Welcome to the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League New Bench Bosses series. This series is focused on new coaches entering the league and next is Torrin White of the Princeton Posse.
White, who hails from Eastend, Sask., and grew up in Medicine Hat, comes to the Posse after completing his first full season as a head coach for the Southern Alberta Hockey Academy U17 Prep team, winning 16 of 32 games for a .510 win percentage. He spent four seasons with SAHA and has also worked in a variety of scouting and consulting roles with the Western Hockey League’s Moose Jaw Warriors and Medicine Hat Tigers, and has coached at the Alberta Cup U15 provincial camp. White’s playing career spanned more than 250 games with the Warriors as well as four seasons in USPORTS with the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns.
KIJHL: What are the valuable things you learned as a head coach last season that will help you with the Posse?
TW: The fun thing about being at the sports school is that you are on the ice a lot so you can try different things. Players are very motivated as long as you are trying things, explaining it and coming to cool conclusions and playing around with new things. The second is that you have a lot of other coaches around so you can bounce ideas off them and learn new things. You can learn what works and what doesn’t.
KIJHL: What are key things from working as a scout and consultant that will help you build the program you want in Princeton?
TW: The scouting position I’ve had with Moose Jaw was working with the coaching staff and doing a lot of pre-scouting, learning other teams’ systems, little tendencies. That was very valuable in learning different ways to create offence, different ways to set up on the power-play and do things.
The consultant role, I was the education advisor for the Medicine Hat Tigers for a couple of years. I was working with student-athletes to make sure they had the courses, credits, and academic support they needed. I think the kids coming up now value school a little bit more than they used to. It’s cool to see all the WHL players committing to U SPORTS now. It’s the route a lot of them are taking. Working with the Tigers’ student-athletes was very valuable.
KIJHL: What is your coaching style in terms of how you will want your team to play?
TW: Everything is quite fast. There is a high standard in everything we do, but everything we do is enjoyable. There is a massive individual development component to everything. If we have 24 players on our team, and they get this much better throughout the year, there is a good chance our team is going to get quite a bit better. The individual skills and development off the ice is huge.
KIJHL: What do you enjoy about coaching?
TW: There are so many things and it’s something I’ve been surrounded by my whole life. It’s something that I wanted to do while I was still playing. When you have a good staff, it makes a huge difference in the people you are working with, making each day a lot of fun. We’re getting to see all of the players’ different routes and goals and what they want to accomplish.
KIJHL: Do you have a coach who made such an impact on you that you lean on when needed for advice? Why is that person so important?
TW: I have been very spoiled with my coach support group. I have my uncle Tavis MacMillan, who is the assistant coach at the University of Denver. He is someone I lean on quite a bit. My step dad is Shaun Clouston, who is the coach-GM of the Kamloops Blazers and Mark O’Leary in Moose Jaw was my assistant coach while I was there. He is the head coach now and is someone I chat with a lot and is a great support for me. One of the coolest ones is my former coach Mike Stothers, who was with the Anaheim Ducks. He is an unbelievable human. He pushed us all to be better, but also, just cared about us a lot. I have a lot of awesome people in my corner.
KIJHL: What is your favourite hockey moment as a player or coach?
TW: We had a pretty awesome playoff run advancing to the third round when I was 16 in Moose Jaw. We played in front of some sold out crowds and I played with some awesome people and players (Brayden Point – Tampa Bay Lightning, Morgan Rielly – Toronto Maple Leafs, Joel Edmundson – LA Kings and Dylan McIlrath – Washington Capitals). Going through that was pretty special.
I always think one of the most underrated leagues and experiences was playing U SPORTS hockey during my time at the University of Lethbridge. It was pretty amazing and a lot of my best friends in the world are people I met there.
As a coach, we had a couple of Mac’s and Circle K championships that were a lot of fun to go through with those guys. It’s something they love to look back on. I know my past coaching experience with the South Alberta Hockey Academy, the people I got to work with, the families and players, it was lots of good people. A lot of those memories are the people you got to experience things with. I’m looking forward to that in Princeton as well.
KIJHL: Away from the rink, what are things you enjoy doing?
TW: I have been invited out for quite a few rounds of golf in Princeton – the course is pretty amazing. A lot of my spare time in the summer is golfing. My wife Brook and I like to get outdoors to hike and camp. We spend time with friends in the summer and have a ranch back in southwest Saskatchewan. Any chance to get back there and be outside and see the people there is also something I love.
