A familiar face has taken over as the new bench boss for the Red Deer Vipers for the upcoming Heritage Junior B Hockey League (HJHL) season.
Fred Jones, who has coached in Red Deer Minor Hockey for the last 10 years and is a former Viper, will take the reigns as the new head coach. He has also agreed to coach beyond this season.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Jones said he was thankful for the opportunity and that his passion for coaching runs deep.
“I love the game, I love being around the rink. I know most of these kids, I’ve watched them grow up and I’ve been helping them with their progress as well moving forward in the past,” Jones said. “I just enjoy the time spent teaching, helping, being a mentor for the kids.”
Joining him as assistant coaches are Reo Lajeunesse and Brody Kalinowski.
He will take over for former head coach Kyle Scott who coached the team the last two years and resigned this offseason as well as assistant coaches Al Brown and Canon Whitbread. Last season Red Deer finished second in the northern division at 25-8-3.
Jones’ goal for the upcoming season is to put the best team on the ice and to give every player an opportunity to be their best on the ice.
Through his past coaching jobs, he said he’s learned a lot at all different levels. He wants to create an environment where the players want to come in every day.
“Me being passionate and us putting the time in that’s the same thing I demand of the boys,” Jones said.
”I need them to be here to be committed to the systems that we’re going to put in place here and we all have to pull on the same strings. We need to believe in each other all the way through so that’s my big philosophy is just making sure we’re all pulling together for the end goal.”
Vipers GM Dale Scott added he’s known Jones for years and the new Vipers bench boss even coached his son at one time. He hired him because he’s familiar with his coaching style and is a great communicator, which he said is the number one asset you need in today’s coaching with young men.
“Fred is phenomenal at that and as he said he’s very passionate and enthusiastic about coaching, he brings that energy which will spill over to our players, and our management staff,” Scott said.
“He’s also from Red Deer, which as I mentioned we’re a Red Deer product we want to you know whether it’s players or coaches or management It’s important that we have the Red Deer homegrown aspect of it as well.”