When Terry Jones collected his 1,000th career Kootenay International Junior Hockey League victory with the Beaver Valley Nitehawks, he heard from a lot of people
Tom Renney, a former NHL head coach and current Hockey Canada chief executive officer, as well as B.C. Hockey’s Barry Petrachenko, was among them. Jones, however, received a call from a person he didn’t know from “a stack of wood” following the milestone win against the Revelstoke Grizzlies 5-3 on Nov. 30, 2018.
“I get this number on my phone and it’s San Jose, Calif.,” says Jones. “Who the hell is calling me. I didn’t answer it. I listen to the voicemail. It was Doug Wilson.”
Jones goes outside and has a 15-minute conversation with the general manager of the San Jose Sharks.
“It was interesting to hear from him,” says Jones, who has a mutual friend with Wilson in Mike Watson, who told Wilson about the accomplishment. “Doug Wilson said, well give me this guys number and I want to call him, which I thought was, well pretty cool.”
Wilson made a comparison of Jones to Brian Kilrea, who earned 1,000 wins with the Ottawa 67s, a coach he had played for.
Jones says achieving the accomplishment at the time was pretty cool, but “quite overwhelming.”
“I know from my players, there was a lot of pressure on them,” says Jones. “ A ton of pressure in terms of trying to get that game.”
The Nitehawks were hovering around .500 when they went to Revelstoke and beat the best team in the league.
“That’s a pretty cool way to get your 1,000th win,” he says. “It was pretty neat. The guys really played a good game. It was an awesome way to get it.”
When congratulated on the accomplishment, Jones joked it means he is old and has been around a long time. He has coached several really good hockey players and strong coaching staffs. That has helped the Nitehawks have many successful seasons.
“You win eight championships, you win a lot of games along the way.
“It’s one of those things I never really thought about it until it’s on you,” he continues. “We just do what we do. When you look back on it, what I would really like to say is that there is a lot of pride, it might be a 1,000 wins, but it’s probably 2,0000 practices. How many bus trips? There are a lot of other things that go into it.”
During his conversation with Wilson, the Sharks GM asked what the secret was to his success and Jones said he didn’t know.
“There is a whole lot that goes into being a successful coach,” he explained. “Having a foundation of what you believe in. Having really good people around you. It all fits together.”
One thing Jones knows, he won’t forget Wilson calling him.
“It was really neat that he did that,” says Jones.
Read – Nitehawks fans celebrate Terry Jones’ 1,000th victory
