Welcome to the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League New Bench Bosses series. This series highlights each new league coach and next is Wes McLeod, the first head coach-assistant general manager of the expansion Merritt Centennials.
McLeod, who was raised in Mission and has lived in Chilliwack, is a KIJHL alum having played for the Kimberley Dynamiters during the 2010-11 season. Playing 14 games. McLeod, 32, joins the Centennials after spending the last two seasons as head coach of the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds in the B.C. Elite Hockey League. This past season McLeod guided the Thunderbirds to first place with a record of 30-5-1 and advanced to the BCEHL’s semifinal round.
Before joining Fraser Valley, McLeod spent four seasons with the Valley West Giants program in the BCEHL. In 2017-18, McLeod was an assistant coach for the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s Fort McMurray Oil Barons.
KIJHL: How do you feel that your coaching experience will help you have the success you want with the Centennials?
WM: I think my strength in knowing the U18 AAA landscape in Western Canada, but particularly in B.C., will be an asset as we build the roster in year 1. Building a competitive Junior A roster from scratch is no small task, but I am confident that we will be able to recruit top talent and create a competitive program.
KIJHL: How will you want your team to play?
WM: I like my teams to play a fast, up tempo, forward-checking brand of hockey. The Nicola Valley Memorial Arena is a smaller ice surface, so finding players who are comfortable playing through contact and in tight areas is important for us.
KIJHL: What do you enjoy about coaching?
WM: Just being able to impact a young person’s life positively. I have a passion towards hockey. From a greater perspective, just being able to help some of these younger players to achieve their goals and dreams and become better citizens while they go through the hockey process.
KIJHL: Do you have a coach who made such an impact on you that you lean on when needed for advice?
WM: Yeah, when I played there were coaches that definitely meant a lot to me. I think now that I have been coaching for so long, you network, make connections, and I made some really cool friends here in the industry that are people that I lean on for advice. If I don’t understand something, or how something should be done, then I can lean on them to ask how they have done something to help round myself out as a coach and person. The coaching world is a tight world.
KIJHL: What is your favourite hockey moment as a player or coach?
WM: I was part of the Team BC staff for the Canada Winter Games last season in Prince Edward Island. That was a really cool moment for me being around the top athletes in our province. It’s really cool to see as it’s kind of like a mini Olympics. You have all the other sports going on at once. We watched different sports and did a lot of cool things. It was a really neat experience.
KIJHL: What do you like to do away from the rink?
WM: I love to be outside and I have an ATV that I ride quite frequently. I love to be in the mountains and explore. I fish a lot, golf. The off-season is kind of where I spend most of my time doing things that I like. Once you get in season it is tough as you are grinding through those months.
