NAIT’s Men’s Hockey Head Coach Relieved of Duties

By Lauren Jarman

It’s not an April Fool’s joke, on April first it was announced that Ooks men’s hockey coach Terry Ballard has been relieved of his duties.  Ballard had been working with the team for 14 years.  He had a record of 216 wins, 127 losses and 23 ties.

Athletics coordinator Gregg Merropoulis says that his overall record that wasn’t the problem, but his record during playoffs.  Under Ballard the team had 37 wins and 41 losses.  “We’ve gotten close to ACAC Championships, but for a program that’s prided itself with 17 ACAC Championships since the beginning of play back in the ‘70s, we really haven’t got there in the last few years,” says Merropoulis.  The team made the ACAC playoffs this year but was knocked out in the first round in a two game sweep by the Augustana Vikings.

“As the benchmark program in the conference we didn’t think it was living up to our standard that we needed it to so we have an opportunity now to look to change the direction so the decision was made to release Terry.”

A new head coach is just one of the changes Merropoulis would like to see.  He says money needs to be invested in the facilities to keep up with NAIT’s biggest competitor, SAIT that has recently made some major upgrades to its facilities.

Merropoulis says the new head coach will have to be well-rounded.  “We want somebody to engage the community and that was an area we thought needed a little bit of extra work,” he says.  “You have to be able to retract good people so, a recruiter…we need somebody who can recruit from a local and provincial level and get us the athletes that we need.”

A new head coach should be in place by May.

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