THUNDER BAY — The Thunder Bay Bandits are switching home rinks and coaches for the 2023-2024 season.
The Lakehead Junior Hockey League squad will make the Tournament Centre their home this season, which used to be the home base of the Thunder Bay Northern Hawks.
The Bandits played their home games in the Fort William First Nation Arena.
“I don't want to [toot] our own horn, but I think it's the nicest dressing room in Thunder Bay,” said head coach Rick Baraniuk. “It is absolutely stunning. It is disappointing that [the second rink] is gone, but with the glass being half full, they have that soccer field there [which enables the team to engage] in dry land training [or another team activity].”
Baraniuk takes over for Kris Reginato after formerly coaching with the Thunder Bay Kings and Queen’s programs, and last coached in 2019-2020 with the under-18 AA Fort William Hurricanes.
He has been an instructor with Hockey Canada for nearly three decades, running his own hockey school in Thunder Bay.
Baraniuk decided it was time to get back behind the bench after taking a break due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am semi-retired, [teaching] at Confederation College three days a week, so it gives me the time now [to coach]. Larry Busniuk put some feelers out there [as to who might be looking for a coach]; He is a really good hockey person [and it was] Dave Reginato, the general manager of the Bandits, [that I ended up chatting with about their opening.] I like their professionalism with respect to hockey, Dave is a well-organized man. I thought, you know what, the people around you really make the difference.”
Baraniuk coached for six years at the Junior A level, serving as an assistant with the Thunder Bay Flyers for two seasons including the Centennial Cup win in 1989 in Summerside, PEI.
“I feel pretty confident now [that] you don't coach [the players] the same way now [that you may have coached them] even five years ago,” Baraniuk noted, when asked about the challenges about getting back into team coaching. “Things have changed and for the good; [You need to] work with the players and you cannot no longer set hard fast rules. [Coaching is about] negotiating and [being] more fair than equal.”
League president Josh Gribben is looking for the Bandits to rebound this year after they lost a lot of players from their championship squad in 2022.
“[I am] hoping that with a coaching change, [the Bandits] might find some stability. That was one of the biggest changes for them last year, the coach Kris Reginato, had other commitments that he needed to attend to. Anytime at the junior level, when you're in a state of flux at the head coaching position, it can often drive that down to the rest of your organization,” Gribben stated in a previous interview.
The Bandits won just five out of 24 games in 2022-2023 and were swept by the Nipigon Elks in the best of three quarter-finals.
“[I don’t feel like] you can judge the program [based on] wins or losses,” he noted. “I have been on both sides [of the equation] where my teams have only lost five games and only won five games. There is really not a big variance between winning and losing other than compete every night and things will eventually go your way.”
The Junior B circuit features five teams that will each play twenty-four games.
The Bandits begin their campaign on Oct. 7 against the Storm in the Current River Arena.
They will make their Tournament Centre home debut against the Schreiber Falcons on Oct. 14.
