To the normal person, that’s quite a drop in stature. That’s putting any NHL hopes on the backburner for a while.

 

I’ve heard over and over lately the toughest job in sports is coaching at the AAA level. The reason is nobody wants to be there. Everyone thinks they should be at the next level. This past year’s players were very guilty of that.

 

While I am saddened he’s leaving, I’m not surprised.

 

The Admirals spent the night in Abbotsford after dropping the first-round playoff series to the Heat April 25. The next morning, the team bussed to Seattle. Unfortunately, there weren’t enough seats on the flight to Milwaukee, so the rookies, Herbers, Ryan Costello and I stayed an extra day in Seattle to take the next day’s flight. Actually, because Victor Bartley was recalled to Nashville, he left and Kevin Henderson had to stay with the rookies, much to his chagrin.

 

That next day we made it to the airport. Ian and I chatted about the series and the season. We talked about the players we liked and the others that needed to do more.

 

I then asked him about next season. He said he wasn’t sure. He thought an offer would come from Nashville but he also said his alma mater, the University of Alberta, had contacted him and really wanted him to interview. Here’s a guy that is a head coach in the second best league in the world considering a job in Canadian college hockey. Why?

 

“It’d be nice to go home.”

 

Herbers was born near Edmonton. He attended the University of Alberta. His four years as a student at the University is the second longest amount of time he’s spent anywhere since he was 17 years old. He still has family there.

 

Ian and his wife, Alina, have two wonderful daughters that are closing in on college. Can you imagine what it’d be like to move every couple years? That would be difficult on the family: making new friends, finding a new job, getting used to the neighborhood, trying not to get lost, buying and selling homes.

 

With this move, he gets to be stationary for a little while. If the money is close, who wouldn’t choose to put their family first?

 

The team he is taking over went 20-6-2 last season. It is also undergoing a radical change in administration.

 

In the past, the program had operated with a full-time head coach, and a full-time assistant coach, now the Bears’ program will be guided by a full-time GM, and coached by a full-time coach. Assistant coach positions will be part-time or graduate student based.

 

The GM position will handle the majority of non-coaching duties, such as fundraising, alumni affairs, and team administration, which allows the head coach to focus on the on-ice product as well as recruiting. Stan Marple, who served as head coach of the Golden Bears’ in 2011-12, has been named the first ever General Manager.

 

Herbers played three seasons with Marple at Alberta and also in the British National League with Guildford in 2002-2003.

 

Ian has always had the reputation as being an outstanding teacher. He actually does have a degree in education. When he was hired by the Admirals, then-head coach Lane Lambert raved about how well Herbers teaches the game.

 

Ian took over as head coach at a difficult time for the Admirals. The team had lost two straight in Charlotte and didn’t find out that Kirk Muller had been hired to lead the NHL Carolina Hurricanes until he was in Raleigh being introduced.

 

There are some who are of the opinion that the 2011-2012 Admirals didn’t play as well under Herbers. We’ll never know what would’ve happened if Muller spent the full season here. How would he have dealt with some of the attitudes? Actually, Kirk spent a lot of his time having private chats with players asking where their heads were.

 

We can look at numbers.

 

 

Of course, the numbers don’t tell the whole story, but they help.

 

One part of the story that we can see is this team wasn’t as disciplined as past Admirals teams.

 

There’s no denying that January 2012 was awful. Would it have been the same type of month if Kirk were still here? That’s hard to say. Would Muller have handled the personnel changes differently? Again, that’s hard to say.

 

I can tell you that nobody worked harder on a game plan than Herbers. He spent a lot of time using video as a teaching tool. He took a lot on himself. He probably could’ve delegated a little more, but the bottom line is the head coach is the one responsible and in charge. A lot needs to be said, too, about execution. Coaches go over situations with the players ad nauseam. The young players need to develop the skills to recognize what they’re seeing. It’s a process that takes longer for some. That’s why they’re here.

 

I can also tell you that I enjoyed every minute with Ian as an assistant and as the head coach. I enjoy his wicked, dry sense of humor. When my fiancée was out of town this year at Thanksgiving, Ian invited me to spend the day with his family. The night Kirk first got to town, Ian invited a large group of us to his home for a bonfire and a chance to get to know Kirk and his wife, Stacey. No other coach has invited me to their home (maybe it’s me?).

 

Former Admirals defenseman Aaron Johnson spent this entire season in the NHL with Columbus. He was recently quoted in the Cape Breton Post about his 2010-2011 campaign when he went from being a part-timer in the NHL to a full year in Milwaukee, with Herbers as his position coach and Lambert as head coach.

 

“It may have been the best thing for me to go back and get some experience and just play every game, play every situation and get that confidence back. Not that it was gone, but just to get that experience again of playing a full season,” Johnson said of his time with the Admirals. “It was disappointing not getting (called) up there and that was unfortunate, but coming to Columbus, it gave me a lot of experience and I kind of brought that here.”

 

Perhaps some young Canadians, who weren’t viewed as prospects or regulars, will have the same types of things to say about their time with Herbers.