Holmen won multiple team awards this past season including MVP, and Fan Favourite. (Facebook/Carrot River Outback Thunder)

By Mat Barrett

Sticking Around

From between the pipes to behind the bench: Holmen hired by Thunder as associate coach

Aug 21, 2019 | 12:03 PM

The Carrot River Outback Thunder didn’t have to look far to find an associate coach to work under Head Coach Luke Folk for the 2019/2020 season.

The Prairie Junior Hockey League squad has hired longtime goalie, and Carrot River native Kolten Holmen to be on the staff for the coming season. Holmen said coaching has always been something he thought about doing.

“It’s something where, now that I’m done with junior hockey, I want to stay within the game and bring that back to Carrot River again,” Holmen said.

The now 22-year-old isn’t completely new to coaching, having helped with some minor hockey in the area before.

On the ice, Holmen spent parts of seven seasons with the Thunder, starting in his Grade 10 season where he played just three games. He played two during his Grade 11 season before joining the team full time for the 2014/2015 season. In total, the hometown kid played 132 games with the Thunder, winning 43, and compiling six shutouts as well. In the 2018/2019 season, Holmen was also named to the Bob Dvbig Division All-Star Team as the goalie.

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Once the season came to a close, there was some chatter amongst the staff and Holmen about what the future had in store, leading to him joining the staff.

“At the end of the year, I talked to Luke and they kind of asked me at the end of the year what my plans for the fall would be and I wasn’t quite sure at the time,” Holmen told northeastNOW. “They asked if I was going to be sticking around, if I would like to help coach, so it kind of came up at the end of the year there.”

Holmen also won numerous awards at the team banquet this past season, including most valuable player, top goalie, broken records, and fan favourite. Holmen said being from Carrot River, he became somewhat of a ‘Team Dad’ in his last few years.

“It was just more of a comfortable thing,” Holmen said. “It was just something that I was almost used to doing. Whenever you bring in new guys, wherever they were from, from out of province or nearby, or wherever, I guess it was kind of my role to take them around town and show them around and introduce them to all the people. That’s one thing about here, when you play here everyone kind of knows you halfway through the year anyways. Everyone knows your name and you’re basically another person in town here.”

Holmen said there is already a good relationship with Head Coach Luke Folk and Holmen said that should show in the team’s identity.

“Me and Luke, for the most part, from what I saw from him the last half of the season when he came joined us,” he said. “We both see the game the exact same way. More of a hard working, hard work beats talent kind of mentality.”

He added the transition should be made a bit easier due to the hometown feel and the familiarity with the Thunder program.

“You know how everything works, and how everything is supposed to go,” Holmen said. “I’ve seen it for seven years now, kind of our reputation and what goes on or what should go on.”

Holmen said they are going to be a younger team this season, but he’s ready to help the players see the game from his perspective.

The new coach said he may try to play hockey a little bit depending on his schedule as Holmen is also taking some online classes to start the year through the University of Saskatchewan.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6