After leading the Slave Lake Winterhawks to the promised land of a provincial championship last season, head coach Chris Hatch moved on, leaving a big gap on the bench. Stepping in to fill it is Pat McGill, the Kal Tire manager and a fellow with a long history in hockey.
“He’s been involved in Jr. ‘A’ before and he’s played in the WHL and his brother played in the NHL,” says ‘Hawks Manager Terry Beauchamp.
McGill plays rec hockey in town and coached a Midget team one year, but he’s avoided getting involved with the Winterhawks until now, being new in town and busy with work.
“Now I’ve been here three years, things are in place and I had time to commit to it,” he says.
McGill hadn’t actually met all his players as of last week, but he’s seen them play before.
“Hatch... did an awesome job last year,” he says. “The team’s very well established and organized, obviously. I guess I’ll just come in and give them a bit of direction.”
McGill learned his hockey chops with two years of Jr. hockey in the B.C. league, followed by a couple of years of Major Junior with the New Westminster Bruins. He also played a year of Jr. ‘B’ in Leduc, when the team won the provincial championship.
McGill followed up his Jr. career with eight years of Senior hockey in Leduc. He coached Jr. ‘B’ hockey three different times. He also coached a Midget ‘AAA’ team, and Tier II Jr. ‘A’ hockey for seven years, in Williams Lake, B.C., Lloydminster and Creston B.C.
McGill is looking forward to a season of heightened competition in the North Central Hockey League.
“The last three years I’ve been watching the ‘Hawks play, unfortunately some of the teams that came in didn’t put on too good of a show. I think there’s going to be a lot better competition (this year).”
The league has in fact almost doubled, from five to nine teams for the 05/06 season. Lamont, Westlock, Edson and Onoway are in, joining Slave Lake, Fox Creek, Drayton Valley, Hinton and Jasper.
The ‘Hawks have some new players, including Brad McTavish, Scott Sinclair, Justin Menard and Chad Anderson trying out for spots. They are, however, a bit thin on the blueline, with only five regulars returning. Bill van Beek, last year’s fine rookie d-man, is away until January, and Steve Dunlop has moved, Beauchamp says.
Beauchamp says the ‘Hawks are putting together a proposal to host the Western Cup, a Sr. ‘A’ championship for teams from the four western provinces. It costs some money to do, but, “If we get anywhere near the support we got at provincials (in 2004), it will be very successful,” he says.

Copyright © 2000 The Lakeside Leader. All Rights Reserved.
No part may be reproduced without written permission.

View our Privacy Statement.
Send website suggestions to the Webmaster