THUNDER BAY — Matt Valley says he was blindsided at being fired as the coach of the first-place Kam River Fighting Walleye.
At 11-4-1, the team was riding high, the clear favourite to win the Superior International Junior Hockey League championship, a season after falling in the final.
Team officials said they wanted a full-time coach, one who could take on some of the workload being done by ownership.
Valley, 32, said there was no indication from management and ownership that he wasn’t living up to expectations, and that he was going to be let go.
It was a little shocking, he said.
“A lot of emotions run through your body at that time. The first thing is that gut-wrenching feeling, you’re pretty upset. You never really see it coming,” said Valley, who was 49-12-2 in three years behind the bench, his team finishing in top spot in the regular season all three years.
“Obviously there’s a little bit of anger, but at the end of the day, once the dust has settled now, I’m pretty appreciative of the opportunity I did have. You start to reflect back on some of the times we’ve had, some of the successes we’ve had, despite not winning a championship last year and coming out of the gates like we did this year, there are a lot of positives and a lot of things I’m proud of.”
Valley, who had coached previously with the Thunder Bay Kings program, said every coach knows at the end of the day they’re hired to be fired, but it doesn’t make it any easier when it actually happens.
“I think I’d be naïve to think I was going to coach there for the rest of my life,” Valley said. “It definitely seemed abrupt and I didn’t see a ton of signs leading up to it other than maybe the team wasn’t undefeated. At the end of the day, we were 11-4-1.”
Fighting Walleye GM Kevin McCallum said it was a business decision, noting when the team hired Valley, he didn’t have a teaching job or young children – though he did have both when Kam River management signed Valley to a three-year extension over the summer.
“This was something we thought about for a while. It was very tough, but we just need a full-time coach in the position to alleviate the stress and take over the majority of my role as I’m not a full-time guy,” McCallum said.
“I have the utmost respect for Matt. He did an amazing job and his accomplishments speak for themselves what he did for our organization. It’s not an easy move to move out the reigning coach of the year and a first-place coach. But our needs as an organization is to have a full-time guy in that role.”
The team has several candidates in mind, including one coaching in Europe, believed to be former Red Lake coach Geoff Walker.
“I have a family and a full-time job and this is a glorified hobby. Matt’s full-time employed and has a young family, so it’s a lot to have on anybody.”
Valley, who plans to take time off but is open to other coaching opportunities in the Thunder Bay area, said team officials never asked him if he was able to take on more responsibilities.
Vern Ray has taken over the coaching reins on an interim basis, with McCallum saying he expects to have a new coach in place within three weeks.
