Gulutzan a Prairie boy at heart
Flames’ coach talks hockey, fastball and how he almost became a police officer
Calgary Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan plans to spend a few days in Kelvington this summer, wielding a bat and glove, playing a sport he views with great fondness.
Gulutzan, who grew up in Hudson Bay, Sask., wields a nifty glove. But his life in hockey reduces him to a tournament or two each summer on dusty Saskatchewan fastball diamonds — Kelvington, sometimes Preeceville, Regina a few summers ago.
Gulutzan, who is scheduled to be in Saskatoon July 18 as the host celebrity at the annual Driving Fore Prostate Golf Classic, has been touched by prostate cancer personally — his good friend and assistant coach Paul Jerrard is a survivor.
He talked with The StarPhoenix recently about fastpitch, life as an NHL coach, and the time he almost became a Saskatoon police officer.
Q: You played in the old Memorial Field Fastball League in Moose Jaw way back when (for five years during the hockey off-season). Do you still play the game?
A: I still do. I don’t play in a league anymore, but my wife comes from a real softball family, and they’re all from the Hudson Bay area. They always make sure I play with them.
Q: Are your players aware this is a sport you haven’t been too bad at in the past? Do you ever talk fastpitch with guys on the team?
A: No, never. The one thing you don’t do as a coach, is you don’t chat about yourself too much. I usually keep that under cover, because somebody might call me on it.
Q: You spend a lot of time in Saskatchewan during the offseason. What’s the importance of getting back to your roots every summer?
A: I spent 16 years in the U.S., my kids were small, and it was important for me — and this goes back to fastball a little bit — it was important for me to bring the kids back to see grandma and grandpa on both sides, and to have them taste a little bit of how I grew up. I hadn’t played ball for seven or eight years, and I started playing again for that simple reason. I remember my dad playing ball, and I was dragging a bat around sports days all over Saskatchewan, and I just wanted my sons and daughters to grow up a little bit with the same thing I did.
Q: Have you ever wondered what you would have done if there was no hockey?
A: I got an education degree out of the University of Saskatchewan, and I got offered a position with the Saskatoon city police in 1997. I went through the whole POPAT test, I did the lie detector, I passed a psychological test, I met with the inspectors. They offered me to go to Regina (for training) that fall. But I still wanted to go back and play, so I went back to Europe for another year. Had I cut my hockey time short, I probably would have joined the Saskatoon city police. I contemplated that really hard, but I just wanted to keep playing.
Q: A lot of your stops have been to non-traditional hockey places — Fresno, Las Vegas, Texas. Do special challenges come along when you’re in that kind of market, or is it an easier place to be?
A: It’s much easier. There, hockey is kind of an event, and entertainment. They’re not as analytical. They go for the enjoyment, rather than the critique. In that respect, it’s easier in your daily life. Usually, your hockey conversations don’t last very long in Texas and Las Vegas; they end pretty quickly, and move on to football. But the drawbacks are there, too. There’s not the same passion and knowledge of the game we have up here in Canada, so it’s good in some senses, and in others, it’s not as exciting.
Q: So is it different being the head coach in Calgary, as opposed to when you were the head coach with the Dallas Stars?
A: Yes, it is. It’s much different. When I would go out in Dallas, in the public, I could go most places and no one would know I was there. I probably got mistaken more for being (Dallas Cowboys head coach) Jason Garrett than I did for being Glen Gulutzan, the coach of the Dallas Stars. But in Calgary, it’s a lot different. It’s a little quieter down south, but it’s not as exciting.
Q: You’re coming up for the Driving Fore Prostate Golf Classic. Is there a reason you’re doing this particular event?
A: There hasn’t been (a history of prostate cancer in the family), but there has been with one of my dear friends and assistant coaches, Paul Jerrard. And talking with (Edmonton Oilers coach) Todd McLellan, who did the event before, he thought it was such a spectacular event. I’m taking a day out of my Hudson Bay hockey school to come in; I want to try and do something in Saskatoon, just to give back. This is a great opportunity. I had a lot of good years in Saskatoon, at the university and with the Blades.
Q: Let’s go back to the teenaged Glen Gulutzan. What would he have said if somebody had told him that you would be the head coach of the Calgary Flames, still involved in hockey, all these years later?
A: I’d have said that’s great, but I’d rather play for the Calgary Flames. (Laughs). I just wasn’t good enough.