All good things must come to an end.
Okotoks Bisons assistant coach Rory Hennigan, a born-and-raised Calgarian, is emigrating to Regina and in doing so ending a five-year tenure as a coach with the club.
“It’s a new journey, I am heading out there and I’m not going to do anything with coaching,” Hennigan said. “I’ve got some friends out there and I’m just going to start fresh.”
Hennigan’s start with the Bisons actually began while he was a player with the Airdrie Thunder in the early 2000s under the guidance of current Bisons bench boss Mike Hannigan, Airdrie’s head coach at the time.
“He was out here and I just told him six years ago that I always wanted to coach,” Hennigan said. “And he had an opening and I started the next year.”
During Hennigan’s first two years with Okotoks the Bisons were bounced in the semifinals of the Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) playoffs by the Cochrane Generals in 2008-09 and then the Red Deer Vipers in 2009-10.
However, the team then won consecutive league titles and a silver medal at the Junior B provincials in April at the Murray Arena in Okotoks.
The Saskatchewan-bound Hennigan said there have been a number of personal highlights with the herd that have developed into flashbulb memories over the years.
“The silver medal was great and even the game before that to beat the Edmonton Royals was unbelievable,” Hennigan said of the semifinal win at provincials. “That was one of those games where a lot of the things that we worked on over the years finally came through on the powerplay it was tick-tack-toe. It was great to see.”
He said what he will miss most about coaching is seeing improvement in the players.
“I was just packing up my house and looking at some of the posters of previous years and seeing and remembering all the guys that I coached,” Hennigan said.
“The biggest thing I get out of it is making up drills and then seeing those drills being used on the ice in games. And guys picking up on that and seeing guys that, at the start of the year barely made the team, and at the end of the year they’re flying.”
Hennigan, in charge of the Bisons’ defence corps for all five seasons with Okotoks, said two blueliners in particular, current Bison Matt Howatt and alumnus Lance Risseeuw, stuck out for their work ethic.
“Risseeuw, Mike told me about him coming in and said you’re going to love this kid and I’d compare him with Howatt, but two totally different sizes Risseeuw was huge,” Hennigan said.
“Those two are just guys who put everything on the line, end-to-end and never give up.”
Hennigan’s role on the bench was scaled back as his replacement Trevor Snodgrass gradually transitioned into the assistant coach duties for the 2012-13 season, but the former’s passion for coaching didn’t exactly extinguish.
“I stood off this year a bit and let Snodgrass have the D and of course Mike has the forwards and then a couple times I jumped in and I could feel it then,” Hennigan said.
“There was a couple times when I had a little bit of emotion, but I usually shovel that back down.”
Bisons general manager Jay McFarlane said Hennigan’s defensive know-how was invaluable to the team.
“He played defence as well and he was a specialist on the defence side,” McFarlane said.
“He certainly brought out the lighter side too in the dressing room and with the coaching staff, he’s a very likeable guy and he’s had some great motivational speeches in the past that we will have to fill in while he’s gone.”
McFarlane said Hennigan’s presence will be missed on the bench, in the dressing room and in all team functions.
“Mike Hannigan just brought him in with open-arms and he just fell in love with the organization,” McFarlane said.
“He gave us his time and energy for the last four years and we were happy to have him and we’re going to miss him that’s for sure.”
