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It
seemed fitting that when he got the call, he was on his way home from
coaching his men’s ball hockey club in a Fraser Valley Ball Hockey League
regular season game. It was a call Gary Slavin, President of the Ridge
Meadows Minor Ball Hockey Association was waiting for since October. With 20
years of coaching and playing ball hockey (goaltender) and numerous
championships and medals, Slavin is joining the Team Canada coaching staff
that will take Canada’s best U18 players to the World Ball Hockey
Championship in Slovakia next June.
“I was approached after the Nationals in August
by a couple of Canadian Ball Hockey Association representatives encouraging
me to apply for the position of Assistant Coach for Canada,” said Slavin.
2007 was a great year for Slavin, with coaching the local Ridge Meadows U10
Renegades to the association’s first Western Challenge Cup Championship in
July and then winning a silver in August at the Nationals as an Assistant
Coach/Manager with the BC Thunder in the U17 Division. “When I heard that
there would be a World Championship at this age level I thought about the
idea of coaching at the National level, and winning silver with the U17 BC
team was the final push for me to go for it,” commented Slavin. “This level
of play is amazing to coach, the speed and passing accuracy is great and you
have a group of ball hockey players that respect the coaches decisions and
each other,” added Slavin. “I still can’t believe out of all the coaches
across the country, a coach from Maple Ridge has been chosen, this is great
for our sport in the province and for our association who currently is the
largest minor ball hockey association in BC,” said Slavin.
Steve Dockerty, member of the Canadian Minor Ball
Hockey Association minor council and General Manager of the U16 & U18 teams
is looking forward to Slavin’s contribution to the team. “I will say that
all (CBHA minor council members) spoke highly of Slavin during the
conference call, so we are equally as thrilled to have someone of his
caliber be apart of this team,” said Dockerty. “All applicants for the
position have been highly qualified individuals making the selection process
difficult,” added Dockerty.
This will be the first competition at the world level
for the U18 division, in the past, there has been Men’s, Women’s and U20
World Championships. Canada has been very competitive at all levels to date.
“Knowing how Canada has done in the past at the world’s at the higher
levels, this will be a big challenge for our team and our coaching staff
being the first U18 tournament that Canada is competing in,” said Slavin.
Slavin will be working with appointed Head Coach, Doug
Shaw from Belleville, Ontario. “I look forward working with Shaw, the
Belleville Association has had strong showings at past National
championships, with the latest, beating our BC Thunder squad in the finals
at the 2008 Nationals,” said Slavin.
Obviously we are going there with one goal – winning
the inaugural U18 World Cup, but the experience of not only playing in a
World competition, but to travel through
Czech Republic (Prague) and Slovakia will be a life long memory for
these young players,” said Slavin. The team leaves May 31st, 2008
and will spend a few days in both countries before participating in the
World Championships June 5th to the 8th in Zvolen,
Slovakia.
Through the years of ball hockey, Slavin has worked
with many coaches at different age levels, but the one that he has learned a
lot from and stands out the most is Dave Weloy (Maple Ridge), who coached
with Slavin on the Ridge Meadows Renegades team. “I have a lot of respect
for Dave as a coach, through practices, exhibition games and in the
tournament over only three months, I have learned quite a bit of the
technical aspect of hockey from Dave, he is a great technical coach and has
a good repore with the kids,” said Slavin.
There are three world ball hockey championships that
are taking place in 2008, along with the U18, the U16 will also be hosted by
Slovakia while Canada will be hosting the U20 tournament in St. John’s
Newfoundland. Out of the three national teams there were only two western
coaches chosen by CBHA. Along with Slavin, Jim Armstrong of Vernon, BC, was
named to the coaching staff for the U20 squad.
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