KAMLOOPS — New Blazers head coach Serge Lajoie has landed in Kamloops.
Lajoie arrived in the city last night, and will be one of the presenters at this weekend’s coaches conference.
Hired by the Blazers June 25, Lajoie has been on the job since July 1 — from a distance.
Today was his first day in the office —- familiarizing himself with the lay of the land.
Lajoie comes with a university coaching pedigree — as an assistant and then head coach at the University of Alberta, including a Canadian championship this past spring. By trade, he’s a teacher —- an educator.
“There are such strong parallel’s between being in a classroom with a group of 25 students and being on the ice with a group of 25 players,” says Lajoie. “Every single player is different and has different needs. When you’re putting your lesson plan together for a classroom or your practice plan for a practice, you have to account for all those different ways that players will learn, or students will learn.”
Lajoie was a junior player over 30 years ago — including half of one season with the Blazers in 1986-87. He says the junior age players today are a lot diffrerent than when he played.That players today aren’t as willing to accept instruction without question.
“I don’t think it’s disrespectul, I don’t think it’s entitlement —- as a coach you have to be prepared,” says Lajoie. “To be able to explain why you’re doing what you’re doing, so the players can be fully engaged.”
Lajoie says it’s important to communicate with players on a constant basis. In his time as a coach at the University of Alberta most of the players Lajoie coached came to the program right out of the Western Hockey League. He says that has helped prepare him moving into his new role as a head coach at the highest level of junior hockey.
“I’ve seen the players that come out of the WHL — there’s still a lot of room for growth,” says Lajoie. “I know there coaches worked on it, the details within the game — we still have to work on those details with a WHL graduate. It reinforces the approach I want to have here with the Blazers.
You’re at the mercy of your details. You’re always revert back to the details and habits you establish in practice, and those are so important.It’s going to become your style of play and that’s going to be the foundation of what I want to establish here with the Blazers.”
Serge Lajoie will be stepping in to fill the big shoes left by the winningest coach in Western Hockey League history. He says he will be leaning heavily on Don Hay — like a sponge, soaking in all he can learn from a junior hockey coaching legend.
“I look at Don as a tremendous resource for myself, for the Blazers organization,” says Lajoie. “I know he’ll still be around. I’ve reached out to Don and I’m looking forward to be able to tap into his knowledge, his expertise.I think that’s something that also attracted me to Kamloops — there’s high standards here, high expectations, a strong hockey community, very well supported with a passionate fan base — very similar to the U. of A., where our standards and our expectatons each year were to win a national championship.”
