{"id":26572,"date":"2020-05-21T14:53:17","date_gmt":"2020-05-21T18:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26572"},"modified":"2020-05-21T14:53:23","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T18:53:23","slug":"a-new-assistant-coach-is-in-town-for-aurora-tigers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/a-new-assistant-coach-is-in-town-for-aurora-tigers\/","title":{"rendered":"A new assistant coach is in Town for Aurora Tigers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Aurora Tigers have kicked off their offseason plans\nwith a bang. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Junior A hockey club has hired former Newfoundland\nGrowlers defenceman Robert Powers, of the East Coast Hockey League, as the\nteam\u2019s new assistant coach this past week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head coach Jim Wells Jr. says the local team was looking\nto bolster defence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause we knew the strength of our current staff, I was\nlooking for somebody who had played the position of defence,\u201d he says. \u201cI was\nlooking for somebody who was university educated and had recently played at the\nuniversity, NCAA level. I was looking for somebody who was also younger.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 25-year-old Powers has spent the past two years in\nthe ECHL. Previously, the Ajax native attended Robert Morris University in Moon\nTownship, Pennsylvania, playing at the NCAA level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Powers, also brings quite the Ontario Junior Hockey\nLeague resume to the table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He spent three years in the OJHL with the Toronto Jr. Canadiens,\nStouffville Spirit and the Toronto Patriots, winning the RBC Cup and the Dudley\nHewitt Cup with the Patriots in 2013-2014. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team owner Jim Thomson says he believes Wells has filled a\nnecessary void within the organization that has been vacant since he purchased\nthe club. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the five years I\u2019ve had the team, I\u2019ve never had a\nguy that actually played pro defence to teach the defenceman,\u201d says Thomson. \u201cI\nbelieve Jim Wells has hit a home run here in bringing in a guy to teach our\ndefenceman how to play like a pro.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomson says being a defenceman is a unique animal and\nyou need someone who has played the position to construct a reputable game plan\nthat will improve the players. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a positive direction for the club, which ranked\n22nd overall in goals against last season, it\u2019s exciting to bring in not only a\nformer pro, but someone who understands the league. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you spent the time he spent in our league going to\na Royal Bank Cup, playing for a great coach in Jason Fortier, the guy knows how\nto play defence and he\u2019s going to know how to relay that at our level to our\ndefence,\u201d Thomson says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choosing someone young was what Wells wanted. He wanted\nsomeone who can come into this team with a different mindset and the\nwillingness to challenge him with a whole new approach on the game plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bringing in a younger defenceman is a healthy approach to\nrecognize the differences within the league in years past and present. Wells is\nadamant on being a flexible coach, not someone stuck in his old ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never want to be a coach that is perceived stuck in\nhis ways and old school. I think you need to be able to; as much as players\nhave to adapt to the coach, the coach has to adapt to the players,\u201d explains\nWells. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the players on the roster also have the same\naspirations as Powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Players want the opportunity to be able to earn\nscholarships and live in the United States to play NCAA. Powers sits at the\nforefront not just in teaching, but with his connections in the NCAA when other\nschools come to recruit players. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Command will remain as the associate coach working on the offence with Wells while Powers moves in to reconstruct the defensive side of the puck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Robert Belardi<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Aurora Tigers have kicked off their offseason plans with a bang. The Junior A hockey club has hired former Newfoundland Growlers defenceman Robert Powers, of the East Coast Hockey League, as the team\u2019s new assistant coach this past week. Head coach Jim Wells Jr. says the local team was looking to bolster defence. \u201cBecause […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/2020-05-21-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6UA","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 01:14:12","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\/26572","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=26572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}