“It has to be fun.”
With that, former Cochrane Generals head coach Dana Boothby summed up his seven years (six as head coach, one as assistant to Ken Soloski) behind the bench.
The Heritage Junior Hockey League team honoured their newly-retired coach in a pre-game ceremony at the team’s home-opener Sept. 27 at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre.
Following the ceremony, where he was presented with a team sweater, Boothby watched from ice level at the corner boards as youngest son Reed and the rest of the Generals edged Red Deer Vipers 3-2. A somewhat different view compared to the last seven years, where he manned the bench and watched all three sons, Tanner, Riley and Reed, play for the Junior B hockey club.
“It’s been a fun ride,” Boothby said. “It’s fun coaching. There’s only one thing better than coaching, and that’s playing.”
The condensed stats-line for his head-coaching career shows a 156-64-10 regular-season record, a 43-38 playoff record and two league championships.
But it’s more than just stats.
“It’s a great environment. Cochrane has a lot of talent and it shows. You give them a good environment they’ll come out and it’s pretty entertaining hockey. For 5 bucks, I don’t think you can beat it anywhere,” Boothby observed.
“It takes a lot of volunteers to keep it going. I was just a piece of that. There are a whole bunch of other people behind the scenes who make it all work as well. I was fortunate to be right in the loop inside all the action. And it’s great. Best seat in the house.”
With all that hockey over the years, you’d think it would be tough to pick just one highlight.
Not for coach Boothby.
“It was our first league championship (2008). Stettler was the shoo-in to win. They didn’t lose a home game all season long. We won our two home games, they won their two home games in a best-of-five in the finals,” Boothby recalled. The Generals had to win the fifth, and deciding, game in a rink the home team had not lost in all season.
“That was their first loss at home all year long, to lose the championship and give us our first league championship.
“They had their rooms booked and their buses booked to go to provincials and we beat them in their barn. I can’t say enough about our guys’ effort.
“It was unbelievable.”
