The junior A Nanaimo Timbermen hope a new head coach will help them reach new heights.
The city's B.C. Junior A Lacrosse League club announced Wednesday that Kyle Couling has been named the team's new coach.
"He's the kind of guy who's been there, done it, won at every level," said Chris Bowman, director of lacrosse operations for the Timbermen.
Couling played more than 100 games in the National Lacrosse League and most recently played and coached with the Acme Painting Timbermen senior B squad.
"Coaching with your friends and teammates isn't really effective…" Couling said. "I love lacrosse and I want to be involved in it and the opportunity to coach a junior A team is pretty big."
He said he's played for some highly successful coaches, and he can apply what he's learned from them over the years.
"I know what's worked with myself and seen what's worked. I've got a lot of different ideas," he said.
Couling favours a hard-nosed, high-pressure style of lacrosse with a free-flowing, creative offence, he said. In the coming weeks he'll look more closely at the roster, but basically, training camp will be a fresh start for the junior Timbermen players and coaches.
"Not knowing anybody gives me, I think, an opportunity to pick the team that I want to have, the guys that I want to run with – not based on their prior experience, but what they show up [with] and show me…" Couling said. "Everybody's got equal footing."
Bowman said the club has drafted well in recent years and said management is continuing to try to strengthen the roster to give the team every chance to make the playoffs in the tough BCJALL.
"It's not just an Island team," Bowman said. "We want the local kids, but we are looking back east, too, to increase that talent pool because I think we need to do that to compete at the highest level."
Nanaimo finished in fifth place in the eight-team league last season with an 8-12-1 record under coach Ken Morrison. The junior A club is in talks with Morrison about another role in the organization.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com
#TBT: Team captain Kyle Couling models the @Tmenlax jersey in 2005, now coach of the Jr. A T-men in 2015… pic.twitter.com/g1ki9A7c3T
— Greg Sakaki (@BulletinSports) January 15, 2015