Warriors land former rival coach as new bench boss

Press Release

The Westside Warriors found themselves in a bit of a coaching pickle with Darren Yopyk recently accepting a position with an NHL club but solved it by bringing in a man familiar to fans from his days as coach of a conference rival.

Rylan Ferster is taking over behind the bench at Royal LePage Place for the coming season. The Prince Albert, Sask. native is well known to Interior Conference fans from his two stints as head coach of the Salmon Arm SilverBacks. He coached with Victoria in the intervening period and says despite the rapid nature of the hiring, it has been an easy switch to the new role.

"I was already living in Kelowna so it was a smooth transition to take the job," said Ferster, 41. "I'm just trying to get my feet wet with everything here, talk to the veteran players and just get the lay of the land."

Ferster spent last season with the Revelstoke Grizzlies Junior B club of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League and is happy to be back in the BCHL.

"I'm excited; I don't know a whole lot of the players but anytime you come in and don't know a lot of them, it's exciting. There's no free passes."

Warriors owner and president Mark Cheyne put in a call to Ferster in late July and things came together quickly.

"We hired Rylan because he has a high winning percentage in the BCHL," said Cheyne. "He's also averaged nine NCAA scholarships in each of his years with the BCHL which is of the utmost imporance to our organization."

In his last season as a BCHL coach, Ferster guided Salmon Arm to the Interior Conference finals in 2009 before being defeated by the eventual national champion Vernon Vipers.

Ferster won a Centennial Cup national title as a member of the Vernon Lakers in 1990 before playing collegiate hockey at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. He played six seasons of pro hockey in Europe before embarking on his coaching career.

(Nathan can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)