The senior B Timbermen have selected their bench boss, and now it’s about surrounding him with a championship-calibre team.
The Nanaimo Timbermen senior B lacrosse club announced this week that Kyle Couling is the new head coach.
Couling had a long playing career in the NLL, played for both the senior B and the senior A Nanaimo Timbermen and coached the junior A Timbermen. He has also been an assistant coach with the senior B Timbermen.
“We’ve got some higher-end players coming in, guys with NLL and senior A experience and we need someone that’s been at that level and Kyle’s obviously had a long-spanning career…” said Shawn Swanson, general manager of the senior B T-men. “I think that he’s the right guy to lead a group of men moving forward.”
Couling said he’s excited about taking on the job in a season that’s “really all about the Presidents Cup.”
Nanaimo has a host berth in the national senior B lacrosse championship in 2018.
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“Getting your name on a trophy at a national level is big motivation and a lot of guys in this town, I think, realize that this is their best opportunity to see a championship, maybe in their career,” Couling said. “That’s what we’re pushing, that’s what we’re using to motivate guys to come out of retirement, guys to come to our team, guys to come back to town from out of town, etc., etc.”
Couling hopes the senior B T-men will be able to play an up-tempo game and surprise opponents that way, and also utilize some different defensive schemes, “and hone those systems and try some things that we’ve never tried before and maybe things that teams haven’t seen in a long time.”
The T-men also announced that Simon Stocks has been named an assistant coach.
Former head coach Mike Maughan is expected to remain with the organization in some capacity.
“We didn’t clean house – for us it’s just a transition to a new lead person and we’ll figure out all the other people from there,” Swanson said. “The Timbermen are a family, not a business, and we’re just restructuring.”
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