{"id":9107,"date":"2014-11-26T21:45:46","date_gmt":"2014-11-27T02:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=9107"},"modified":"2014-12-10T13:51:14","modified_gmt":"2014-12-10T18:51:14","slug":"9107","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/9107\/","title":{"rendered":"Local coach hangs up the whistle after seven seasons on the rink"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

While many local hockey mentors fly under the radar, Coach Darren Slind had an influence on those around him that his management team could not let go unnoticed.<\/p>\n

After a decade in coaching minor hockey in Aurora, and a lifetime in the Aurora Minor Hockey Association, Slind has coached his last game and run his last practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you Coach Darren for teaching our players about fair, honest play,\u201d said Laura Pitre, who worked as manager on the teams Slind coached. \u201cWe will miss the sound of your whistle.\u201d<\/p>\n

His first position behind the bench came as a trainer, working with his older son\u2019s team for three or four seasons.<\/p>\n

Having some coaching experience under his belt, Slind took the reigns as a head coach with his younger son Dalton when he was playing Tyke house league.<\/p>\n

\u201cI surrounded myself with some really outstanding hockey people that helped with the roles of trainer or assistant coach,\u201d said Slind. \u201cIt made the new experience fun and a lot easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

The feedback from players, parents, and other coaches that first year was positive, prompting Slind to continue his role as a head coach and progress with his son through the minor hockey age groups.<\/p>\n

Slind\u2019s decision to hang up his whistle coincided with Dalton\u2019s decision to hang up his skates, after seven seasons as a head coach and a decade in total working in Aurora minor hockey.<\/p>\n

His favourite moment behind the bench came in his son\u2019s PeeWee year, when they were able to take a tournament win back to Aurora.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to represent Aurora in that setting was so exciting,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen the kids work so hard, and begin to implement the skills you\u2019ve been teaching them at that kind of setting, it was pretty remarkable to see how happy they were.\u201d<\/p>\n

The time Slind spent as a coach was a proper fit to cap off his hockey days, after he had grown up playing in his hometown Aurora.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved the opportunity to give to my community, in a meaningful way,\u201d said Slind. \u201cSo a lot of it was a need to give back.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recalled playing for Lowell McClenny, former President of the AMHA, who had a positive influence on Slind\u2019s hockey experience.<\/p>\n

In turn, Slind wanted the opportunity to influence and shape players not only as athletes, but as stand-up young men and young women.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy coaching philosophy was much more around the development of the whole person, and your obligations as being a member of a team. It\u2019s not an individual sport, it\u2019s a team sport, and that comes with responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

These were the messages that Slind and his coaching staff tried to, and were successful in, instilling in their players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see these life skills as applicable outside of a hockey career, whether you go into the corporate world, or academia, or anything really.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte While many local hockey mentors fly under the radar, Coach Darren Slind had an influence on those around him that his management team could not let go unnoticed. After a decade in coaching minor hockey in Aurora, and a lifetime in the Aurora Minor Hockey Association, Slind has coached his last game […]<\/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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3D2k4-9107","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 16:20:28","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\/9107","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=9107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}