We all know that the role of a coach can be not only challenging, but it comes with no real guarantee – despite the contract they sign.

November 10th the BCHL Nanaimo Clippers were effectively under new ownership, which many had speculated for some time.

The club was purchased by Wes and Penny Mussio who were the previous owners of the Delta Ice Hawks, the PJHL club that plays out of the Ladner Leisure Centre on Tuesday evenings.

Wes had been searching for a team to purchase for a period of time and for Wes and Penny to officially purchase the Clippers simply made sense.

Some are saying that it’s simply a case of an owner buying a team so his (in this case) Son can have a place to play and this is simply not the case as his Son (Devon) currently plays in Coquitlam.

Wes had mentioned at the press conference that he has no immediate plans to change the organization’s current staff, but he did name Darren Naylor to the role of Director of Player Personnel, which is en essence to evaluate the overall organization.

At that time and until today (December 22nd Mike Vandekamp was the Head Coach/GM, but his contract expires at the end of next season.

Wes mentioned “I have no plans to pull the Clippers out of Nanaimo and is invested to see the organization flourish over the long haul in the City.”

Now we are hearing that effective immediately Vandekamp has been replaced as GM/Head Coach and it’s reported that current Ice Hawks Coach Darren Naylor will assume the roles and are effectively immediately.

Wesley had a tough call to make and it probably wasn’t an easy decision but decided to make the mid-season move because of irreconcilable differences between Mike and Wes.

This could have been in regards to the direction of the team for next year as well as the fact that he (Wes) had a different view of recruiting players for the 2018-19 season and beyond.

Wes commented “Mike has done an excellent job at the Clippers organization and will continue to be an excellent coach in future years.”

For those not familiar with his (Naylor) past, I can personally let you know that he is an experienced Coach and has 25 years of coaching experience.

He was been recently awarded the 2016-17 PJHL Coach of The Year and led the Delta Ice Hawks (the youngest team in the league) to the PJHL final series this past season against the Aldergrove Kodiaks.

This season his team (Delta Ice Hawks) hold the best overall record in the province for Junior B hockey that has his squad currently sitting at 26-2-1.

He (Darren) began his Junior hockey career with the WHL Victoria Cougars for 3 successful seasons before he returned for his overage year as a member of Vernon Lakers where they won the Canadian Junior A Championship (Royal Bank Cup).

Darren then embarked on a 5-year minor pro player career that saw him take up coaching and has been working as GM/Head Coach in the BCHL, PIJHL, KIJHL, in addition to him doing duties as a WHL scout.

It’s reported that Clipper’s President and Governor Dave LeNeveu is retaining his five per cent ownership stake in the team.

He mentioned to the media “At this point for me I’m just looking for someone to come in and help this team survive.” 

It’s never a good time to replace, fire or make changes with any organization, but personally speaking – the writing was on the wall for Mike.

We wish him all the best as he is an exceptional coach and will rebound to coach another club, not just sure what league.

There is still time to purchase you book of tickets to be used this season or next.