Marc Habscheid is officially back in the Western Hockey League.
After two seasons coaching in Austria, Habscheid was hired by the Red Deer Rebels as the club’s tenth head coach in franchise history during the offseason.
In an interview with The Hockey News, Habscheid says he is excited to be back and to provide some mentorship for players.
“It's awesome. You get to deal with a first-class league and then you deal with young men that are striving to get it to the next level. I look back when I was their age, my dad was the greatest man in the world, but he was a farmer. He didn’t know anything about hockey. We didn’t know a lot of people and I never had an agent. You just don't really have somebody to talk to or get advice from. My dad was great. I always work hard, but as far as the business of hockey and the game itself, he really couldn't help me much. Hopefully I can be that for these kids and help them along the way and give them a little bit of advice based on my experiences.”
After a successful playing career, Habscheid first started coaching in the WHL for the Kamloops Blazers in the 1997-98 season. He would also make stops in Kelowna, Chilliwack, Victoria and Prince Albert during his WHL coaching career.
Habscheid has a winning pedigree on his coaching resume leading the Kelowna Rockets to a title in 2003. He was also behind the bench for Kelowna’s Memorial Cup victory on home ice in 2004. In 2019, he steered the ship for the Prince Albert Raiders helping the franchise capture their second WHL title in franchise history.
Habscheid has already made his return to the Art Hauser Centre and with the Rebels scheduled to take on a B.C. Division road trip later this year, Habscheid will get a chance to return to several markets where he coached.
“That’s the greatest thing.” Habscheid explained. “It’s one thing to lift trophies and that’s what we want, but it’s about experiences and it’s about relationships. It’s about those types of things and that’s what makes it fun. You see old friends, and now when you coach a lot of players, these players have kids in the league now, that’s how old I am.”
“Over in Europe, you basically have one assistant coach a lot of times, and I miss that coach’s room and the banter of it. It’s the closest thing to playing and I’m too old to play, but you still get to banter with the coaches and that’s what makes it a lot of fun as well.”
So far this season, the Rebels have posted a 2-6-0-0 record and sit in ninth place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference.
Speaking after Red Deer’s 5-0 win in Lethbridge last Saturday, Habscheid says there is still a lot of room for growth for the Rebels.
“We're a work in progress and trying to play together, play as a group. Tonight was a good indication of where we're going. We played as good of a team game and togetherness as we played all year, but that takes time. It's built on relationships. It's built on experiences and that doesn't happen overnight. But if you're going to build it right, to me, that's how you do it.”
Make sure you bookmark THN's WHL site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. This article originally appeared on The Hockey News.
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