Over the past few weeks, we have been in discussion with a large number of coaches. As Covid-19 has caused delays to starts of the season for some leagues, the silver lining is Thunderbird have been fortunate to secure high level coaches to help us get the season off to a great start. Those marked with an * below are confirmed to be with the team until Christmas break with January onward to be determined based on their own league’s decisions being made later this fall.

Players will see these coaches on the ice starting next week as they lead sessions for different groups over the three scheduled ice times.

U11 (formerly atom)

A1 – HC: Amy de Bree* AC: Josh Henderson
Amy is an Assistant coach with the UBC Women’s Varsity team and has coached the TBirds Atom A1 for 3 seasons prior to moving to UBC. 
Josh is a recent TBird alum and was an assistant coach with a high school team last season working with Amy. 

A2 – HC: Graham Thomas*
Graham is the Head Coach with the UBC Women’s Varsity team and has been coaching in TBirds with his two children for the last couple seasons and has also been a skills instructor for TBirds at camps and in-season. 

A3 – HC: Mike Sommer*
Mike is an Assistant Coach with the UBC Women’s Varsity team and has been a skills lead for TBirds at camps and in-season.

A4 – HC: Graham Millar
Graham is an Assistant Coach with the UBC Men’s Varsity team. He will with the team throughout the season. 

 

U13 (formerly Peewee)

A1 – HC: Phil Greiff
Phil is entering his second season with TBirds with the U13 A1 team.

A2 – HC: Mike Todd   AC: Jens Persson-Thomas
Mike has been coaching with TBirds since 2006 and has coached all levels of rep hockey for us. 
Jens is a TBird alum who is looking forward to returning to the ice with the TBirds.

A3 – HC: Harrison Brown   ACs:Josh Weidman, Jordy Engleson
Harrison returns to the TBirds after a couple years overseas. He coached with us for seven seasons previously, most recently at the U13 A3 level. 
Josh and Jordy are both TBird alum, both playing with us from Hockey 1 through to midget. Jordy has recently concluded a junior career with the Delta Ice Hawks where he played goal for three seasons.

A4 – in discussion
This team may be led by a parent coach but we are in discussion with a couple options to provide assistant coach support. 

 

U15 (formerly Bantam)

A1 – HC: Russ Weber   AC: Jonathan Reilly
Russ is entering his second year as the A1 coach for the TBirds. He has coached all levels in minor hockey to junior b and acted as the BC Hockey High Performance Coordinator for a number of years.
Jonathan has coaching experience with the BC High Performance program, major midget and was a coach with TBirds for four years most recently in 2011.

A2 – HC: Danny Hildebrand   AC: Lucas Hildebrand
Danny is entering his third consecutive year with TBirds U15 program but has coached with us throughout the time his sons were involved. 
Lucas is a TBird alum and has been assisting with the TBirds U15 program for the last three seasons.

A3 – HC: Kirk Star   ACs: Kyle Star, Cam Alder
Kirk has coached from minor hockey to major midget to PJHL and we are excited to have him join TBirds this season. 
Kyle and Cam both played their minor hockey rep career in Langley. Kyle has just graduated from a NCAA hockey program in Minnesota and Cam has most recently been a player/assistant coach with the Ridge Meadows Flames. 

 

U18 (formerly Midget)

A1 – HC: Steven Maisey   AC: Sean O’Brien
Steven is entering his second year as head coach and third with the A1 team. 
Sean has been with the team for the past two seasons. 

A2 – HC: Jason MacCulloch
Jason has been an assistant coach with TBirds for the past three seasons, most recently with the U18 A1 team.