The Prince George Spruce Kings have found their new bench boss.
Chad van Diemen was introduced as the new head coach of the B.C. Hockey League club Friday morning at the Coliseum, prior to the start of the team's spring prospects camp.
Van Diemen takes over behind the bench after Dave Dupas, who was the team's head coach for the last four-and-a-half seasons, resigned at the end of the season on March 20 to be closer to his family in Kelowna.
Van Diemen, 33, joins the Spruce Kings after spending the last six years as the associate head coach and assistant general manager with the Powell River Kings, who compete in the BCHL's Coastal Conference.
Spruce Kings general manager Mike Hawes said as soon as Dupas submitted his resignation, he received dozens of texts and messages and had no less than 50 serious inquiries.
But van Diemen, who signed a two-year contract, was one candidate Hawes said he set his sights on right away and was one of three short-listed candidates. Hawes knew him from BCHL league meetings as well as from any time Prince George and Powell River competed against each other. Like the Spruce Kings, the Powell River Kings are community-owned, another plus in Hawes' eyes.
"Chad is young, intelligent and ambitious," said Hawes. "Chad was the guy I wanted, I knew him through league meetings and had a lot of discussions with him over the last four or five seasons and I realized Chad would be one guy I'd talk to (for the head coach position)," said Hawes. "I wanted a young guy to come in and work within our structure... and continue with the momentum we've built. I like the way he coaches."
The Spruce Kings advanced to the second round of the playoffs this season for the first time in 10 years.
Van Diemen, under the tutelage of Powell River general manager and head coach Kent Lewis, helped guide Powell River to the BCHL regular-season championship in 2010-11 with a 46-11-3 record. Along the way, the team set a single-season record for the least goals against (115 in 60 games).
During his time in Powell River, van Diemen posted a 205-122-35 record for a .632 win percentage. The Powell River Kings won three Coastal Conference championships during his time on the Sunshine Coast.
While he's never been a head coach in his career, van Diemen said he's ready for the added responsibility.
"In Powell River with Kent Lewis' work schedule, I was head coach for 10 games. I ran a lot of practices and it was a unique situation I was in," said van Diemen, who arrived in Prince George Thursday night. "It was something where I was allowed the opportunity to learn. It was a goal of mine to get to this point and I realize an opportunity like this doesn't come up very often. (The Spruce Kings) are a very stable organization that I have a lot of respect for. In our meetings I heard nothing but good things. They've established a reputation of a hard-working team."
Van Diemen said while he knows of the veterans who are returning to the Spruce Kings lineup next season, he hasn't had a chance to talk to them yet. He hopes to either meet with or talk to them by phone next week.
"We have some pretty talented players returning – they're very skilled and hard-working," van Diemen said. "I'm looking forward to coming up here, it's going to be a lot of fun. We have a great group of veteran players who I'm very excited to be working with."
And he can't wait for he and his family to make Prince George their permanent home.
Van Diemen is married to wife Laura and they have two young boys, Dallas, 2, and Kyle, 1. The family will move to Prince George this summer.
"There's a ton of reasons for families to live here, a lot of great things," he said. "The support the (Spruce) Kings receive is fantastic and that's a huge draw. The people who are up here seem to support the team."
Besides his familiarity with the BCHL in a coaching role, van Diemen, who grew up in Kamloops, spent four seasons in the league as a defenceman between 1998 and 2002 with stops in Nanaimo, Powell River and Quesnel. In 2001-02, he tallied 53 points in 56 games with the Quesnel Millionaires.
He played four seasons of NCAA hockey with Iona College and Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y., graduating from Manhattanville with a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in business management.
