Pearson reflects on returning home

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/08/2020 (2068 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In 1989, a 16-year-old Ken Pearson was ecstatic when he heard Neepawa would be getting a Manitoba Junior Hockey League team.

Imagine his elation if he knew that 30 years later he’d be the face of the franchise.

Now one year into his tenure as head coach and general manager of the Neepawa Natives, Pearson is reflecting on his past season and everything that brought him to this point.

“In the wintertime, I was the guy that spent 99 per cent of my time at the rink growing up. Just the way everyone pushed hockey and the sports here, the community mindedness of the people here was just so exciting,” he said.

Born and raised in Neepawa, Pearson was able to spend his whole junior hockey career playing at home for the Natives. Predecessors from the community weren’t so lucky — with no MJHL team in town until 1989, teens wanting to put sticks on pucks usually moved out to Dauphin, Winkler or Portage to take a stab at the junior-A game.

Pearson grew up with a decently-sized group of friends who all played minor hockey together. Moving on to junior with a handful of them while at home was really special for him as a teen.

Following his senior season in 1993-94, Pearson stuck with the Natives for two more years, working as an assistant coach under then-bench boss, Don McGillivray.

Succeeding that stint, he moved over to the Winkler Flyers. After assistant coaching the Flyers to a Turnbull Cup victory in 1997-98, Pearson landed his first head coaching gig the following year.

With over half of Pearson’s past 25 years spent working as coach and/or GM for the Winkler Flyers — his longest stint being eight seasons beginning in 2011-12 — Pearson was ready when change came knocking.

Penning a five-year contract with Neepawa in 2019 “just felt right” for Pearson, signing on to fill both the head coach and GM roles.

“It’s been fun, it was a good year back in Neepawa for a number of reasons,” he said.

“Being able to reconnect with some old friends that I haven’t had the chance to in the past 25 years, that’s been nice. But the number-one reason is that my whole family is here in Neepawa, so to be able to be here and see them more, it’s been a great experience.”

Neepawa and its hockey community hold a special place in the 46-year-old’s heart.

“There’s hockey people here in this community, you see that continue on. For years, it’s something that our community has been proud of,” he said.

“It’s a nice, small place. You know everyone in town. You walk down the sidewalk and they’re going to stop and talk to you, ask about the game. As a player and now as a coach, it’s exciting to be able to chat about things going on.”

The home-grown bench boss didn’t have an easy first season handed to him. Neepawa went 13-43-1-3 in their regular season, finishing last in an 11-team league.

Despite that, Pearson saw progress in the latter half of the season, which is something he hopes to build on this year.

“We started slow out of the gates and it really hurt us, but we made a number of changes to the group, made some new ways of doing things,” Pearson said.

“From our practices to what we did off the ice was obviously new to a lot of returning players, and to our new players that came out. So it’s just that adjustment, me getting to know them, them getting to know me … as we got further down the road you could really see the change in a lot of the kids,” he said.

While Pearson said it’s important for his team to get off to a good, quick start this season, the key lies in consistency.

But, regardless of what gets thrown the team’s way, there’s no doubt Pearson will be able to handle it.

While Pearson hasn’t been a big part of the Neepawa community for the past 25 years, his family sure has. He knows how much the town loves its hockey. Good or bad, Pearson is up to hear what fans have to say.

“If I don’t hear things from people on the street, then they’ve passed things onto my family about how they think our play has been on or off the ice … I guess that’s helped me prepare for that pressure of being a hometown guy that has come back to coach and be the manager of the junior team,” he said.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and one hockey team can’t be built in a season. The veteran coach has racked up plenty of experience over the past 25 years. With junior coaching experience in Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan, he’s been able to take a little bit away from team he’s coached for.

Now that he’s back home, the Neepawa native is eager to continue building his team for years to come.

“I think being away for so long has prepared me for this,” he said.

While Pearson’s first year back at home has been like a “honeymoon phase” phase for him, he’s already well underway into planning out his second season as head coach.

“I know what the people here want in Neepawa. They want us to have success, they want us to be consistent and if we can win a championship on top of that, that’ll be the cherry,” he said.

“The community just wants good, hard-working, blue-collar people that are going to give an honest effort every night, because that’s what this community is: hard-working people who will work from 8 to 5 and put in a good solid effort.”

» dshewchuk@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @devonshewchuk