boiled down to Darren’s philosophy of how he wanted the players to develop was different than our vision.
“We talked about a few things with him that we wanted to see changed and they weren’t getting addressed or they were being put off, which was a concern. There was a gap developing in what we saw as an organization with individual player development and team development, and we didn’t want to see it widen further.”
Fauchon is a familiar face to the Stars organization as he had served as an assistant coach for four seasons.
“This year I had planned on coaching my nephews’ team in novice and also being a coaching mentor for the Saskatchewan Hockey Association where I would be travelling around the Battlefords.
“It came as a shock to me when I got the call on Monday, but it’s very exciting. It will be a fun ride here for the first little while but it’s something that I’m looking forward to.”
The move was also a surprise for the players, as they found out in a team meeting on Monday.
“I’m sure that’s not what they expected to hear when they arrived,” Fauchon said. “They’ve been able to adjust well though. We had our first practice together on Tuesday and they were already buying in.
“I know it was a shock to them and that’s something I discussed with many of them at school (John Paul II) on Tuesday,” Yockey added. “When you have a team with young guys though, they are able to adapt quickly to challenges, and I think our guys will do that.”
Fauchon also says that having a familiar face in assistant coach Lee Ulmer on the bench with him will help in the transition process.
“Lee has been there since the spring camp and we’ve coached together before so we have that connection,” Fauchon said. “I know many of the veterans but I’ll be relying on him for help on the line combinations for the first little bit.
“This is a good young group that we have here and I think we will be a fun team to watch. We have good speed that will allow us to generate a lot of offence, we have defencemen that can push the puck well and we have a returning goaltender in Lance Alm.”
Fauchon’s first game behind the bench will be at the Civic Centre Thursday at 7:30 p.m. when they host the Saskatoon Contacts.
