PERRIN NAMED SPIRIT HEAD COACH

Press Release

Stouffville Spirit Assistant Coach Jeff Perrin (photo credit - Brian Watts/OJHL Images) has been named as the new Head Coach of the club, replacing Craig Donovan, who guided the Spirit to its first OJHL title.

The 41-year old native of Whitechurch-Stouffville takes over the head coaching role after spending the previous 10 years, split between Stouffville and the Markham Waxers, as an assistant.

Below is an article written by Michael Hayakawa of the York Region Media Group (yorkregion.com):

As an assistant coach in tier two junior A hockey for 10 seasons, Jeff Perrin was hoping to be considered for a head coaching position.

For the 41-year-old Whitchurch-Stouffville resident, that time has finally arrived.

With Craig Donovan stepping down as head coach of the Stouffville Spirit after the Dudley Hewitt Championships in Thunder Bay, Perrin, who served as an assistant coach with the Ontario Junior Hockey League championship club, was recently named as the new coach for the 2012-13 campaign.
Donovan and his family have moved to London, Ont., where he works in the insurance industry.

Launching his assistant coaching career with the Spirit for three seasons before joining the Markham Waxers for six and then returning to Stouffville part way through this past campaign, Perrin is excited with the prospects of taking over the head position.

“It feels pretty good, it’s an exciting time in my coaching career,” Perrin said. “I wanted a chance to prove that I could be a head coach and it will be a challenge for sure. You always hope it will happen sooner or later.

“Part of the reason why I came back to Stouffville when the opportunity came up (last year) was that there would be a chance the head coaching position would open.”

Among the challenges facing Perrin will be the bar set by the Spirit last season after winning the Buckland Cup and falling just short of advancing to the RBC Cup championships in Humboldt, Sask.

“There’s definitely some pressure after what we accomplished last year. It’ll be tough to top that,” he said. “But that’s why coaching is a challenge.”

Perrin said he doesn’t intend to make any dramatic changes.

However, he hopes the club will be able to carry over some of the little things they had developed during the postseason into the upcoming season.

“Maybe we have to be a little more aggressive with our forecheck and that was something we did at the end of the year and that’s why we had a great amount of success,” he said. “And we also learned how to block shots more and in getting to the net and creating more traffic there.”

Perrin wasted little time in naming his assistant coaches. Brad Barton will work with the defence and Steve Sedore, who was with the Newmarket Hurricanes as an assistant coach under Perrin’s brother, Brian, and was head coach of the Spirit during its formative years, will work with the offence. Barton was an assistant coach with the Lindsay Muskies and now defunct Pickering Panthers and also coached with the Uxbridge Bruins Junior C club.

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