OKANAGAN HOCKEY

By Dallas

Corey Beer’s coaching career has come full circle over the past few seasons transitioning from coaching junior A hockey in Timmins to moving back to Durham Region to take over as the Head Coach of the Okanagan Hockey U18 Prep team in Whitby. Growing up in Oshawa, Beer played minor hockey and baseball but at a young age he discovered that coaching was the pathway he wanted to take in sports. His move from player to coach was heavily influenced by both his father and younger brother.

“My brother started playing hockey when he was seven, and there’s a seven year age difference between the two of us. I just jumped in with my dad and started helping him. We coached all the way through his minor hockey career,” said Beer.

At just 26 years old, Beer jumped to the junior ranks with the Whitby Fury of the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) where he got the opportunity to work under Head Coach Curtis Hodgins. Hodgins, who is now the Head Coach of the Ontario Tech Men’s Team, was a coaching mentor for Beer and helped him learn more about the junior game. The Fury made it all the way to the finals that year with future NHLer Devon Shore leading the team. The next year the coaching staff moved to the Cobourg Cougars where they stayed for five seasons, capping it all off with a National Championship in 2017. With all of the success in Cobourg and the RBC Cup victory Beer was ready to move into a head coaching job. The Timmins Rock of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL) came calling and Beer moved north where he stayed for four years.

“The experience in Cobourg was pretty cool and that ended up getting me an opportunity to become a head coach and it took going up going to Timmins Ontario to do that. I ended up going up north and spent four years there, I would say it was the best four best years of my coaching career,” said Beer.

Beer embraced his time in Timmins and loved the small town atmosphere and the support that the community gave to the hockey team.

“Timmins is an incredibly special community. People come up to you and they want to talk to you in the grocery store and tell you how bad your power play was. It’s pretty funny and they’re intense about hockey which is great,” said Beer.

Beer found a lot of success during his time with the Timmins Rock, pushing the team into the top 10 National Rankings in his third year. His experience with the Rock also earned him a coaching position with Team Canada in the World Junior Challenge for three years winning a Silver Medal in the process and he also got to be the head coach in the Provincial Junior Hockey League (PJHL) Top Prospects Game. Unfortunately, like a lot of teams, the COVID pandemic ended the Rock’s season in 2020-21 and Beer was forced to make some tough decisions about his coaching future. After signing a five year extension in Timmins the uncertainty that the pandemic brought, plus a change in his family dynamics, forced Beer to make a very difficult decision about his coaching future.

“The junior hockey world was always great with me and I was always looked after, but you’re sitting there looking at empty stands and you’re wondering what your gate revenue is gonna be and whether or not the money wilI dry up, especially in a small town community like Timmins. My wife and I had just gotten pregnant too, so with the first first child on the way I had to make a tough decision. It kind of tugged at my heartstrings a bit but at that time we made the decision to come back home to Durham Region,” said Beer

With all of the experience at the junior level Beer returned to Durham and was hired as the head coach of the Okanagan Hockey Ontario (OHO)U18 Prep team which runs out of Iroquois Park Arena. Beer knew OHO General Manager Paul Pascuzzi from his time in Cobourg and through the hockey world in Durham Region, so joining OHO was a natural fit. Beer is really enjoying his head coaching position at OHO and is already seeing the benefits for the players. The approach with OHO compared to a traditional AAA/AA team is the long-term player development which focuses on nutrition, fitness and academics in addition to hockey skills and systems.

“It’s all about the development of young athletes. We focus on school, how they are on the ice, and watching them grow as young men, which is all the stuff that I love doing as a coach,” said Beer.

Beer’s OHO players have the benefit of training with Hockey Skills Coach MIke Duco along with a comprehensive fitness program run by Elite Training Systems (ETS) that focuses on strength and conditioning all in the same facility. Watching the players who progress through two or three years of the program Beer can clearly see the results.

“We’ve had a couple guys that are three year players and they come in really small at 120 pounds and they’re leaving here, ready for Junior at age 18 having put on almost 40 pounds of muscle. We have also given the players opportunities to play different spots in the lineup with different responsibilities,” said Beer.