The Kamloops Blazers now have their 4th head coach in 3 years after firing Barry Smith today. Scott Ferguson takes over as interim coach, while Geoff Smith's duties increase as assistant.Kamloops got off to a good start this year, but a 1-5 road trip through the eastern conference and getting blown out 12-5 at home to Medicine Hat spelled Smith's end.
Here's a quote from G.M. Craig Bonner on the firing.
"Our results this year are not acceptable. We will not tolerate being an average team at this stage. I particularly disliked our structure and the direction our team was headed, along with the lack of emotion we have shown of late. Since I saw little to suggest that the team was trying to make the adjustments necessary to turn our play around, we had little option but to make a change."
Since 2007-2008 the Blazers have had Dean Clark, Greg Hawgood, Barry Smith and now Scott Ferguson as head coaches.
It's interesting when you check out their website. Most teams have a few star players currently on their team as the focus, but with the Blazers it's their all star former player ownership group that is centre stage. I'm not sure how much input Jarome Iginla, Mark Recchi, Shane Doan or Darryl Sydor actually have with the team, but I do know a few years back that Keaton Ellebery was making regular phone calls to some of the part owners when he was unhappy with the situation involving Dean Clark. Ellerby ended up traded to Moose Jaw, and Clark wound up without a job.
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