UNews - the Stanley Cup

Peters joins Babcock with Wings

trevor.kenney — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:24:05 +0000

Former ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns men's hockey coaches are reuniting in the National Hockey League.

Bill Peters, a Horns coach from 2002 to 2005, will serve as an assistant coach with Mike Babcock after the Detroit Red Wings announced his appointment on Friday. Babcock coached the Horns in 1994, guiding the team to its only ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Cup title.

The two were linked previously as Peters was Babcock's assistant coach with the Western Hockey League's Spokane Chiefs. Peters joined Babcock's Spokane staff during the 1996-97 season and returned to the same post in 1999 – Babcock's final season with the Chiefs – where he stayed until joining the Horns.

Peters spent three seasons with the Horns from 2002 through 2005, guiding the team to a 17-59-8 record and one post-season appearance. In 2005 he returned to the Chiefs, eventually leading Spokane to a Memorial Cup title in 2008, the same season that Babcock and the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup.

Most recently, Peters was the head coach with the Rockford IceHogs in the American Hockey League. He was the longest tenured coach in IceHogs history, spending three seasons behind the bench while compiling a record of 122-97-7-14. The Three Hills, Alta. native guided the Hogs to a winning season during every campaign he coached in Rockford.

Babcock brings Olympic moment home

trevor.kenney — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:53:26 +0000

To hear Mike Babcock tell the story, he's been extremely fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. Another way to look at it is because of Babcock's presence, it became the right time.

Babcock, a self-professed dreamer and one of hockey's most accomplished coaches, shared his philosophy on coaching and on life at the 1st Annual Calgary Alumni & Friends Dinner in early March. He says it's no accident that good things come from people who think big.

"I'm a big believer that if you don't dream, you cap your potential. I'm 46 now but I haven't stopped dreaming," says Babcock. "To me, the greatest part about living is that you are in charge of that dream, you're not in bed at night with your eyes closed, you're actually living that dream, you can make a difference in that dream and you can decide where it's going to go."

Babcock, who coached the 1993-94 ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns men's hockey team to the institution's first national championship, has gone on to experience success at every level. He recently led the Canadian Men's Olympic Hockey Team to a gold medal at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Along the way he's won a World Junior title, a Men's World Championship gold medal and a Stanley Cup, and yet he consistently refers to the U of L triumph as one of his most satisfying accomplishments.

"I still look at that ring fondly," he says.

Then, while showing the packed ballroom at The Westin Calgary a picture of himself enjoying a Stanley Cup celebration with the Detroit Red Wings, he adds, "When I look at that picture, if you think that was any more exciting at the time than winning that national championship at the U of L, you're mistaken, it's just all what you're prepared for at that time in your life."

If Babcock is anything, he is true to his roots. When speaking about building relationships he is honest and genuine, and is eager to share his successes.

"What he preaches he believes," says Trevor Ellerman (BMgt '94), a forward from the 1993-94 championship team. "I've talked to him every couple of years since then and what he's saying he absolutely believes, and when you call him up and you need something, he goes out of his way to make it happen."

Babcock is the first to admit he's not a polished public speaker, saying he's much more comfortable talking to 20 players in a dressing room setting. That seemed to endear him even more to the 450-plus people at the event. His stories of interacting with Canada's Olympic heroes, both on and off the ice, took everyone inside the experience, but he was quick to bring the star gazing into perspective.

"Every once in a while, in life you don't know why you are blessed, you don't know why you have an opportunity to go to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and set yourself up for the future or why your kids are healthy or why someone just reached out and touched you," says Babcock. "Sometimes I don't even know what I do, I've just been really fortunate."

Understanding he has the ability to influence change, he looks to use his celebrity in a positive way.

"I tell our players every day, we have a chance, with the notoriety we've been given, with the game, to make a difference in the world," says Babcock. "It's an amazing thing if you're willing to step up and make a difference and to me that's what dreaming is all about."

Concluding his presentation with a photo of himself hoisting the Stanley Cup, flanked by his family on a dock at his lakeside summer residence in Saskatchewan, Babcock summarized his philosophy.

"The thing I think is really important is that unless you have someone to share these things with, it doesn't much matter," he says.

"In the end, that's what it is about," he continues. "The things that are special for Mike Babcock about being from western Canada are these things, grassroots things, being around real people, trying to make a difference, standing up for what you believe in, sharing yourself and building relationships, so you have someone to talk to as you get older."

BABCOCK QUOTES

• On campaigning for the Olympic head coaching position with Red Wings vice-president Steve Yzerman, the Olympic team general manager. "I wanted to be the coach of this team and I made it very clear to Steve Yzerman. I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing because when you work with a guy, sometimes, it's kind of like your wife, she knows you pretty well and she doesn't like you sometimes."

• On why Canada's Olympic team members are successful. "Everyone thinks they're the best because of their skill level but the real super, super, superstars in the game are great because of soul. They've got something more than everybody else, they've got a way to reach out and make the people around them better, they've got something they dig down and get when it matters, they get on their toes and go after people and they do it night after night."

• On the strength of family to the Olympic players. "They've got something special about them and then when you meet their parents and their families at these tournaments, it's not hard to figure out why they are so successful, because they surround themselves with great people and their parents have built a fantastic foundation for them."

• On the Olympic village. "To sit in the village and to watch the athletes come in, some absolutely elated and some absolutely crushed, it was an experience I'll never forget. Just being around passionate people fired up about their country, I thought was truly inspiring to our players."

• On Sidney Crosby, who scored the Olympic winning goal for Canada. "I can't even imagine, at 22 years of age, the amount of pressure this kid is under, but he was fantastic and he delivered for us."

• On being a proud Canadian. "Winning was unbelievable but the bringing together of Canadians and Canadians showing their pride was something that will always stand out for me."

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."

UNews - the Stanley Cup

Peters joins Babcock with Wings

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Babcock brings Olympic moment home

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Well-grounded, well-rounded

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