Holoien receives the Canalta Cup handoff from Stars head coach, Brayden Klimosko in the spring of 2019. Over the last three seasons, the pair won more games than any other coaching tandem in the league. (Martin Martinson/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Martin Martinson

Headed home to Melfort

Stars asst. coach Rob Holoien leaves team with wealth of memories, a cup champion

May 13, 2021 | 2:06 PM

“An absolute blast, and a blessing.”

That is how assistant coach Rob Holoien perhaps best summed up his time behind the bench for the Battlefords North Stars, reflecting Thursday on his last three years in the community.

This after Holoien announced Thursday morning, he will not be returning behind the bench for the team this fall. Due to the ongoing pandemic Holoien, who is from Melfort originally, has decided instead to take a job closer to home to be near family in the northeast and limit his need to commute back-and-forth.

“It wasn’t an easy decision by any means, but we just felt this was the right decision at this time,” he told battlefordsNOW. “These last three years have been indescribable, and I’m just grateful and thankful for all the relationships I was able to make over the last two and a half years in the Battlefords; I’ll never forget them.”

Holoien, who joined the Stars in mid-December of 2018, played a pivotal role in the team’s success over the last two and a half years, including their Canalta Cup Championship in 2019 and first-place finish the following year in 2020.

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Over his tenure with the team, Holoien contributed to one-half of the winningest coaching duo in the entire Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

During his time as the right-hand man to head coach and general manager, Brayden Klimosko, the North Stars won a league-best, 72.4 per cent of their games, on their way to a 63-18-6 regular season record. In the postseason, their teams then bumped their winning percentage up to 75 per cent, posting a 15-3-2 playoff record.

Head coach of the Stars, Brayden Klimosko said he’s going to miss Holoien for not only the X’s and O’s, but the character and culture he helped contribute to on the team.

“It’s definitely a tough one to lose a high-character guy like Rob,” Klimosko said. “Obviously he’s a huge part of the success our team’s had over the last couple of years, and for my money he’s the best assistant coach in the league. Losing him is not going to be easy to replace, but it’s obviously part of the business and I wish him nothing but the best.”

Prior to joining the North Stars, Holoien spent three seasons as an assistant coach with the Carrot River Outback Thunder of the Prairie Junior Hockey League (PJHL).

Holoien is a veteran of over 120 career Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) games as a player, split between the North Stars, Melfort Mustangs, and Nipawin Hawks of the SJHL, the Winkler Flyers and Neepawa Natives of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL), and Victoria Salsa of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). In 124 career games, he scored 44 goals and 103 points.

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Martin.Martinson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @MartyMartyPxP1