{"id":26633,"date":"2020-05-28T19:32:16","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T23:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26633"},"modified":"2020-05-28T19:32:22","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T23:32:22","slug":"robert-powers-excited-to-be-behind-the-tigers-bench","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/robert-powers-excited-to-be-behind-the-tigers-bench\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Powers excited to be behind the Tigers\u2019 bench"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When an athlete retires, you wouldn\u2019t be at fault of\nenvisioning an athlete pushing 40 making an emotional farewell. After all, Peyton\nManning retired in tears in 2016, following an illustrious 18-year career in\npro football. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For athletes, it\u2019s unimaginable to leave the sport they\nlove. For others, the prospect of an early retirement is a harsh reality. But,\nthere\u2019s always a reason to retire, most of the time due to injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a rare case, 25-year-old and former ECHL defenceman\nfor the Newfoundland Growlers, Robert Powers just knew it was his time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were certain, little details that just led me to\nbelieve that, it\u2019s my time,\u201d says Powers, the incoming assistant coach for the\nAurora Tigers. \u201cIt\u2019s a little easier knowing that I\u2019m coaching and that I\u2019m in\nthe game still.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Powers felt he had reached the apex of his hockey career.\nThe Ajax native, has seemingly wanted to coach for some time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Powers is no stranger to the Ontario Junior Hockey League,\nhis four-year career awash in multiple championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He won the Frank L. Buckland Cup in 2011-2012 with the\nStouffville Spirit and won the Buckland Cup again and the Dudley Hewitt Cup\nwith the Toronto Lakeshore Patriots in the 2013-2014 season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there is definitely an advantage of having\nplayed in the league, especially, offering advice to players. I\u2019ve been in\ntheir shoes, I\u2019ve been in the league. I\u2019ve been in the same division even.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to give these players knowledge that I have now\nthat I wish I had in junior.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Powers acknowledges this is a transition. This is going\nto be something new and he is willing to learn every aspect of what it means to\nbe a coach. The league is different now than when he used to play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he called head coach Jim Wells Jr. and candidly\nspoke of his coaching aspirations, Wells was left ecstatic. He wanted a young\ncoach and he got one. The young coach is incredibly thankful for the\nopportunity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why the Tigers? Of all teams to enter the league as a\ncoach, Powers says the Tigers is one of the premier organizations in the\nleague. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve always been one of the premier organizations in\nthe league,\u201d he says. \u201cThey still are. Everyone has an off year. You\u2019re not\ngoing to judge a whole organization by the number of wins from last year\u2019s\nseason. I know, from when I was in the league, it was a really tough place to\nplay.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aurora Tigers finished 22nd<\/sup> in goals\nagainst last year. Powers will be handling the defensive side of the puck and\nwill be looking to change that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says, he wants to nurture mobile, puck-moving defencemen.\nHe says you have got to be able to make plays because the more you do, the more\nscouts and coaches will eye you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having been down the route from the OJHL to the NCAA,\nPowers went off to Robert Morris University to play hockey. Many players have\nthe same aspirations as he does and he knows what coaches look for in players.\nHe can teach his team what it takes to reach that level of scholarship and\nplaying at a highly-competitive level with one simple notion to abide by. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTake what you do well and do it better than everybody\nelse on the ice, because that\u2019s what\u2019s going to get you somewhere,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Off of the ice, Powers is a man who prides himself on\nhelping others and giving back. At Robert Morris University, he began food\ndrive programs and helped raise money to purchase extra school supplies. He\nhelped minor hockey teams in the area raise money and offer free tickets to\nuniversity games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is a huge sports fan, especially now that he is older.\nHe loves to play golf and be active in his local community. Sports is his\npassion \u2013 as well as currently, raising two, five-month old puppies with his\ngirlfriend Amanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He believes in setting an example. It\u2019s what he wants to show the players. Being looked up to and setting a prestigious image off the ice is just as important as on the ice. He\u2019s going to bring everything he has to the Aurora Tigers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

When an athlete retires, you wouldn\u2019t be at fault of envisioning an athlete pushing 40 making an emotional farewell. After all, Peyton Manning retired in tears in 2016, following an illustrious 18-year career in pro football. For athletes, it\u2019s unimaginable to leave the sport they love. For others, the prospect of an early retirement is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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-26633","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\/p3D2k4-6Vz","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 05:18:08","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\/26633","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=26633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}