A Red Deer hockey coach will be behind the bench for Team Alberta at this year’s National Women’s U18 Championship.
Bob Rutz, 46, will be the assistant coach for Team Alberta at the national tournament in Quebec City from Nov. 1-5.
“I’m pretty excited about it,” said Rutz, who is a Grade 6 teacher at Eastview Middle School. “It’s an opportunity for me to work with the best players in the province and an opportunity for me to learn from the other coaches and the program.”
Rutz coaches the AAA midget Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs of the Alberta Female Hockey League. He is also a former coach of the Red Deer College Queens and has coached in the Alberta Challenge and Alberta Cup.
After applying at the beginning of the year, Rutz was told he would be an assistant coach for Team Alberta in March.
“It’s been an outstanding experience so far,” he said. “It’s not like it’s been just a weekend of commitment, we’re in for the long haul. But I’ve learned a ton and enjoyed every minute of it.”
Since he was named assistant coach there has been spring, summer and fall camps to determine which players from around the province would make the team.
Even though no Red Deer players made Team Alberta, there were four players from the Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs who definitely turned some heads, said Rutz.
“The camps were a great experience for those players,” said Rutz. “It’s a really hard team to make and hopefully I can pass on some knowledge to players on what they can do to make the team in the future.”
Rutz said he plans on taking what he has learned with Team Alberta and use it to help Red Deer’s players improve.
“I want to focus my efforts on building the best program we can in Red Deer,” he said, adding he would like to coach for Team Alberta again if given the chance.
It’s too hard to say how well the team will do at the national tournament, Rutz added.
“It’s a really good group,” he said. “We have great skaters, we’re skilled up front and we have great goaltending.”
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter