{"id":17067,"date":"2017-04-19T17:13:24","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T21:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17067"},"modified":"2017-04-19T17:13:44","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T21:13:44","slug":"aurora-tigers-name-new-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-tigers-name-new-head-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora Tigers name new head coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Aurora Tigers are hoping they have finally found the guy to right their ship.
\nVince Bellissimo was named the new head coach of the Junior A club this month, bringing with him a wealth of experience as both a player and an executive.
\nHis contribution to the OJHL began as a player in its predecessor, the OPJHL, splitting three seasons between the Caledon Canadians and St. Michael\u2019s Buzzers between 1998-2001.
\nAfter three successful seasons with the NCAA\u2019s Western Michigan Broncos, Bellissimo spent the next seven jumping around North American and European professional leagues, meeting Tigers owner Jim Thomson along the way.
\nHe was also a fifth round draft pick of the Florida Panthers in 2002.
\nMost recently, he coached at the AAA level of the Greater Toronto Hockey League, where his 2000 Toronto Red Wings team\u2019s success got him and Thomson talking.
\n\u201cI had spoken to him last year about coaching as he was aware of the things we had done with the 2000 Red Wings,\u201d said Bellissimo. \u201cI was a little late in speaking with him last year and they were set to go in a different direction. This year Jim called, as they again had a vacancy. My interview with Jim and (General Manager) Dermot Anderson went well and here we are.\u201d
\nBellissimo was also the development coach for the Buzzers in the 2015-16 season.
\nThe Tigers, who finished third last in the OJHL last season with a record of 9-39-2-4, are at the lowest point of a rebuilding franchise. Bellissimo doesn\u2019t try to paint a pretty picture of the situation, saying that \u201ca lot has to change.\u201d
\n\u201cIn rebuilding the roster and the culture, we need to start from the ground up,\u201d said Bellissimo. \u201cWe can\u2019t afford to be satisfied in any area at this point.\u201d
\nBellissimo is the third head coach of the franchise in under a year, replacing Brian Perrin after a four-day vacancy in the position. Perrin took over from rookie Nikita Poliakov early in the 2016-17 season after a dismal start.
\nAs for the present, with a roster undoubtedly set for a large turnaround like any junior franchise, Bellissimo says he will take things \u201cone day at a time.\u201d
\n\u201cOur primary focus right now is on rookie camp and the types of players and the type of character people that we are trying to bring in. We need people who want to be here, who want to compete and get themselves to the next level. We will have a very competitive environment at main camp as nobody is guaranteed anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Registration for development camp is already open for the 2017-18 season, available at www.auroratigers.pointstreaksites.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Aurora Tigers are hoping they have finally found the guy to right their ship.
\nVince Bellissimo was named the new head coach of the Junior A club this month, bringing with him a wealth of experience as both a player and an executive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4rh","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 03:22:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}