Duco following his brother’s footsteps with move to coaching
Mike Duco got a coaching baptism by fire last season.
The Peterborough Petes new assistant coach, announced by the OHL club on Tuesday, got more than he bargained for when he accepted a role as player/assistant coach for the ECHL’s Elmira Jackals last season.
Heneverplayedagameashemoved immediately onto the bench to assist head coach Dave Leger. Halfway through the season the struggling Jackals made a coaching change and Duco found himself as head coach. The minor pro league usually has a small staff so Duco had a lot on his plate.
“I assumed all duties including doing the video, running all the practices and off-ice workouts. A lot of teams do a one-man show. We had a volunteer assistant, a local guy, who helped out on game days but for the most part you do everything yourself. The director of hockey operations then told me he was taking a job somewhere else and I had to fulfill those duties as well. I was put in a position to learn on the fly.”
The Jackals folded at the end of the season, leaving Duco without a job.
The Scarborough native, who turned 30 on July 8, played four seasons with the Kitchener Rangers before embarking on a nine-year professional career.
He was never drafted to the NHL but played 18 games with the Florida Panthers and Vancouver Canucks with other stops along the way including the AHL’s Rochester Americans, Chicago Wolves, Toronto Marlies, ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears, Indy Fuel, Evansville Icemen, 12 games in Sheffield, England and one season with Salzburg in Austria.
Just as he’d followed older brother Johnny Duco into playing hockey, he followed him into the coaching ranks. His brother is head coach of the OUA’s Ryerson Rams men’s team.
“I felt like it was time for me to make a transition into coaching on my own terms and I found an opportunity to do that and thought it was probably in my best interests. At the end of the day, I got a great deal of experience from it,” he said.
Once Elmira folded, Duco set his sights on trying to get closer to home and potentially returning to the OHL. He was aware of an opening in Peterborough with Kurtis Foster’s departuretotheKingstonFrontenacs and applied without knowing any of the Petes staff.
“I’ve always paid attention to what goes on in the OHL,” said Duco, who presented trophies to Alex DeBrincat and Nick Suzuki at the recent OHL awards ceremony in Toronto.
“I’ve always wanted to come back to the OHL. I loved it as a player. It developed me into the person I am today and I’m forever grateful to even be given the opportunity to play in the league let alone now come in as an assistant coach and hopefully a big part of a winning team.”
He felt very comfortable in talks with Petes head coach Jody Hull and GM Mike Oke. Hull got strong references from Duco’s former Kitchener coaches Steve Spott and Peter DeBoer.
“The big things were his energy and passion for the game,” said Hull. “He wants to learn. He’s confident in his abilities and what he can bring to our group. After a couple of conversations I knew this was a guy I could see our staff working with. I did my homework as far as calling a couple of people who knew Mike and got some great recommendations.”
Duco made it to the NHL the hard way, through hard work and perseverance, which are traits Hull believes will help him in dealing with young players.
“He’s always had to be a details guy from off-ice workouts to his habits and knowing situations he might be put into in games. He had to be ready for everything and he was. I see that translating to his coaching. He’s organized. He’s done some homework. I’m excited to work with him and in talking to Jake (Grimes) and Andrew (Verner), I think they’re excited, too,” said Hull.
Duco will move to Peterborough with girlfriend Alexandra and be on the ice for practice daily and work on game nights as an eye-in-the-sky. He does not see that as a step down after being a head coach last year.
“My respect level for the OHL is huge and to be given the opportunity to work with a team like the Peterborough Petes I don’t see as a step down at all. This is a developmental league for NHL players and pro players moving on but you also see it is developing great coaches who are moving on as well. I’m hoping to learn from Jody Jake, Andrew and Mike and absorb their experience and everything they have to tell me.”
Peterborough’s Erica Evans scored her second hat trick of the 2017 FIL Rathbones Women’s Lacrosse World Cup in Guildford, England, pacing Canada to a 16-1 victory over New Zealand in quarter-final play on Wednesday.
Canada will now face-off against AustraliainthesemifinalsonThursday at 10 a.m. EST.
PeterboroughgoaliesKateDonohoe and Allison Daley split the duties facing just five shots in total. Donohoe stopped the only shot she faced in the first half. Daley stopped three of four shots in the second half.
A six-point performance from both Alie Jimerson, five goals and one assist, and Dana Dobbie, three goals and three assists, led the way for the Canadians.
Jimerson, the game’s most valuable player, was quick to acknowledge her teammates when asked about her impressive individual performance.
“Overall, it comes down to my teammates, they help me out a lot,” she stated, in a Canadian Lacrosse Association press release. “Most of the goals I scored were assisted. I may have had one or two drives, but again, they cleared space for me so I could go through.” “It was a good team effort today.” In all, nine players would find the score sheet in the win. Taylor Gait continued her strong play, scoring twice, Kay Morissette, Danita Stroup and Crysti Foote rounded out the scoring.
While they were outplayed by the Canadians in all aspects of the game, theNewZealandteamcompetedhard and made some good plays on both sides of the ball, something Canada’s head coach Scott Teeter noticed.
“They are definitely a nation that is up-and-coming in the lacrosse world,” TeetersaidofhisopponentsfromNew Zealand. “They have a lot of speed and are pretty solid all around.”
“Over my years of experience at the World Cup, they are the team that has had the biggest growth.”
The Canadians need one more win to guarantee themselves a medal. They will first need to get by Australia, who despite losing to Canada 9-5 in pool play last week, proved they could compete.
“We opened up against Australia and it seems like it was a month ago,” he said. “We’re a different team now thanwewereonopeningnight.We’ve finetunedoursystemsandwe’replaying more team lacrosse, and it’s good to see.”