The Wallaceburg Lakers' new head coach knows it won't be easy, but he's committed to bringing a winning team back to the town.
Joe Byrne Jr., who is also one of the team's new owners, took over behind the bench after the search for a new coach was unsuccessful.
"We had thrown down a short list of guys and we reached out to them, but some of them were working with other teams and some of them just weren't available," says Byrne. "Then there was a second list of guys, but we figured my qualifications are on par or very close to theirs so if it came to that point, I would just take over as coach."
Byrne coached a team in the Victory Honda minor hockey program in Michigan for three years and played several years of Jr. hockey including a brief stint in the OHL.
Now that he's taking over the coaching job in Wallaceburg, Byrne expects to see a noticeable improvement in the win column.
"I'm hoping that we're going to bounce back into the playoff picture," says Byrne. "I think it's going to take a couple of years to take this team and build it back to what it should be, but we're on the right track right now."
The last time the Lakers made the playoffs was during the 2010-2011 season. During that season, the Lakers were the top seed in the Great Lakes Jr. 'C' Hockey League, finishing with 30 wins.
Since then, the Lakers have only won a total of 34 games over the past five seasons.
Wallaceburg finished the 2015-2016 season with three wins and 37 losses.
