McCaig begins new coaching adventure

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This article was published 13/08/2025 (272 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cole McCaig has learned just how hard it can be to leave something you love for another great opportunity.

McCaig, 32, worked as an assistant coach with the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Flin Flon Bombers for seven years before accepting a job with the BCHL’s Brooks Bandits in July. He leaves for Alberta today.

“I’m really excited,” McCaig said. “It was a weird feeling at first to be honest. When you’re offered a position, it’s weird because you’re excited but in the back of your head you’re also thinking about what you’re leaving. I’m not going to lie, it was tough.”

McCaig was born and raised in Flin Flon until his parents Rick and Carol moved to Brandon in 2000 when Cole was seven.

He played one year of minor hockey in Flin Flon before they left, and then skated in the Brandon minor hockey system. Even when he wasn’t playing, McCaig spent a lot of the time at the rink with his father, who scouted for the Western Hockey League’s Everett Silvertips and Calgary Hitmen for a combined nine seasons.

CAPTAIN FOR KEN

In his third season with the under-18 Wheat Kings — the 2010-11 campaign — McCaig was named captain by the team’s new coach, Ken Schneider, who is universally considered one of the nicest people in the game. Along with the C, McCaig had found someone who would become a significant mentor.

“Ken is actually a huge reason why I coach,” McCaig said. “He’s an unbelievable human being. You wanted to run through a brick wall for him. He did a great job of making everyone feel important. It didn’t matter if you were on the fourth line or if you were the number six defenceman or the backup goalie.

“You enjoyed coming to the rink and he made you feel like you were a huge part of the success.”

He and defenceman Derek Sobkow were the only third-year returnees, which he said brought some extra responsibility. As captain, he felt like he was an extension of the coaching staff and giving the staff a sense of the pulse of the dressing room.

“That definitely helped me with coaching because when you’re the captain, you’re having some more conversations than you would if you weren’t the captain,” said McCaig, who led the team in scoring with 57 points in 44 games. “You have a better idea of what the coaches are thinking during the season in certain situations in certain scenarios. It definitely helped.”

He was drafted by the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Swan Valley Stampeders at 15 but later dealt to the Waywayseecappo Wolverines, and played five games with them during his second U18 season when the team got hit by an outbreak of swine flu.

McCaig had been offered a spot in Wayway in his 17-year-old season but had instead returned to Brandon to serve as captain of the Wheat Kings. When his 18-year-old year came along, he decided to head home to Flin Flon for the 2011-12 season.

“The opportunity to go back there to play was really special,” McCaig said. “My dad’s side was all from Flin Flon and my grandpa was the trainer when they won the Memorial Cup in the ’50s and my dad was an assistant coach for the Bombers for a season in the ’90s. That organization means a lot to my family so it was a no-brainer to go back there to play.”

After two-and-a-half seasons, McCaig was dealt back to Wayway after asking for a trade for an increased role, and it gave him a chance to end his junior career in the top six.

In 174 regular season games in the two leagues, he had 16 goals and 31 assists. As it turns out, the lack of offensive success proved to be incredibly impactful on him.

“My experience in junior has shaped me significantly with who I am today,” McCaig said. “I wouldn’t say my junior experience was sunshine and rainbows. I had a really good final year of U18 AAA and so I had a lot off interest across Canada, so I had high expectations in Flin Flon, and if you look at my point totals, I did not live up to those expectations at all.”

HEADING SOUTH

After graduating from junior, McCaig headed south to Indianapolis to spend four years at Marian University, whose coaching staff included another former U18 AAA Wheat Kings captain, Taylor Langford.

By that time, he had the maturity and self awareness to understand his strengths and weaknesses as a player, so he was able to set more realistic expectations for himself and take ownership of his success and failure.

“I think I learned a ton of life lessons through junior hockey,” McCaig said. “… It helped me so much at the college level knowing what I was as a player because I went through that adversity.”

McCaig studied sports and recreation management and marketing, and hoped his future lay in the game. In an oddity, he went on a recruiting trip with Langford in his freshman year and began to get involved in scouting as a freshman.

By his senior year, his head coach let him draw up a drill for practice every week.

“I think it was a combination of being around my dad as a scout, and going to Carberry for a tournament and going to Neepawa or Wawanesa — travelling around and watching hockey — and I loved that,” McCaig said. “Then I got a little bit older and played for Ken Schneider for a year and saw the impact that he had on people. That made me want to stay involved and coach.”

After skating in 96 games over four seasons with the Knights between 2014 and 2018, McCaig knew his future lay behind the bench and got back in contact with his former Flin Flon coach, Mike Reagan, to see if he could use him as a reference on his resumé.

Instead, Reagan offered him a job.

After exploring his options, McCaig joined the Bombers for the 2018-19 season. The job entailed him also working as marketing director, and he would live with the physical therapist so the team could cover his living expenses.

He would be paid just $5,000 by the team for the winter, so saddled with student debt, he took on a part-time job with Arctic Beverages in the afternoons and refereed in the evening.

That changed in his second year when the full-time assistant coach left for another job and McCaig slid into his role.

“I was very relieved because I didn’t have to ref or work another job but I’ve heard stories that’s how it’s done sometimes to get your foot in the door,” McCaig said.

NEXT MENTOR

Happily for him, life had put McCaig in another situation where he could grow in the game. Reagan, another Flin Flon product who played for the team, has been with the Bombers since the 2006-07 campaign and taken his team to the final five times.

“I owe a lot to Mike for my development as a coach,” McCaig said. “Just from putting together a championship-looking roster to what the day-to-day looks like … it’s not a 9-to-5 job. It’s a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job and you need to have your phone on you at all times.”

McCaig appreciated that Reagan didn’t treat him like a puck pusher, instead delegating additional responsibilities every season. In his fourth season, he was named assistant general manager, while also handling all the travel, arranging community appearances for the players and finding them jobs, scouting, helping with league paperwork plus doing skills sessions and video.

“If I ever tried to be a head coach, then I had all that experience,” McCaig said. It certainly gave him a look behind the curtain at the real work that goes into building and maintaining a hockey club. He admitted he was surprised at the amount of work, in part because of the smaller Junior A staffs.

“Between me and Mike, you’re probably doing a five-person job,” McCaig said. “It was definitely an eye opener, even a lot of the non-hockey related things like being responsible for billets and fundraisers and the business side of things.”

He said a coach might get a handful of days off in an entire season.

After seven seasons in Flin Flon — including three unsuccessful trips to the SJHL final — McCaig decided it was time for the next challenge.

“Probably up until mid-July I was fully expecting myself to be back in Flin Flon,” McCaig said. “Like anyone who works in sports, they know that in the off-season you’re always going to be looking over the fence and seeing what’s out there.”

NEXT CHALLENGE

There wasn’t much that piqued his interest until Brooks posted its job for an assistant coach.

The BCHL squad, which jumped from the Alberta Junior Hockey League in January 2024, won its first championship in its new league last May.

“In my opinion, they’re the premier team in junior hockey at that level,” McCaig said. “I just felt like it was an opportunity to throw my name in the mix and see what happens.”

When Bandits head coach and general manager Ryan Papaioannou offered him the job, it was time to make the move. He noted they have a great track record of moving both players and coaches on to the next level.

“I had been in Flin Flon for seven years as an assistant coach, and that’s a long time, especially at that level,” McCaig said. “You don’t see a lot of guys stay in one spot for that long. There’s a lot of turnover at that level, and usually guys are staying with a team for two or three years max and then moving on.

“I wasn’t going to leave Flin Flon just to leave Flin Flon, It had to be for an opportunity that really excited me.”

From the standpoint of Brooks, they also thought they made a good move.

“Our goal was to find a candidate that had both experience at the junior level while also being a relationship-based coach,” Papaioannou said in a release after the hiring.

“We felt like Cole exhibited these qualities and his time in Flin Flon will serve our organization well. His work ethic and focus on individual player development will be an asset to our group and we are looking forward to his arrival in Brooks.”

The staff there handles things as a collective, although McCaig will look after the development of the forwards. The individual roles will likely be sorted out as the new staff coalesces, although there will still be sorting and recruiting roles for him.

But he won’t be handling marketing, fundraisers, social media or a host of the jobs he did with the Bombers.

“It’s going to be purely hockey-related stuff, which I’m excited about,” McCaig said. The players show up on Aug. 28 and camp begins on Aug. 29.

After he accepted the new job, he made difficult calls to Flin Flon’s 20-year-olds, the team president, assistant coach, head scout, the radio broadcaster and even one of the Bomber super fans before he was finally able to reach Reagan.

“That was tough but Mike was very supportive,” McCaig said. “It was never like he was trying to sway me to come back. He knew that I knew I would be crazy not to take this opportunity. Hearing that from him, I felt better.”

The news drew an overwhelming flood of texts and congratulations from fans and former players. To deal with the emotional drain, he immediately began watching video on Brooks to familiarize himself with his new squad and reached out to all the returning players to introduce himself.

Part of the appeal of the move for McCaig is trying something new. He and Reagan didn’t even have to discuss some things in recent years because they both knew who would be taking care of it.

That’s no longer the case, but that’s part of the appeal.

“If I would have gone back to Flin Flon for an eighth year, I would have been more than excited,” McCaig said. “I loved my time there, I loved the people I worked with, I loved the standards and expectations that the team has every year. But I did feel like I wanted something new and challenging.

“But in order to grow, you have to put yourself in uncomfortable situations.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com