Carrot River Outback;s president, Parry Williams, left, with new hires head coach Brian Noad, in the middle, and Dean Hardie, general manager on the right. (Photo courtesy/Carrot River Outback Thunder, Facebook)

By Ben Tompkins

Carrot River Outback Thunder

New head coach ready to reach the promised land

Aug 4, 2022 | 5:00 PM

The Carrot River Outback Thunder will be heading into the new season with a different head coach at the helm.

Back in mid-June, the team hired Brian Noad as their new head coach and vice president of Hockey Operations.

They also hired Dean Hardie as their new general manager after Brennan Hall stepped down and took a position with the Delisle Chiefs.

Last year’s head coach, Darrell Mann also stepped down after taking a job with the U18 AAA Yorkton Maulers to become their new bench boss.

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For the Outback Thunder, it will be a new season with lots of turnover, however, they are getting a leader with 37 years of coaching experience.

“Everybody being new is kind of a good thing,” said Noad. “There’s no bad habits that are gonna carry forward. Players have to follow systems and we’ll be successful. I’m hoping that everybody will buy in and we’ll be a disciplined team with good puck possession. That’ll bring us back to where we want to be.”

Noad’s coaching years have helped the likes of a handful of NHL players, such as Trevor Daly, Raffi Torres and Dominic Moore.

He told northeastNOW he hopes to use these experiences to bring this team to the promised land.

“I think we got a good nucleus. Hoping that we create a well-rounded team and make a real bid for the first place. My expectations are that we’re going to be the top two. I brought four players from the Junior A league that I coached last year, so I think we’ll be okay.”

According to him, the solid foundation this team is built on, along with the group itself and the league it competes in are just some of the reasons he chose to leave Drayton Valley and make the trip to Carrot River.

“I really like the league, I think it’s run really well and the teams are all competitive. For the coaching side, you don’t want to win 13-nothing, you want to win three-two, four-two type games. This league offers that, it’s a well-organized group and I’m looking forward to the new challenge.”

As for Hardie, he will also have a new input on this team, as they transition into a new and different period of their history.

One of the things that stood out for him was how like-minded the two were in their vision for this club.

“We had conversations and his (Brian Noad) outlook on hockey is very similar to ours,” said Hardie. “We think that we have a great future for our season this year with him behind the bench and we’re very excited to have him join our team.”

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8