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Posted by: paulsoucy on 09/17/2009 01:21 PM
Updated by: paulsoucy on 11/02/2009 08:59 AM
Expires: 01/01/2014 12:00 AM

Coach cranks up for Lakers' for first season

A Nipissing Lakers goalie makes a big save during the Blue-White exhibition game on September 11th

While preparing for his first year as coach of the new Nipissing Lakers varsity hockey team, Mike McParland takes time out to explain how he built a hockey team 'from scratch.'

By Paul Soucy
theclaw.ca
Twitter

This Saturday – for the first time ever, Nipissing University will ice a varsity hockey team which will compete province-wide in the OUA (Ontario University Athletics). Being a first-year team has its obstacles, including recruiting top-tier players and building team chemistry. However, Lakers Head Coach, Mike McParland said the recruiting process went according to plan.

“We set a goal to try and entice seven or eight kids who had played Major Junior to our new program,” McParland said. “It was tough getting the kids, but at the end of the day we ended up with 10 or 11 kids out of the OHL (Ontario Hockey League) – so we’re satisfied there.”

Even though they surpassed their goal of recruiting players who had played some Ontario Major Junior League hockey, McParland is less satisfied with how many top-tier forwards they were able to sway to the city's big arena on Chippewa Street.

“Our defensive core, our goaltending core, seem pretty solid with a lot of Major Junior experience, and up front we only have a few guys with (Major) Junior experience,” said McParland. “So we’re hoping that we’ll have a few surprises up there.”

Approximately 55 players stepped on to the ice for the Lakers’ opening day of training camp. They’re down to about 30 of those players and McParland estimates another five or six will be getting on the figurative Greyhound back home before the puck drops on the regular season. The Lakers Head Coach said the cutting process is one of the toughest aspects of his job.

“It’s a difficult process because we find that our top-six forward position could use a guy or two, and our bottom-six forward position we have approximately 18 guys that are all the same fighting for six places,” McParland explained.

Even with its difficulties, training camp does offer up some pleasantries. Matt Lahey was one of the players in the Lakers’ camp expected to perform well, and McParland explained the Former Ottawa 67 (OHL) and Moncton Wildcat (Quebec Major Junior Hockey League) is living up to the coaching staff’s expectations.

“He’s bringing what we expected him to bring, of course, with his five years of Major Junior experience,” an upbeat McParland added.

In last Friday’s Blue and White scrimmage, Lahey scored three points (two goals, one assist) for Team White, including the game-winner with 26 seconds left, while leading them to a 5-4 victory. Other players who stepped their game up a notch during training camp are forwards Andrew Marcoux formerly of the Niagara Ice Dogs in the OHL, Sam Hopewell, formerly of the Kemptville 73’s in the Central Junior Hockey League, as well as defencemen Sean Ryan formerly of the OHL Ottawa 67’s and Josh McKinnon, formerly of the Summerside Western Capitals of the Maritime Junior ‘A’ Hockey League.

McParland said a new program such as the one Nipissing will ice obviously faces some major hurdles, one of those being they have to take it slow while establishing themselves.

“Of course, it would be outstanding – and a big bonus – to make the playoffs, and that’s what we will have our focus and our vision on for sure. But at the same time we have to take baby steps and find our way in this league and look to get better every year,” McParland added.
LOFTY AMBITIONS

Taking it slow is one thing, but McParland said there’s no use establishing an objective if it is going to be too easy to reach; his goal for this year is to make the playoffs.

“You have to have a goal, and you have try and achieve the goal. It may be difficult, but to say you’re going to play for last place gives you no goal really so you have to have something in your vision to try and achieve,” McParland explained.

The former Euorpean pro-hockey coach explained that setting the bar high will, at the very least, help the players’ progress. At the same time not being interested in compromising will help with the team’s future recruiting as well as marketing.

Most of the other teams competing in the OUA have been playing for years, and thus have had the time to develop their programs. McParland hopes those established oppositions will take the Lakers lightly.

“Well, naturally, I hope they underestimate us. On paper, you almost have to say going into every game we’re the underdog. And I hope we can play that role well and upset the bigger teams a few times,” McParland admitted.

McParland said he thinks there will be some teams in the league with which his team should be able to compete with. He gave RMC (Royal Military College) and Ryerson University as examples of teams he’d like the Lakers to be on par with. The other two teams in the Lakers’ division (Queen’s University and the University of Toronto) are a toss-up; in recent years they’ve either iced high-calibre teams or very weak ones.

“We’ll have to see what type of team they produce this year; they’re both well coached right now... I’m thinking they’ll be pretty competitive,” McParland explained.

The crowd is always a big part of hockey, which was evident at the Lakers Blue and White exhibition game; an entire section was devoted to Lakers’ boosters. McParland was thrilled with them and thinks it will have an impact on the team’s play over the course of the season.

“The students were outstanding – the enthusiasm and spirit they brought to the game. I’m sure with that type of enthusiasm and spirit behind us will make the difference between us winning some games at home and not winning,” McParland added.

Before coming to North Bay, McParland coached men at the professional level across the Atlantic; he admits coaching players who are in their early 20s is a much different challenge.

“It’s a change with the player having to be a student. Players missing practice, or players coming on time,” explained McParland. “When you’re working with the pros, they’re usually at the rink a couple of hours before practice: preparing, lifting weights and doing what’s necessary.”

Establishing a professional mindset in the locker room is something McParland said he hopes to achieve with his team of students, as he’d like to teach them how to be pros and hopefully land them spots on teams in Europe or the American Hockey League.

“We’d like to be able to instil a little bit of professional attitude on and off the ice,” McParland said.

It took McParland about 20 seconds to ponder whom he thought his coaching style was most similar to, then offered what is most likely the only right answer to give in his position.

“You know what, I think I’m my own coach. I haven’t emulated anybody. I have a lot of friends who coach in the NHL, whom I talk to a lot and take ideas from, but I don’t coach like them. I think everybody coaches their own way, and has to be their own person. You can’t be somebody you’re not,” McParland explained.

McParland has been coaching more than 20 years now, and admits after all that time he still gets nervous before every game. He’ll have to shoo away the butterflies on Saturday night, as the Lakers take to the ice in their first exhibition match-up versus the University of Ottawa Gee Gee’s. Game time at Memorial Gardens is 7 p.m.