Thursday, July 24, 2008

Habscheid Gives the Latest

He stopped by our group of three radio stations today to talk about the 3rd annual Nancy Harvey / Marc Habsheid Battle of the Sports Charity golf tournament, but talk shifted afterwards to the vacant head coaching position with the Regina Pats.


Here's the transcript:

JK: There's been a lot of talk about the Regina Pats job, where are things at?

Marc: I went and talked to Brent, sat in his office for a couple hours Monday morning and had a good chat. Where it is at I'm not sure. I think it was a fact finding discussion a little bit for both. He's trying to do what's best for his team and I'm trying to do what's best for mine, meaning my family.

There's a lot of things involved. I've always talked about a proper fit. Maybe this is, maybe it's not, that's yet to be determine. There's nothing wrong going to talk and trying to figure out exactly where he's at and where his team's at he's figuring out where I'm at.



JK: You've been a coach in this league. There's a lot of talk that you want to do more. Head Coach, General Manager maybe an ownership package....

Marc: I don't know. I'm a coach first and foremost and I understand that. The biggest thing for me is that my family has moved around a lot. Before you know it they're gone. I have son 16 and a daughter 13... my son has moved 10 times in 15 years. That's tough on a family.

People have said you have to get back in the game... and I do, I want to get back in. I've talked to a lot of teams the last two years and if it's the right fit I'll go but it hasn't been the right fit yet personally and professionally. I have no intentions of taking a job just to take a job.

In terms of ownership, or G.M. or coach... there's been rumours I want spend one year in major junior and go back to the NHL. That's not necessarily the case. I enjoy coaching, I probably enjoy coaching junior kids more than professional players to be quite honest. Maybe junior is where I need to be right now. I've had some success and most of all I enjoy working with the kids and helping them as people more than hockey players. You miss that. I think major junior is a good place. We will see where the winding road takes us.



JK: There's a time frame on the Regina job by the end of the week, what do you know about that?

Marc: I don't know. In this business time tables are tough. Brent is going to hire his coach whenever he wants, it's his timetable. I've talked to him and like I said we'll see where it goes. If it doesn't go where both of us think it needs to go that's fine. I have a hay crop to cut and get bailed here so life goes on.



JK: This is all a public matter. If I apply for a job or anybody applies it's not public knowledge but this coaching thing is sure strange. Everything is fair game. Does that bother you?

Marc: It's the nature of the business. Coaching candidates and things get out along with speculation and it's part of the business. You have to understand if you want to be involved it's a public affair. When you're doing things like farming there's not much interest from the outside but as soon as your in a public industry like entertainment or sports it's fair game. People want to know and are interested in it... you just have to deal with it.


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They're announcing the coach this afternoon - from that interview, you'd have to think it's Derkatch.

Anonymous said...

Marc was clearly the best candidate for the Regina job but he is a no nonsense winner. Parker doesn't like those kind of guys.

The majority of fans in Regina don't like the Derkatch selection mainly because he is very inexperienced in the Dub and the fact that Habscheid is such a better qualified candidate. Even Terry Perkins would have been a better choice because he has at least coached and managed a winning program in the BC Jr A loop.

Parker has a history of interfering with his coaches, going on tirades in the dressing room, etc. A 3 year midget coach may put with that but a Marc Habscheid won't, understandably so. A number of years ago Schockey came into Regina and led the team to a pennant, told Parker off and got fired.

In 14 years he has won only two pennants (fired Schockey after one of them). Has only bee to the 2nd round of playoffs twice and no further. What GM in this league would keep his job with a resume like that? There is an undercurrent in this city that we need a new ownership which would bring in the likes of Habscheid.

The fans wanted Marc but Parker wanted someone he could control. No self respecting quality coach will ever come here until Parker leaves. Parker is not well liked anywhere he goes but we've had to put up with him for 14 years. Have some pity on us. We want better and Marc is better. We the paying fans again got shafted.