Ringette coach wins national award
Manitoba Jets coach turns team around, wins coach of the year at same time
By Jolie Toews Oct. 9, 2008 |
Over an 18-year span, Brian Timmerman has gone from being clueless about ringette to achieving a national award for his success in coaching the provincial team.
Timmerman was recently named the National Ringette League’s coach of the year.
He first got into ringette when his daughter started playing.
“I didn’t know anything about ringette. I came to try ringette day at (the St. Norbert) community centre, and ever since then I’ve been hooked. The rest is history,” he says.
That history includes him coaching many teams over the years, winning city, provincial and national titles.
Timmerman also coached Team Manitoba last year at the Canada Winter Games, where they placed fourth.
His latest job was coaching the Manitoba Jets, who placed fourth in the NRL’s western conference, only one point away from a third-place finish.
Timmerman says this was a huge success for the team, which finished last the year before.
The team went from a 3-21 record last year to 14-10 this year, Timmerman says.
The Jets are the youngest and smallest team in the NRL, Timmerman says. He also says they were the only team in the western conference without a Team Canada player on its roster.
“We’re all equal. We have no superstars on this team,” says Timmerman, a former police officer whose day-job is director of operations with the Exchange District Business Improvement Zone.
“I believe in a decision-based coaching method,” he says. “It’s an approach that I’ve used for my entire coaching career, and an approach that I find to be most effective.”
Timmerman says he gives the players options, then allows them to decide what to do.
“When I go on the bench, they know I’m behind each player,” he says. “I’m not the type of person who goes into the dressing room and rants.”
Kristy Maksymyk, one of the team’s captains, says Timmerman was the reason the Jets even iced a team this year. She said he fought to gather enough players.
“I’ve played for a lot of different coaches. With him, he’s all about business and he whips us into shape,” she says.
Timmerman says it was a humbling experience when he found out he’d won the award, which is voted on by all the coaches in the league.
In addition to the recognition, Timmerman was given an engraved silver plate.
