NATIONAL COACH SPOTLIGHT - PETERBOROUGH PETES HEAD COACH BRIAN TISDALE
Friday, August 27, 2010 - Submitted by Gene Johnson - Managing Editor
Peterborough Petes Head Coach Brian Tisdale said it didn't take him too long to realize that he was no longer a hockey player.
But I love this game. So I decided to get into coaching quite early," said the 53 year old Midget Major AAA Coach. "As a matter of fact I started as an assistant coach with a team when I was 14 years old".
I started out as a head coach when I was 16," said Tisdale, who took an advanced level coaching course in 1996. "I've coached, basically, pretty much at every level".
With that longevity has come some coaching success: a 1995-96 bronze medal-winning Pee Wee team in the Ontario Hockey Federation competition and a 1998 silver medalist in the Ontario Winter games with a Midget team. So it begs to reason that he expects some similar results with this year's Petes.
"Our expectation is to keep playing as long as we possibly can through the playoffs and into the championships. Our expectations is to be the best. If you're looking at any less than that, then you're selling yourself short," Tisdale said.
"From a coaching staff, we put together the best 17 to 19 players possible that will create the best team -- and not necessarily always the most-skilled guys, but the guys that are going to complement each other and make the best team."
Some of the players that are expected to lead in that effort include Jessie Gregory and defenseman Tyler Stone. "He (Stone) was probably our number two defenseman," Tisdale said. "We're looking at him to step up, maybe be our number one guy. He's a combination of speed and handles the puck very well for a defenseman."
Tisdale said he and his team were especially looking forward to the third Annual MidgetAAACanada.com Cup.
I was an assistant coach there (the Cup) last year. That was my first time in 35 years not being a head coach," he said. "In tournaments like the MidgetAAACanada.com Cup, where you do a bit more than average -- which is looking after players and providing a Junior-type atmosphere with your three 20 minute periods -- we need more of that kind of stuff."
And that jibes with Hockey Canada's new emphasis on keeping players in Midget Major as opposed to getting drafted too early and sitting on Junior benches or worst in the stands.
"We had a player last year that was a first year Midget (Major) and he was our top defenseman. He played the powerplay. He played the penalty kill. He played all kinds with us - as opposed to sitting on a junior bench as a junior," Tisdale said. "When our season ended and their (Junior) playoffs were still going, they brought this player up -- he stepped in because he had been playing all the time. He basically stepped into their top three spots as a defenseman."
"There's no substitute for competition, to allow you to get better," he said "You don't get better by sitting on a bench."
Tisdale said that every player that gets to the AAA level has talent, but it's how that talent is cultivated -- something that comes from within the player.
"The difference between a decent player and a great player is pretty much two-fold: decent players generally get by with their talent and an average work ethic," Tisdale said. "Great players probably have the same amount of talent -- maybe a little bit more -- but those guys generally do the little extra in order to get to the next level. They have a work ethic that is second to none."
Some of the players who have proven to be successful and have been drafted, he said, include winger Paxton Leroux, selected 4th round in the 2009 OHL Draft by the Saginaw Spirit, defenseman Nelson Armstrong in the 10th round by the Sarnia Sting and Jacob Tugnutt, selected in the 14th round by the Kitchener Rangers in the 2010 OHL Draft.
The Petes, which have played in Peterborough, Ontario since 1956, have produced a number of NHL players including Hall of Famers Steve Yzerman, Bob Gainey, Larry Murphy and Scott Bowman, and have graduated the most players to the NHL of all current Ontario Hockey League teams.
The Petes have won the OHL Championship nine times, the second-most in OHL history and the most in the postwar period. They won the Memorial Cup once, in 1979.
We're (coaches and scouts) still out there looking at you guys (hockey players). We realize that not everybody is physically or emotionally mature at 15 years old," Tisdale said. "We do know that some of your guys mature a bit later. We're our there watching you."
