By Nathan Kanter

Norm Johnston stays on as AAA Stars coach

Mar 22, 2017 | 5:00 PM

The AAA Stars made a coaching change right before last season began. Then made another one in the final month of the regular season, when they let Jean Fauchon go and brought in Norm Johnston for the final eight games.

Although they missed the playoffs, the Stars liked what they saw with Johnston and have decided to stick with him moving forward, after naming him head coach for the 2017-18 season on Tuesday.

“We liked a lot of things that [Johnston] did, even though it didn’t show up directly as wins,” AAA Stars governor Bruce Yockey said in a phone interview on Wednesday, referring to the team’s 1-7 record under Johnston in February. “Our discipline came in check, our shots against came in check and he was trying to put a lot of things in place in a short period of time. So we felt he didn’t really get a fair shake to probably do all the things he’d like to do throughout the season. He was really playing catch up.”

Johnston was one of roughly 15 candidates who applied.

The board narrowed it down to three and then ended up deciding on Johnston.

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“A good part of it was he developed a good relationship, we thought, with players that we had here last year and a number of them that are returning spoke positively,” Yockey said. “And also the fact that he’s basically retired,and so he has a lot of time to put in and we know he’ll work tirelessly from sun up to sun down for the program and he’ll almost be like an assistant GM in a way too.

“And he’s got a ton of experience. You definitely can’t overlook that.”

Johnston was the owner, general manager, and coach of the Battlefords North Stars during the 1980s before moving on for coaching stints with the Flin Flon Bombers, Humboldt Broncos, and Regina Pats.

Back then, he was known to be quite colourful at times, but Yockey said he’s changed a lot since then.

“He’s not the same guy,” Yockey said. “This is a totally different person. He’s mellowed. He loves working with the kids. He’s told us flat out he’d never go back to junior again and yet he knows what those kids need to do in order to get to that next level. That’s the main thing: it’s a developmental league and we want to push as many kid as we can up the ladder.”

Johnton’s last full-time coaching gig was in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League with the Regina Pat Canadians from 2008-2013.

With all of his years of coaching, he has also developed contacts throughout the province and is now using that already to try to recruit for next season.

“He was hard at it as soon as the season stopped,” Yockey said. “He’s been making those calls and getting ahold of families and kids and looking to fill in a roster.”

Spring camp for the AAA Stars will be from April 21-23 and then Johnston will have a full off-season to plan for September.

“He’s got a plan of what he’d like to start with and where he’d like to see the team at at different checkpoints in the season,” Yockey said. “To see what he’ll do with these kids and progress throughout the season, we look forward to that.”

Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

@NathanKanter11