Joel Scherban says his plans for the Lakehead Thunderwolves remain the same as they’ve always been – winning a national championship.
He’ll have another three years to try.
Scherban, who took over the Wolves coaching reins in 2009, on Monday signed a three-year contract extension, ensuring he’ll be back behind the bench and hoping for a return to the national championship tournament for the first time his inaugural season.
“For me, I’ve been building toward this all along under the assumption that I’d continue on as coach. I think we have a great core of players coming back. I think we have a good mixture of some younger guys and some older guys,” said Scherban, who guided his team to a 19-9-0 record in OUA play before bowing out in the second round of the playoffs to the Windsor Lancers.
“We were young last year. We had two fifth-year and two fourth-year players. We only have two fifth-year players this upcoming season and we have 11 players who were rookies last year who are moving into their second year and we expect them to be a lot more comfortable.”
A former Thunderwolves captain, Scherban took over as coach with no experience behind the bench at any level of hockey.
His critics have suggested he wasn’t ready for coaching at the OUA level, many calling for his dismissal, despite a 54-25-5 record.
It was his playoff performance that had some fans up in arms. After winning his way to the Cavendish Cup in 2010, the Wolves were swept out of the playoffs in 2011 by Waterloo and most recently couldn’t get past an upstart Windsor squad and goalie Parker Van Buskirk.
Scherban said he does his best to tune out the negativity, whether aimed at him or his players, but it’s not always possible.
“It’s hard to avoid it. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but a lot of opinions that you hear when you’re not around the team daily, they don’t understand what our athletes go through,” Scherban said.
“It’s tough for me seeing people criticize our players or the effort they make, or they say they had a bad game. But they don’t know if they had a tough day at school, or if they failed an exam or they’re having relationship problems or anything like that. It bothers me more to hear people criticize our players.”
Scherban, who said he’s yet to meet with his coaching staff to discuss commitments for next year, nonetheless said he’d be happy if everyone returned.
He also said the first three years coaching the Wolves has been a learning experience, something he intends to draw on going forward.
“I think you have to trust your gut and I think sometimes you over-think things and you second-guess a little bit,” he said. “And you have to trust … the initial decisions that you make or the first thing that comes to your mind.
“You’re probably better off going with that. The big thing is you’re managing people.”
That makes hockey no different than any other supervisory job, he added.
“You learn how to deal with different personalities and how to motivate different people and how to encourage and support them.”
He admitted it hasn’t always been smooth sailing at times. Several Wolves had to be disciplined last fall for breaking team rules, while top-scoring forward Matt Caria was suspended twice during the course of the season for team and league violations.
Scherban said those problems are in the past.
“I thought our players’ chemistry was great. They get along really well and they work hard together. When you look back at last season we see it as a success. Obviously we would have liked to have gone further in the playoffs, but we were two wins away from going to the national championship. We were 19-3 against OUA teams other than McGill and Western.
“What that showed us is we weren’t elite, we weren’t quite at McGill and Western’s level, but we were close and we think we’ll get there next season.”
Tom Warden, Lakehead’s athletic director, said it was an easy decision to bring Scherban back.
“I’m excited that Joel will be here to continue to build on the strong foundation that he has developed so far,” Warden said in a release. “He’s the right guy to lead us to a championship."
Claw marks: Scherban said it will be about a month before any recruiting announcements are made … McGill forward Maxime Langelier-Parent has signed a two-year deal with the American Hockey League’s Norfolk Admirals.
