The position of head coach for the New Westminster junior A Salmonbellies didn’t stay vacant for very long.
Less than a month after Dan Perreault resigned his position to concentrate full-time on the Vancouver Stealth of the National Lacrosse League, the junior Bellies have a new man in place.
Todd Stockdale is that guy.
Taking over the post is someone familiar to putting out fires, who was voted the Western Lacrosse Association’s Top Coach last season in his first year behind the Coquitlam Adanacs bench.
“It’s a great opportunity for me,” said Stockdale, a Richmond firefighter. “When I heard (Perreault) was stepping down and the job was open, I put my name forward. I’m eager to get going.”
Walt Weaver, New West president, was extremely pleased with how a quickly things came together.
“We’re really excited to have (Stockdale) come onboard. He’s got good coaching experience, and I know when we interviewed him that he was the best fit.
“He brings that eastern style game, a run-and-gun, press-the-offence style that we wanted to have our team play.”
While Stockdale has just the single season as a head coach in the WLA under his belt, he helped steer a patch-work roster in transition to the brink of the playoffs, falling short by just four points.
As a player, Stockdale played in three Mann Cup finals as well as five Founders Cup championships, and worked two seasons as an assistant to Bob Salt before taking over the Adanac job last season. He said Coquitlam was heading in a different direction rebuild-wise, and he felt it was the right fit. In 2007 Stockdale served as an assistant coach to Rob Dick behind the junior Bellies bench, and looks fondly upon that experience.
“The biggest difference for me was the commitment level. At the senior level you have work and family commitments to work around, while here there are some players who miss the start of the season due to school but all the players generally are looking to improve, trying to get to that senior or pro level,” he said.
“You’re getting players at the right stage, where you can mold them into things you want them to do. Someone who was a goal scorer (in minor) may be a better transition player, and this is where they can grow into that position.”
Perreault, meanwhile, said that after nearly 20 years of coaching every summer, he felt it was time to put his focus 100 per cent on the Stealth.
“(The NLL) is a big time commitment, and you have overlap (of the NLL and junior league) in the spring,” said Perreault, who has held the Vancouver job for two years, and stood behind New West's bench the past six seasons. “I had a great time coaching in New West, you look back there were a lot of good players and things we accomplished.”
In his final season the team placed tied for third with a 13-7-1 record, and was swept in the first round.
“(New West) is a great place to coach,” he added. “It was just time. The players coming back are a good group and each year there’s a very good feeder system that keeps them competitive.”
During Perreault’s tenure, the team advanced to the B.C. final four times and were Minto Cup finalists twice. His team posted a 95-27-4 regular season record over six seasons.
Also stepping aside were assistants Clay Richardson and Rob Dalzell.
Perreault had guided the team to first place in the B.C. junior A loop in 2014, and finished top-two for three of the previous four seasons.
“We completely respected Dan’s decision, he did a great job for us,” said Weaver.
Joining Stockdale on the bench will be jr. Bellies product Rich Catton. A defensive specialist, Catton spent 15 years in the WLA and 11 in the NLL and has been coaching at various levels in New West minor.
“Rich had more success than I did at the senior level, playing pro and 15 seasons with multiple championships,” noted Stockdale of his defensive coach. “He’s going to bring good knowledge of the program having coached midget A1 and a couple of other teams.”
Stepping right in with a strong roster – including a core of returning veterans – was another thing that agreed with the new coach.
“The team did lose a couple of key players, like Josh Byrne to graduation, but has a lot of returning players. The numbers are good for us to contend (in 2016).”
Also graduating are Alec Bohl, Brandon Clelland, Dane Sorenson, DJ Sarri, Luke Morris, Michael Fintoff and Nathan Stewart.
