The Olds Grizzlys have a new management team in place.
The team made that announcement during a news conference Saturday, April 14 at the Sportsplex.
Garry VanHereweghe has been hired on a two-year contract beginning May 1 as the team's new general manager and associate coach, replacing former GM and head coach Adam Redmond, who left the team last month after the season ended. Joe Murphy, previously the team's associate coach, then interim coach after Redmond left, has been named head coach.
Also, the team has a new business development manager. Brady Sim replaces Raphi Buergi, who has taken a job elsewhere in the community.
Team president Darcy Dallas said the board received more than 100 resumes over a month and a half.
"As a board, and as a subcommittee of the board, we spent numerous times, what is the best direction for the Olds Grizzlys?
"After doing all that, we figured we wanted to keep some stability from what we had last year, somebody that the players were familiar with," he said.
As a result, Murphy was a strong candidate. However, he didn't have a lot of experience as a head coach. So they decided to look for a general manager too.
"Luckily, we were able to reach out to Mr. VanHereweghe, who has a wealth of knowledge coaching, GM-ing," Dallas said. "After Garry committed, we knew it was a no-brainer, so we went with that combination, which we know will be very successful."
VanHereweghe has a long history in Canada, having held coaching and senior management positions with teams in the Western Hockey League as well as the Alberta Junior Hockey League and the B.C. Junior Hockey League.
His career includes stints as assistant coach with the Grizzlys from 1989-92, then as head coach from 1998 to 2000.
VanHereweghe told the Albertan he plans to move here.
He described his new job as "a bit of a homecoming."
"Start your career somewhere and know you can go back and finish your career and help put that piece back together the way you'd like to see it," he said.
"It's a great opportunity for me. I didn't take too long to make a decision," VanHereweghe said.
"I had to spend a little bit more time on my wife making a decision, but all in all, I'm looking for two of the best years I've ever had in hockey and having coached in the Western (Hockey) League, and the Alberta Junior League and the B.C. (Junior) Hockey League, I haven't found a better home or a better spot that I could land.
"And to work with a good, young guy like Joe who's looking at hockey as a career and carrying forward, and I know he'll put a lot into the organization and the program."
The Grizzlys finished last in the AJHL Viterra South division this past season and thus, didn't make the playoffs.
As a result, VanHereweghe conceded, it's going to be a challenge.
"We've got a lot of work ahead of us; we know that going in, so we're not coming here to sit and think it's going to fall into place. We're going to have to take a lot of action and get a lot of people involved to put it back into place," he said.
As various members of Grizzlys management have said over the past year or so, part of future success for the team involves creating a greater presence in the Olds community.
"I guess we want to put the Grizzlys back into the community, but we want to put the community back into the Grizzlys," he said. "If we can do that and achieve both those goals, we're going to be successful. Certainly that's our goal going in.
"Like I say, I'm looking for two tremendous years here, working with the board and the ownership group. The people here have kind of kept it alive and provided that opportunity for me and Joe and we'll find a way that we'll pay back," he added.
Murphy, a former Grizzlys player, said he's "very excited to be back home."
"I played here; some real good times, and I was the beneficiary of a lot of people's hard work," he said. "For me to come back home and do this and help build a program with Garry and the executive is really important to me.
"It's a project I welcome and a project I take seriously. I'm very excited to get to work with Garry and utilize his tools and his knowledge as well as that of the board," Murphy added.
"So thank you for the honour, Darcy and the executive; I really appreciate the confidence. I'm excited to get going."
At the beginning of the news conference, Dallas expressed the club's solidarity with the Humboldt Broncos in the wake of the April 6 bus crash between that team's bus and a semi that claimed 16 lives and injured about 13, including Olds resident Graysen Cameron. Logan Boulet, whose father grew up here and whose grandparents still live here, was killed in that accident as well.
"Obviously, the situation last week is a huge blow to the hockey community and something extremely tragic," he said.
During the team's spring camp last weekend, players paid tribute to the Broncos by posing for a team photo.
