Canada Games coaching staffs announced
Dunn, Harkness will be P.E.I. head coaches
Kyle Dunn and Chris Harkness will be Prince Edward Island’s hockey coaches for the 2019 Canada Games in Red Deer, Alta.
Hockey P.E.I. made the announcement on Thursday. Dunn, a Charlottetown native, is the head coach of the Kensington Monaghan Farms Wild of the New Brunswick/ Prince Edward Island Major Midget Hockey League. He spent the past five seasons behind the bench of the Wild, receiving coach of the year honours in 2016.
He has coached in Hockey P.E.I.’s program of excellence from 2012 to 2017 and completed his high performance one coach training in 2015. Dunn’s assistants with the team are Charlottetown’s Will Zafiris and Kensington’s Cory Parsons.
Zafiris is the head coach of the Eastern Express and Parsons is the head coach of the Mid-Isle Matrix, both in the Island’s major bantam AAA league.
Zafiris and Parsons have also been part of the program of excellence in the past as assistant and head coach.
The trio will lead the under16 provincial team at the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Challenge in April in Boisbriand, Que.
Strong history
Harkness has an extensive coaching history both in P.E.I. and his native British Columbia.
He was head coach of Team P.E.I.’s under-18 team that won bronze medals at the 2015 and 2016 Atlantic Challenge Cup.
Harkness was an assistant coach with the UPEI women’s team from 2011 to 2014. Hearkness coached many levels in British Columbia from 1998 to 2010.
Joining Harkness as assistants are Charlottetown’s Genna Phelan and Ferran Brown, a Calgary native and former UPEI Panthers captain.
Phelan served as assistant coach at the 2015 Canada Games in Prince George, B.C., and team trainer with the women’s team at the 2011 Games in Halifax.
She led the under-15 female team to gold at the 2011 Atlantic Challenge Cup.
Committee selections
Brown is relatively new to the coaching profession. She is an assistant coach with MidIsle Wildcats midget AAA team and head coach of the O’Leary atom A team.
Brown has been part of the program of excellence 20102015.
A committee, comprised of member’s representing the Hockey PEI board of directors, selected the coaching staffs. Team managers and trainers will be appointed in the near future.
Staffs will begin the process of player identification at the spring program of excellence camp in May.
The Canada Games will be held from Feb. 15 to March 3, 2019.
The Hockey P.E.I. Mark’s Work Wearhouse Program of Excellence (POE) is a development opportunity for all under-14 and under-15 male players as well as all under-15 and under-17 female players.