GCB coach celebrates milestone

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This article was published 28/02/2022 (1528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GLENBORO — Corey Forbes hit an incredible milestone on Saturday, and his friends weren’t about to let him live it down.

The head coach of the Glenboro-Carberry-Baldur Wildcats spent his 800th game behind the bench, and while he just saw it as another number, a bunch of people from the community 80 kilometres southeast of Brandon made sure everyone knew.

A sign inside the lobby announced the feat, and a pre-game presentation was made prior to the Westman High School Hockey League game against the visiting McCreary Mountaineers.

“I was completely overwhelmed,” said Forbes, who was clearly a little uncomfortable with the attention when he had to walk out to centre ice. “It was almost too much. My wife (Leanne Gates) was bugging me — she’s in Winnipeg with our boy (14-year-old Tucker) right now — she was saying ‘I shouldn’t go, I should come back’ — and I said ‘Man, it’s nothing, it’s a number and I don’t care.’

“When I walked in, I was like ‘Ahhhhhh’ and I knew what (event organizer Robert Gudnason) had been doing. I’m not a praise guy. I don’t need the pat on the back, that’s not why I do it, but to see the people there who appreciate that I put in the time, it’s a nice feeling.”

Forbes, who turned 50 last week, is in his 20th season as the team’s head coach, a mark he would have reached last season if it hadn’t been cancelled due to COVID.

After the game — a 4-3 shootout victory — alumni players streamed out onto the ice with the current players for a picture with Forbes, which he said was an important moment for him.

“There have been some close ones but for me, the highlights are these guys coming out at the end,” Forbes said. “That’s almost 20 years. There were guys almost from the first team … The highlight is the friendship you have with the kids after the fact. I’m still buddies with guys I coached 15 years ago. They are still in town and have families and I’m teaching their kids. It’s the community highlights for sure.”

Gudnason, who serves as team manager, planned the event on Saturday with help from a number of parents and other team staff. He noted Forbes has two decades of time away from his family, which also includes 16-year-old daughter Anna. That included plenty of early morning practices, which Forbes scheduled so students could participate in other sports after school.

“I don’t think we’ve done enough to recognize all the volunteer hours he’s put in,” Gudnason said. “He would prefer to be the guy behind the scenes and not be given any credit. If we didn’t do this, then people don’t realize it. Who would have thought, 800 games?”

Dauphin Clippers head coach Jason Alf, who has served as co-president of the high school league with Forbes for the past several years, said it’s not just the number that’s impressive, but also the dedication.

“When I think of Corey’s 800 games, I think of in the past when he was running his pre-season tournaments,” Alf said. “I think he runs the Zamboni sometimes if he has to, he’s arranging music, he’s just everything about the hockey around there. Eight hundred games at any level for anyone is quite a commitment, especially in a volunteer position.”

Remarkably, it almost didn’t happen.

Forbes, who is originally from the nearby community of Rothwell, was actually interested in coaching volleyball, a spot that was already filled.

“I got into in (hockey) because the volleyball coach in town — I started coaching volleyball — he turned out to be a lifer and is still coaching now,” Forbes said. “I had to veer off into something that I had been playing all my life anyway. It was just a natural thing for me.”

The hockey team originally was a pairing between Glenboro and Treherne for the first couple of years, but when Treherne decided to go with an under-18 team instead, Carberry was added instead. Baldur came on board later.

Forbes, who lives and teaches in Glenboro, was actually residing in Brandon when he started coaching the hockey team.

“When I was travelling to do morning practices in Treherne from Brandon, it was just crazy,” Forbes said. “The motivation for me now is that I have a boy in Grade 8. I’m close to retirement but he’s close to being old enough to play so it’s always been one of those things where I haven’t done this for 20 years to not see my boy come through.”

He said between a decade of running Glenboro Minor Hockey — he’s in his final year there — and his coaching duties with the Wildcats, it wouldn’t be possible without the strong support of his partner, Gates.

Gudnason said one of the most impressive parts of his time with the Wildcats is that he didn’t actually have a family member on the team during that time.

“He’s been doing this since 2001 and never had a kid on the team,” Gudnason said. “His son will be in Grade 9 next year so he’ll have him as an (affiliate player). So it’s not that he had interest in it with his family, he’s doing it for the program. He obviously enjoys coaching hockey but that’s 20-some years he’s put in for 6:30 practices.”

Gudnason added that Forbes stays busy in the summer, coaching fastball and helping to look after the ball diamonds.

Forbes said it’s important for small communities to have sports teams that youngsters can aspire to play for one day.

“I think it’s huge,” said Forbes, who tells his players they are role models. “You still see a bunch of peewee and bantam kids and even the younger ones coming to watch all the time …

“It’s a good thing for them to see. Most of them aren’t going to that next level. I don’t have a whole pile of AAA kids rolling through my school. They see this as a viable option and that’s a good thing for sure.”

Forbes’s goal as a coach is to help his players improve, noting many will go on to play senior hockey in their hometowns. While Glenboro no longer has a senior team, the Carberry Plainsmen of the Tiger Hills Hockey League is full of graduates from the GCB program.

“People need to realize that this is OK for their kid to play,” Forbes said. “It’s a good program and the kids get something out of it. They get to play with their buddies, and still get to play volleyball and basketball and do everything else on top of this.”

Over two decades, Forbes has watched as the league expanded and the level of play has improved dramatically. It now has 18 teams and stretches from Russell to the north and west, to Deloraine, Boissevain and Killarney to the south to Sandy Bay to the east.

“Honestly, people don’t give this league enough credit,” Forbes said. “There are a lot of good players in this league. Some have chosen not to play AAA and some were last cuts. There some bubble guys, and that’s everybody’s first line, and hopefully you have a few deeper ones. Some years you get lucky and they show up.

“As far as the high school league, where it’s come from in 20 years of watching, the game just gets better and better.”

Alf, who is the only WHSHL coach who has been active longer, said Forbes has been a big part of the growth because he was vocal at meetings and presented a vision of what the league could be that aligned with his own.

“The things he’s brought into this league, the paperless game sheets, the playoff structure and trying to go to this home-and-away schedule (against each team),” Alf said. “I think we really want to keep that going instead of having divisions where you may have Crocus three games and McCreary only once. He’s fantastic for this league and hopefully he stays on for a while.”

The pair now speak two or three times a week.

Alf said this year’s Wildcats team is a good representation of what the veteran coach tries to do on the ice. GCB, which sits in fourth place with a record of 23-7-1-1, will be one of the top eight teams in the league to advance to the championship round of the playoffs, with the teams sitting from ninth to 16th place in a consolation playoff.

“His guys are hard working, there is a lot of pressure, they don’t mind the contact, clean but you don’t want to get on the wrong side of them,” Alf said. “That’s probably different than some of his teams in the past because he hasn’t maybe had the players, but he’s adapted well and I think his players have adapted well over the years to what he’s had and who he is. That’s a real testament to his coaching. He’s having a really good year this year but even in his lean years, you always knew you were in for a game with those guys. It was just good, hard-nosed, clean hockey.”

For the record, after a win over Crocus on Sunday, GCB’s record under Forbes stands at 389 wins, 382 losses, nine ties and 21 overtime or shootout losses.

Another milestone might still be out there for him. If he can last another five seasons, with about 40 games per season, 1,000 games may be within reach.

So, is there still gas in his tank after 20 years? With his son potentially joining the roster soon, there certainly is.

“I have a few more left in me,” Forbes said with a chuckle.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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