CANMORE – After five seasons as the assistant coach and assistant general manager of the Canmore Eagles, Evan McFeeters has left the organization.
The Canmore-native joined the Brooks Bandits coaching staff led by head coach and general manager Ryan Papaioannou, and assistant coach Taylor Makin.
“There were certainly no easy nights coaching against them over the past five years, and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with these players and the Bandits staff," said McFeeters in a press release.
"I hope to add my experience, professionalism, and enthusiasm to the club and I am looking forward to building relationships with the players and with members of the community.”
Before joining the Eagles, McFeeters served as head coach of the Cochrane Generals of the Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) for three seasons, leading the team to the 2016 league finals.
Despite the news of the departure, Eagles head coach and general manager Andrew Milne is looking forward to the team’s upcoming development camp, which kicks off Sept. 20.
Due to the league's decision to delay the start of the 2020-21 campaign, it instituted a development season, which will allow teams to actively prepare for the upcoming regular season while providing players with an opportunity for training for a tentative Dec. 1 start.
“We wanted to see how the first few weeks of school panned out and make sure it was smoothing sailing there since that was the initial kick-off and then we had to look a securing some lodging for they guys,” said Milne.
Of the 23 players registered in the Eagles development camp, 12 will be accommodated at Silvertip Resort.
“Getting that place for the players to stay was so important. That’s what allows us to even start this process,” said Milne about the challenge in finding billets.
The development camp is slated to run for one month. With COVID-19 still not contained, Milne is anxious about starting up again. However, after successfully operating the 2020 Canmore Summer Hockey School last month, he feels more prepared.
“With our club, it will be a much smaller cohort group of 23 guys as opposed to the 60 plus we had in the summer camp, but it did help out with understanding and operating the dressing room and facility usage. I think it gave the Town a little more confidence that we will run this camp safely," said Milne.
The camp will consist of a daily ice time, dryland training, video work and community service work where possible.
