UNews - American Hockey League

Peters maintains connection with Horns

trevor.kenney — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:48:40 +0000

When Bill Peters left the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns after the 2004-05 season to return to the Western Hockey League, he saw it as a graduation. Given his continued connection with the men's hockey program, he could easily be considered a U of L alum.

It wasn't surprising then, that when the National Hockey League locked out its players and shut down professional rinks across North America, Peters made his way back to Lethbridge to assist the program that gave him his first opportunity as a head coach.

"It was a good learning experience for me," says Peters of his run as head coach with the Pronghorns from 2002-03 through 2004-05. "It was my first time as a head coach, coming from Spokane as an assistant, and I was here for three years and I really enjoyed my time. It was a good situation for me and that phase of my development as a coach, but I worked with and for good people and that's always important."

The Pronghorns men's hockey team may be taking its lumps this season, but former Horns coach Bill Peters sees the beginnings of a solid future.

The connection to people and the relationships cultivated are what ties Peters to the program today. Now an assistant coach with the NHL's Detroit Red Wings (working with another former Horns coach in Mike Babcock), Peters regularly speaks with current head coach Greg Gatto. It was Gatto who headed to Detroit late last season to spend a weekend with the Red Wings, watching practice and film sessions and gaining the kind of knowledge you can only glean from true professionals.

"We kept talking this fall and he asked what I was doing to keep busy and if I'd like to come up to Lethbridge," says Peters. "This was an opportunity with their bye week to come up and spend some time with the team, and I think it's been as good for me as it was for them."

Peters ran practices, led film sessions, instituted Red Wings philosophies on power play and breakout situations and more than anything, worked the club at a high tempo. While the dividends of his visit have yet to show in the results column, the experience is another valuable building block in establishing the Pronghorns program and a level of expectation.

"I like the group that Greg has here, they worked very hard for me," says Peters of a squad that has just one win on the season but is one of the least experienced rosters in Canada West.

"These guys don't know each other as well as they are going to in years three and four, obviously, and chemistry plays a huge part of it, consistency in the culture of your program and what's expected."

Peters is consistent with that message and it has taken him all the way to the NHL. He understands struggle, winning only four and three games respectively his final two seasons with the Horns. But he believed in his ideals and parlayed that into success both at the WHL and American Hockey League levels.

"When you have tough times, it forces you to dig deep and reflect and to try and get better," he says. "You're always asking your players to get better, so as a coach, you have to continue to evolve and get better as well.

"I was fortunate, we didn't have as much success on the ice as we'd have liked but I had some great kids to work with. Ryan Epp, Chad Kletzel, Billy Katelnikoff, Andy Houthuys, they're good people. It would have been nice to get some more wins but they're quality men."

That was in evidence over the course of Peters' week in town, as he also skated with the Catholic Central Hockey Academy and was assisted by Houthuys. Epp, Kletzel and Katelnikoff have all coached in the minor hockey ranks as well since their playing days with the Horns.

What's next for Peters, when and if the NHL returns to the ice, is a desire to become a head coach again, this time on the biggest stage.

"For sure, most people want to be a head coach and most people want to coach at the highest level and for me that's the natural step," says Peters. "I enjoy being a head coach and for me to become a head coach in the national league, I need some NHL experience and I'm getting it in a good organization right now."

Having had it all start at the U of L is something Peters will never forget. So, while he may not have the parchment, it's apparent he'll gladly play the role of an alumnus and ambassador wherever he goes.

This story first appeared in the December 2012 issue of the Legend. For a look at the entire issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Well-grounded, well-rounded

trevor.kenney — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:10:44 +0000

We think we know Mike Babcock by who we see on our television screens. He comes off as a steely-eyed competitor, a taskmaster who pushes and prods his players to strive for an on-ice perfection that, by the nature of the game, is unattainable. In the end, we see a hockey coach and a man who has won at virtually every level of the sport – a champion.

That Mike Babcock is for public consumption. He is the button-down, blazer-wearing Stanley Cup champion and coach of Canada's 2010 Canadian Olympic Men's Hockey Team. He is just a sliver of the true Mike Babcock. For as much as Babcock strives to be at the pinnacle of his sport, his upbringing and family values tell him that true success is measured off the ice.

"My wife always laughs — she sees me wearing a suit behind the bench and wonders who that is because I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt and ball hat most of the summer; I'm just like everybody else," says Babcock. "It's just that when people see me, they have me in that different light – my kids don't know who that guy is, either."

That guy is the one who never saw himself as a hockey coach but rather an academic and educator. He's the guy who resurrected a seemingly stalled coaching career by rejuvenating an on-the-ropes hockey program at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and guided the Pronghorns to an unlikely 1994 national title.

"I never dreamed I was going to be a coach in the first place. I thought I was going to be in the college world the rest of my life. I thought I'd go on and get a PhD and teach," says Babcock, who has an undergraduate education degree and graduate degree in sports psychology from McGill ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. "I liked being in the college environment. I thought it'd be a great job to be around young, excited people getting better and going places. I thought I'd always be a part of that."

After previously taking Red Deer College to a national final, Babcock accepted a coaching challenge at the U of L. The 1993-94 Pronghorns were not considered a championship contender. The program itself was in trouble and faced the prospect of being cut from the U of L athletic landscape. The Horns had never made the playoffs or even finished a season above the .500 mark.

"When I came to the U of L I had a pretty strong belief in how I thought hockey should be played and what we needed to do to have success; we instilled that from day one," says Babcock.

"I believe there's a right way to play the game and there's a right way to approach life, and I tell that to my kids all the time. I'm not a very cautious person; I'm not a very careful person. I believe in living and getting the most out of every day, and I believe that's also how you play the game."

It's a philosophy that has stood the test of time. Following his one-year stint with the Horns, Babcock guided the Spokane Chiefs for six seasons, twice advancing to the WHL championship series. In 1997, he led Canada to a World Junior Championship gold medal. Two years later, after a brief stop in the American Hockey League, he was coaching the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in the National Hockey League. In his first season he took the Ducks to the Stanley Cup final and in the five years since, he's been to two more Cup finals with the Detroit Red Wings, capturing hockey's Holy Grail in 2007-08.

"You have to get better each and every year if you're going to be successful in all walks of life," he says. "It's all about lifelong learning. The things I did at the U of L, technically I might not do anymore, but believing in people and getting them to work hard, to commit to one another and to the team are exactly the same things we talk about today in Detroit."

With the 2010 Olympic opportunity just around the bend, Babcock's approach will not vary. Why would it?

"What a great thing, eh? I'm excited like you can't believe. It's a dream come true to have the chance to be an Olympian," Babcock says, relishing the expectations of, and pressure from, a nation of rabid hockey fans.

"The reason we have expectations is because we have a chance. The tournament now is going to be closer than it's ever been, everybody has a chance to win; we're just big believers that we're going to find a way to get it done. I don't know exactly how we're going to do that, I just know we are."

It's been 15 years since Babcock guided the U of L Horns to that national title, and while everything around him has changed, he still sees himself essentially as the man he was in the fall of 1993, hunting in the foothills every day following practice, looking after his family and striving to be a better person and coach.

"I've always been a little fearful of not being good enough, so that gives me a little bit of drive to try and be better," says Babcock.

Born in Manitouwadge, Ont., Babcock spent much of his childhood in the Northwest Territories, where his father worked as a mining engineer. When Babcock was 12, his family moved to Saskatoon, Sask., where his father still lives today. In the off-season, it's also the area where Babcock, his wife and three children call home.

"I want my kids to be grounded," says Babcock. "My kids are growing up different than I did, but in saying that, we're hoping to raise really good people who are confident and who are going to be difference-makers in the world. That's how my mom spoke to me, and that's how I speak to my kids."

He lost his mother to cancer in 1992, but the lessons she taught still resonate with him today. They are part of the values with which he raises his family and that he also takes to the rink.

"I always say I learned to work hard from my dad, and I learned to talk to people from my mom," says Babcock.

His growth as a coach has garnered the respect of the hockey world and allowed him to work with the most talented players and personalities in the game. Still, despite his rise in professional status, he manages to stay true to the principles by which he was raised.

"It's been a work in progress, and I like to think that I keep getting better, and I'm going to be a better coach next year than I was last year," says Babcock. "You have to be in a constant stage of development if you want to be the best you can be.

"Am I still the same person? I'd sure like to think so. I tell people all the time, the measure of me as a man isn't going to be about the number of games I win, it's going to be about the family I raise."

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Peters maintains connection with Horns

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