He's a familiar face on the Broncos' bench, though in the past that face has sat under a Broncos' helmet.
Luke Strueby, a player with the Humboldt Broncos Junior A hockey team from 2003 to 2006, has been hired as the new assistant coach and marketing director for the club, under head coach Dean Brockman for the upcoming season.
"It's been good. I'm enjoying it so far," he told the Journal in an interview last week.
At the moment, most of his job is focusing on the off-ice details of the club.
"It took some time to get used to that. But it's starting to come together now," Strueby said. And while he admitted he is enjoying the marketing side of the job, something he's never done before, he's ready to get on the ice.
"I'm looking forward to the season starting. That's the main reason why I took (this job)," he smiled.
A hometown boy - he grew up on a farm near Marysburg - Strueby was a solid player with the Broncos for three entire seasons. He jokingly referred to his years on the team as "the lean years" - it was the only three years in the last decade or so that the Broncos failed to win a major championship.
"My first year, we had a pretty good team," he said. "For the next two, we were kind of rebuilding."
After graduating from the team as a 20-year-old in 2006, Strueby headed to Minot State in North Dakota, where he earned his education degree, majoring in physical education.
He played three years of hockey with the Minot State Beavers, he said, and they made it to Nationals his third year with them, for the first time in a long time.
"They've been on the upswing since then. It was a turning point, that year," he said.
Strueby also kept in touch with the Broncos while he was in university, and came back to help out at camps whenever he could.
"I've helped scout, too," Strueby admitted, "watching players here and there. I kept in touch with Dean (Brockman)."
After graduating, Strueby moved back to the Humboldt region, spending a semester substitute teaching, before landing a full-time teaching position at St. Dominic School last year.
He would definitely have been going back for another year at the school, he said, had this opportunity to work for the Broncos not come up.
"The staff was awesome. I really liked it there," he said. "But this opportunity doesn't come around that often."
Now was the time, he decided, to try his hand at coaching, at least for a year or two.
"I will go back (to teaching) in a couple of years if I have to," he said.
The toughest part of accepting this job with the Broncos was giving up teaching, which he loves.
But teaching will be there in a few years, he agreed. An opportunity to help coach the Broncos may not.
"Ultimately it came down to it's something I've wanted to do since I was done playing," he grinned.
Coaching was something that always appealed to Strueby, even as a player, he indicated.
"I like to think that I think the game at a high level," he said.
He's able to see and pick up on things and devise strategies - things he used to dicuss with Brockman when he played with the team.
"The day I was done playing, Dean told me I'd make a good coach," Strueby noted. "My personality, I guess, fits coaching."
He's not going to be a coach who yells and screams, he smiled.
"Those situations will be few and far between," he said - a style very similar to that of Brockman.
Strueby's second season with the Broncos as a player was actually the first season Dean Brockman was the head coach of the Broncos, moving up from the assistant position. Joining him on the bench were Tim Klimosko and Murray Brookbank as assistant coaches, both of whom decided to retire after the 2011-12 season.
Strueby knows he's got big shoes to fill, taking over from those two, though he will be assisted by a volunteer assistant coach, Chad Ellison.
"Hopefully it's an easy transition," Strueby said. "I like to think I'm a players' coach, like they are. They left a legacy. It will take some work to fill in those shoes."
At 27, Strueby is closer in age to the players than previous assistant coaches, and youth coupled with the consistency that Brockman brings to the bench should make for a winning combination, he feels.
"Fresh blood is never a bad thing," Strueby said of his age. "There have been some young coaches in the league with a lot of success," he added.
The Broncos' fall training camp will be held September 7-9. The home opener will be held in late September, after five exhibition games.
"I'm looking forward to it," Strueby said. "I'm excited to get the hockey going."
