Dave Leaderhouse
Special to the Herald
The Prince Albert Mintos are bringing back a familiar face to take over the head-coaching reins as Tyson Dallman has been selected to replace the departed Dion Antisin it was announced on Wednesday.
“His and my style match up very well,” explains Mintos general manager Chris Bourdon. “We have a shared vision of where we want to take the team.
“We first want to rebuild the culture,” continued Bourdon. “From the outside looking in it looks like it dipped a bit. Great teams are built in the dressing room first.”
Dallman is a former player and assistant coach with the Mintos and he is also coming off a successful season where he guided the Venice House Pirates to the Saskatchewan AA Hockey League’s U15 championship.
“I’ve always considered the Mintos the pinnacle of programs for minor hockey,” noted Dallman. “It’s something I have been preparing for for a while. I think I’m ready for it.”
The need for a new bench boss arose in mid-May when Antisin informed the team he had to step aside for family reasons. Bourdon says the club received applications for the position from four “qualified” individuals and after he and the board narrowed that down to two the final decision was made to bring Dallman in.
“Having Tyson is ideal for me,” says Bourdon, who he himself was just brought into the fold just over a month ago. “We coached together in pee wee and I also coached with his Dad, Rod, for a number of years.
“I was perfectly happy with Dion coming back, but he made the decision on his own,” added Bourdon. “He (Dallman) deserved the opportunity to step into the role of Mintos’ head coach.”
Dallman inherits a team that was 14-24-4-2 last year and missed the Saskatchewan Male U18 Hockey League playoffs for the first time in a decade. He readily admits it will be an adjustment moving up to this level, but he is confident in what he can build and accomplish.
“The game is faster and there will be a lot to take in at the beginning,” says Dallman. “It is definitely different when you consider everything outside of hockey. The lifestyle of being a hockey player in our community takes on a life of its own.”
He also pointed out that most of the players are away from home for the first time so having a good billet and education program in place is very important.
Bourdon says that as it stands the current assistant coaches of Colten Smith, Chase Freidt-Mohr and Jeff Willoughby will remain in place, but he also said that discussions with Dallman will occur and from that, things might change.
With the new leadership team now in place the next order of business is the league’s annual general meeting on June 22 followed the next day by the scheduling meeting.
Fall camp is set to go at the Art Hauser Centre in mid-August with the regular season generally getting under way in the middle of September.
There is a lot of room for improvement and the Mintos are confident they have the pieces in place to go in the right direction.
