The Huntsville Junior C Hawks have a new coaching team and hope to turn around their losing season. The Hawks have only won one of their first eight games under coach Don Monahan who was released Wednesday, May 31.
Karl Carnduff made it official Wednesday night when he met with the players for the first time at practice at the Jack Bionda arena. Joining Carnduff on the coaching team are veteran players Caleb MacKay and Colin Boucher.
Carnduff is no stranger to many of the players having coached everything from Tyke to Senior in Orillia and Huntsville. He also played five years at the Junior B level in Huntsville and five years at Senior B with teams in Huntsville, Orillia and Owen Sound. He has also played in the Masters league for the last 16 years.
Team president Jocelyn Knox said the executive made the decision after seeing diminishing team morale.
“That was the reason for the change,” said Knox, “not the one and seven record. Decreased attendance of players in the last couple of weeks leads to frustration for the coaching staff which leads to frustration and disorganization on the floor during games. It was a downward spiral gaining momentum.”
Knox was quick to explain that there was no animosity in the decision and the executive is grateful for Don Monahan taking on the job just before the season began.
“He helped us through a very rough time,” she said. “In the spring we were two days away from declaring to the league that we would not have a junior team this year as we did not have a coaching staff. Then coach Monahan agreed to take the position. Today (Wednesday) I spoke to Don and it was a very amicable parting of ways.”
Carnduff will be assisted by Caleb MacKay who has coached in the minor and junior system with Huntsville over the past five years and presently plays with the Masters league.
Colin Boucher has also agreed to be a volunteer coach assisting in practices. Boucher played his minor lacrosse in Huntsville and then moved to Barrie and Orillia for Junior A lacrosse. He also played Senior B in Huntsville, in the Canadian Lacrosse League and the National Lacrosse League. He won two Mann Cup rings with Six Nations.
Carnduff is not expecting things to change overnight, although thinks the Hawks can play better than they have been. He is very aware the team lost six graduating players from last year and that this is a rebuilding year.
We are going to try and get things turned around a bit and see if we can get everyone on the same page. One and seven is not good. You don’t want to lose people; you want people to play for something. Nothing worse than losing so we are going to turn it around, start from scratch and see what happens.Coach Carl Carnduff
“We are playing for the future,” Carnduff went on. “There are a lot of young guys here. They get discouraged and they quit. We don’t want that. We have to be positive and that starts with me.”
The Hawks play their first game under coach Carnduff on Friday in Peterborough and then home Saturday against Barrie.
Don’t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free newsletter here.
Join the discussion: