(Submitted Photo/Brennan Hall, Carrot River Outback Thunder)

By Ben Tompkins

New Hire

Carrot River Outback Thunder hire Darrell Mann as new Head Coach

Oct 4, 2021 | 12:17 PM

The Carrot River Outback Thunder announced with a heavy heart that Rob Holoien had stepped down as the organization’s head coach due to personal reasons.

The search for a new head coach, however, was short-lived and painless as the Carrot River Outback Thunder were proud to introduce Darrell Mann of Tisdale as the new head coach.

Mann joins the Thunder with decades of coaching experience at various levels, including, but not limited to, U15 AA, U18 AAA, and Junior A, including time in the area with the Melfort Mustangs and Tisdale Trojans. The Thunder said they are very excited to continue the season with an elite-level coach at the helm.

The Thunder also said how Mann’s wealth of knowledge, experience, values, and systems will continue to push their organization to the top where they aim to be. Mann’s resume includes numerous winning seasons and championships to go alongside the experience.

When speaking about his new bench boss, Brennan Hall, general manager of the Thunder, referred back to that experience a lot and truly highlighted how fortunate his organization was to get someone like Mann, especially in such a short time frame.

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“It’s hard to put into words how lucky and grateful we really are. It’s just a really exciting time. As an organization we’re ecstatic to have him, it couldn’t have worked out better and everyone is happy to have him,” said Hall.

“We’re grateful that he was able to come and help us out and make this organization go round and hopefully stay at the top of the league for the year.”

According to Hall, they weren’t the only side of the deal that was more than happy to join together, as the former Mustangs and Trojans head coach was happy to be back, after what seemed to have been his retirement from coaching once the pandemic hit.

“You can just tell, the first day he walked in here, he missed it so much,” said Hall. “He’s so happy to be back coaching again and be on the ice. There’s also less pressure on him in this league, so I think he likes that dynamic. He’s really excited to be here, he really likes the core group of guys that we’ve put together. He’s happy to be back and he’s still close to home. He walked in the first day with a huge smile on his face.”

Despite his two-year break from coaching throughout the pandemic, however, Hall explained that just looking at him would have no indication that he had any time away from the game of hockey.

“He jumped right into it and he didn’t skip a beat. I can’t praise him enough for how he came in here so comfortable, it was like he’s been coaching here for years.”

Hall was also sure to praise Mann’s styles and philosophies. It didn’t matter to him who he was coaching, what league he was coaching in or that he hadn’t coached in this league before, all that mattered was team success.

“He’s there in the moment and he doesn’t care about anything besides helping the players and winning hockey games. It doesn’t matter to him what league or level, he’s here to guide, coach and to win and that’s his philosophy,” said Hall.

Hall was hired just in time for the Thunder’s first regular season game last Friday, October 1, in which they won 4-3 in overtime over the Saskatoon Royals, giving Mann his first-ever Prairie Junior Hockey League (PJHL) victory.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8