Sangha embracing his return to the Kamloops Storm — behind the bench

Sangha was looking to get into coaching after his six seasons playing high-level senior men’s hockey in Williams Lake in the Central Interior Hockey League.

He initially reached out to Storm owner Barry Dewar asking if former head coach Ed Patterson wanted help. With Patterson leaving his post after six seasons at the helm, Sangha was contacted and slipped right into the head coaching job and he was prepared for that possibility.

“I’ve been in talks with Barry since April and the process was a little bit slow, but he always kept me updated and I was in touch with [Storm assistant coach] Andrew Fisher since April as well,” noted Sangha. “I kind of had a foundation of what I wanted to go with if I was going to be hired.”

Dewar feels comfortable hiring a coach this young, a guy who played for him, and someone who has good hockey people around him.

“For Jassi, he’s got a really good support staff,” said Dewar. “Andrew Fisher coached minor hockey here last year and he’s got a good track record. I think the two of them bring a lot of enthusiasm, and I think the kids will really feed off that. They’ve done a great job.”

Dewar noted Sangha’s younger age didn’t play into the hiring. He just needed someone to coach his team following the departure of Ed Patterson.

“It definitely won’t hurt,” he said, referring to the 30-year-old Sangha. “At the same time it wasn’t part of the plan. Ed did a great job for us. We would’ve loved to have him come back, but he’s got a son [Max] who’s going to be 19 this year playing in Swift Current. He wants to go and watch him. I can see him back with us in the future.”

Like Patterson did the last two seasons, Sangha is taking the reins of a young team. The Storm only have three returning players, including Chris Thon who scored one goal in 32 games last year. However, Thon said Sangha will do well following in Patterson’s footsteps.

“Ed was direct at you. He told you what to do and helped you out here and there when you needed a hand. I think Jassi will be no different, though,” noted the 17-year-old Quesnel native that’s entering his second season in Kamloops. “I think he’ll try and strengthen the team in other ways, maybe not as direct but he’ll definitely be a big help this year.”

Sangha said it’s a real treat coming back to the organization that gave him a chance to keep playing hockey at a high level when he joined the Storm in 2006. The same team is now giving him a chance to stay in the game once again, this time as a head coach.

“I had two wonderful years here. The kids that I played with back then are still my really good friends like Cody Lockwood, David Gore, Austin Goode,” said Sangha, reflecting on his playing days with the Storm. “I’m really good friends with those guys. It was a really neat experience and it’s cool to come full circle and now start to coach.”

While Sangha was a goal scorer during his time with the Storm and Wolfpack, with his eyes always on the offensive end, he realizes that strong defensive game wins championships and he wants to implement that mentality.

“Defense wins games. I didn’t play that way growing up, but I learned that over the years,” said Sangha. “We want to be strong defensively. We want to be hard to play against. We might have two or three guys who can score. We might have a really good goalie. But at the end of the day, when teams come to play us, I want them to know they’re going to have a hard game. It’s not going to be easy.”

by Chad Klassen

Sangha embracing his return to the Kamloops Storm — behind the bench

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