Colts on hunt for coach

The Calgary Colts are in the middle of a search for a new head coach after John Stevens decided to resign from his post.

“It was announced to the team he was resigning just before our bye week,” said Mike Tuff, vicepresident of the junior football team’s board.

“We kept it pretty tight. Obviously we’ve got a lot of seniors moving on. I think at that point we were 0-4, 0-5. We decided we’d let everybody know at the end of the season.”

Stevens led the Colts to an 8-0 season in 2012, but suffered through an 0-8 campaign this fall. He had previously served as the club’s defensive co-ordinator and was the University of Calgary Dinos defensive coordinator for seven years prior to that. The 1997 CIS coach of the year spent a long run as the head coach of St. Francis Xavier in Antigonish, N.S.

“John’s a great football guy,” said Tuff. “He’s got a great, great CIS track record. We went 8-0 last year and 0-8 this year. You’ve got the natural attrition of guys leaving.

“We wish John the best. It was a personal decision to leave football and take a job outside of football. John’s still going to be involved in some capacity with the team.”

Tuff said they’ve narrowed the coaching search down to seven or eight candidates and hope to have a new head man in place by early December.

“We’re excited about our list of candidates that we’re looking at and talking to,” he said.

“It’s going to be a good new chapter for us because we’ve kind of circulated coaches among the Calgary Colts for a number of years. What comes of the next month or so will be interesting. I’m looking forward to the group of guys that we’re talking to.”