p18 the tribune thursday april 30 1998 si the tribune leisure got a score call our hotline at 6402100 spirit make major changes bruce stapley correspondent the sweeping changes hinted at by spirit of stouffville owner ed hakonson were finally announced earlier this week the provincial junior a hockey league team has installed a new coaching staff general manager and assistant gm going outside the organization to fill four of the six positions brian perrin replaces dan larmer as spirit head coach the 32 year old mt albert r e s i d e n t brings with him five years of experience as an assistant and associate coach and director o player person nel with the newmarket 87s of the provincial league brian perrin head coach perrin was with the 87s when they won the provincial league cham pionship and finished third in the royal bank cup national craig donovan finals two sea- assistant coach sons ago he was head coach of schombergs junior c physiotherapy week mayor wayne emerson at left learns to play guitar with help from violinist christine harrison a strings consultant from the stouffville musicians physiotherapy clinic and barbara paull physiotherapist to promote national physiotherapy week last week in stouffville physiotherapists help those injured from a variety of activities including sporting events photo by sjoerd witteveen larmer leaves spirit of stouffville with a proud coaching legacy dan larmer has passed the baton to brian perrin as the spirit of stouitvihe prepares to shed the final layer of their cocoon the likeable and upbeat larmer will be remembered as the coach who helped the local provincial junior a hockey league club turn the corner on its way from being a hapless expansion doormat to a contender under his leadership the spirit doubled its victory total from the dismal 199697 season while establishinga fan support base the team also began to attract serious scouts with star centre darcy king recruited by the uni versity of massachusetts defence- man and team captain jeff mar shall grabbed by ohio state uni- sports notes bruce stapley versity and scrappy centre kyle chapman likely to go early in this years ontario hockey league draft larmer remained as positive as ever after deciding to step down as head coach due to increasing responsibilities at work and an uncertain future which could see him move to peterborough to link up with his father grant in a fur ther career move the spirit need a coach whos going to be around in order to push it up to the next level he told me it would have been too tough for me to put in the 3040 hours a week needed to do that and i just couldnt commit to the team for two or three years he said hes grateful for the chance the spirit gave him how many guys of 26 years of age are given an opportunity to take a tier 2 junior a hockey team and told to build it evidence of how far the spirit has come in terms of doing things according to the book was given when larmer tendered his resigna tion march 20 but didnt make it official until the team had inked his successor brian perrin this way there would be no please see page 19 iteam for a jyear before joining the hurricanes he also spent three years as head coach of the york- s i m c o e express aaa dieter schmidt midgets general manager perrin will be assisted by spirit head scout ken burrows and craig donovan burrows was the clubs chief of scouting burrows has been involved in stouffville hockey almost all his life as a player coach and most recently as chief scout for the spirit said club owner ed hakonson it is time for ken to use his experience to help bring a winning club to stouffville donovan a newmarket resident was an assistant with the hurri canes scott stevenson who was with perrin with the yorksimcoe express has joined the spirit as strength and conditioning coach larmer along with the spirits 199798 assistant coaches john peron and trevor clark stepped down after the conclusion of the season dieter schmidt of bradford is the teams new gm replacing clive moody who takes over as director of player development with the hurricanes schmidt was assistant gm of the hurricanes since the team started in 1987 dieter will be the person responsible for the spirit direction office and will represent our team in league and governors meet ings said hakonson hes the bottom line this year stouffvilles eldon wagg an active member of the spirit board of directors this past season becomes assistant gm perrin said his main challenge as head coach is to create a winning environment he pointed to two weaknesses which need address ing first hand as i see it there are two areas of concern with this team footspeed and size said perrin thats what weve got to improve he said hes hoping to attract high quality stouffville area play ers along with highly rated play ers from other areas in order to put together a winning lineup perrin said his role as coach would be to act as a combination teacher motivator and strategist you have to gain the confidence of your players prove to them that what you are telling them is work ing he said he plans to encourage teamwork and cohesive communi cation perrin said the ultimate reward for him as a coach is to see his players succeed my whole phi losophy is to develop players for the next level be that the ohl college hockey or what have you he said good young players will always be drawn to a team with an atmosphere favourable to player development one of his goals is to have ohl and university scouts in the stands at spirit games along with the fans we want to make sure they know just what we have here he hopes to arrange to have the spirit spend a weekend at a uni versity in the united states to get a taste of college hockey and uni versity lifestyle schmidt agrees with perrin s philosophy of preparing players to go up the ladder youre there for the boys he said he added that while the 1 99899 season wont be a true rebuilding year for the spirit it will be nec essary to address weaknesses on defence when id come here with the hurricanes to play the spirit we were aware they were weak on defence thats an area that has to be built up maybe with some size he said every year is a challenge in junior hockey as team rosters usually undergo a 40 per cent ros ter turnover you never know whats going to happen each year scmidt said perrin talked him into joining the spirit after the for mer had made a decision to leave the 87s after the 9798 season last year was to be my last year the time had come to leave but when brian came to the spirit he asked me to go with him im happy with it wagg said the club is on the right track i think were well on the way to becoming an entity in this league he said he looks for continuing support from the community next season we had good fan support last season if we can double that next season well be in great shape hakonson said the changes and additions were made with the sin gle intention of being in the play offs for 1999 he said the team has an experienced coaching staff a support staff of over 20 people a first rates arena and a growing fan support base hakonson predicted an increase of nearly 100 percent in wins next season the spirit for 9899 are going to win at least 30 games out of the 50 game schedule we are hungry we will win he said the clubs new board of directors will be announced soon the spirit will hold a tryout camp may 2324 at the rcc cen tre