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Cougars fire head coach Drew Schoneck Print E-mail
Written by JIM SWANSON, Citizen Sports Editor   
Monday, 01 December 2008
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Cougars fire head coach Drew Schoneck - Wade Klippenstein, left, is now running the bench of the Prince George Cougars with GM Dallas Thompson after Drew Schoneck, right, was fired on Monday. (BB1_1931.jpg - 2050810)
Wade Klippenstein, left, is now running the bench of the Prince George Cougars with GM Dallas Thompson after Drew Schoneck, right, was fired on Monday.



BREAKING NEWS, CITIZEN EXCLUSIVE


The Prince George Citizen has learned that Drew Schoneck has been fired as head coach of the Prince George Cougars.
The WHL franchise is expected to make it official by 2:30 p.m. PT with a press release.
The news was given to him in the coach's office at CN Centre just before noon on Monday, coming on the heels of four-straight losses at home including a 7-3 setback to the Saskatoon Blades on Sunday evening, a game played in front of the smallest crowd in CN Centre history (2,054). The Cougars also lost 7-1 to Regina on Saturday.
Schoneck declined comment until after the press release was issued.
It is believed that assistant coach/assistant general manager Wade Klippenstein will remain on the bench, and that general manager Dallas Thompson will join him there for the rest of the season.
Thompson has served as interim head coach on two previous occasions, while Klippenstein has been a WHL head coach before, with the Prince Albert Raiders. Schoneck was an assistant on his staff.
The Cougars currently have a record of 10-18-0-1, sitting last in the B.C. Division and ninth in the Western Conference, with the highest goals-against total in the WHL. The Cougars started the season 6-1, including 5-0 at home, but have won just four of the 22 games played since then. The team is currently on a five-game losing streak.
Schoneck joined the Cougars as associate coach in November of 2006 when the team fired Mike Vandekamp and Stewart Malgunas. The team had a 5-8-0-2 record at that point, and a lop-sided home-ice loss combined with off-ice issues led to that decision.
Schoneck, the former coach-of-the-year in the Manitoba Junior League and a one-time head coach of the BCHL's Powell River Kings, is expected to return to Kennewick, Wash., where he and his wife Lindsay, who have a young son, own a home.
The Cougars play host to the Everett Silvertips on Friday and Saturday at CN Centre.


Comments (4)add
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written by the flying moose , December 01, 2008 (12:57:38 PM)
About bloody time. No disrespect to Drew as a person but this has been needed to be done for a while now. Hopefully this is the start of something good and we can turn things around.
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written by gellow , December 01, 2008 (01:14:27 PM)
Drew is only one part of the problem. If you're a GM in any other city with a losing record, you'd been fired a long time ago. Thompson has been a problem to this organization for a long time, longer than Drew. The cougs need new blood at the GM position, as long as a Thompson is in there, we'll continue to see a losing record and no playoffs (again) for some time. Unfortunately Schoneck is just another victim of the Brodsky approach to hockey in this city. The cougars have tried this approach before and it hasn't worked in the past and it will not work this time either. Make change where it needs to be made, in the front office. When you see all the former cougars doing well in the NHL, you have to wonder why we don't have a championship banner hanging from the rafters.
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written by Pylot Project , December 01, 2008 (03:04:25 PM)
Here we go again. Firing the Coach was not the answer. The only common denominator over these miserable Cougar years has been the same GM at the helm. Isn't the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results?

If Thompson keeps hiring bad coaches then why is he still a GM? If Thompson is trading away our draft picks for players other teams don't want, why is he still the GM? These are rhetorical questions as we all know the answers why.

Open question to the GM.... Do you go to bed at night feeling like you've done a good job year after year?
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Nepotism is Alive & Well in PG
written by 49er , December 02, 2008 (02:15:41 PM)
Don't expect anything positive from the Cougars this year, or any future year for reasons mentioned above. This charade has been going on since day one. The revolving door of coaches has turned this team into the laughing stock of the western hockey.
But it's the players that I feel sorry for. So many young guys with potential have gone through this team and been ruined.
And then there's the fans, the loyal ones that go home so often disappointed, and the fans that stay home, discouraged.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 01 December 2008 )
 
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