Cote leaving Broncos to join Huskies
Brandin Cote is leaving his hometown team to join the University of Saskatchewan Huskies next season. After three seasons as an assistant coach with the Swift Current Broncos, Cote will join the Huskies as their first full-time associate coach.
“It’s a great opportunity for my family to be all together in one place. My whole family will come, which is good. It’s an opportunity for me to continue to learn and grow as a coach, which has been my whole focus since I started to coach. It could potentially be a place that we see ourselves being for a long time. In terms of stability and opportunity to be a part of a real good program and be involved with student athletes, it’s one that I couldn’t pass down.”
Stanley Cup champion Mike Babcock was recently announced as the new head coach of the Huskies, taking over from Dave Adolph, who over 27 years amassed more wins that any other coach in Canadian men’s university hockey history. It was announced that Babcock would coach on a full-time volunteer basis and that an associate coach would be hired to take over the program after that.
“I’d like to think that I have the ability to be the next guy, but it’s just a matter of earning that and that’s what my focus is going to be going into it is just to do the best job that I can where I’m at and then hopefully you get rewarded for that,” said Cote
Cote and Babcock are no strangers in the hockey world. Cote played under Babcock for his first three WHL seasons with the Spokane Chiefs from 1998-2000.
“It’s been really good. I was a player who I worked hard, I led by example, and he respected that and he rewarded me for that as a player. We’ve always had a relationship where there was a bit of a mentorship role where I could call him up and ask him for advice and whatnot over the years. It’s been a good personal relationship for sure,” explained Cote.
“It’s great to be able to work with him again. I know that he makes people around him better just by, for myself knowing how he works is going to be valuable because I can communicate that to the players as well. He expects a lot out of himself. He expects a lot out of the people he works with and he expects a lot out of the players. That’s really the reason why he’s successful. If you look around, wherever it may be, in the business world or the hockey world, people that are like that, that have that type of leadership end up being successful, so it’s going to be a real good guy to learn from.”
“It’s really tough,” said Cote of leaving the Broncos after three seasons. “I’ve established a really good working and personal relationship with Dean specifically, and Scott and the whole staff, so that’s real hard because I felt we came together real well and got to know each other and our strengths that we bring to the table.”
“And with our players that have been there through a lot of adverse situations here over the last three years is tough because now I really feel that we’re on the other side of things. It’s still definitely a work in progress that’s going to take some time for sure. But for us to be able to go through the things that we went through and see some of the positive things that we saw in the bubble with our young group it’s tough to leave that because you know that eventually will work out.”
Cote said leaving the Broncos was no easy decision.
“I owe everything to Dean and to the Broncos for giving me the opportunity to work with them every day. As much as it was difficult at times with not having tangible success, we saw a lot of success in terms of where we’re at. I can walk away with my head held high feeling proud about that.”
Cote spent much of his childhood in Swift Current and was an avid Broncos fan before moving to Yorkton.
“Also it’s being part of the Broncos organization, obviously being from and born in Swift Current and having that natural attachment to the team as a young fan growing up and being part of the community is something I’ll always remember. I just really know how much the Broncos mean to the community of Swift Current and I wish everybody nothing but the best for sure.”
Cote was coming off a grueling regular season in the East Division Hub where the Broncos played 24 games in 47 days.
“It’s an experience we’ll never forget that’s for sure. There were a lot of challenges logistically. Mentally, emotionally, physically it really pushed everyone to their limits for sure at times. There were times where everyone was physically and mentally exhausted, but our players did a real good job of finding ways to battle through that. The results weren’t always there but our effort level was there the majority of the time in practices and games. We saw some guys take some steps, whether they were younger or older. I think if you look at our last three games you could see that there’s progress being made. That was really our goal at the end of the day was we wanted our last game to look a lot different than our first game and I think we accomplished that.”
Cote’s professional playing career ended in 2009 in Germany. He has been coaching for over a decade with Hockey Alberta, Hockey Canada, the Bentley Generals, Red Deer College, the Red Deer U18 AAA Chiefs, the Prince Albert Raiders, and the Broncos.
“I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. There’s been lots of sacrifices made, obviously being away from my family for certain amounts of time has been difficult, but I’ve had support from my family. They’re all engaged in it and they support the career that I’ve chosen. I’ve really tried to keep my family at the forefront of everything as well. That part has been real good and real rewarding. But yeah it’s difficult, especially now because it’s such a business that it’s tough as a younger coach to get opportunities until you get a lot of experience. Some guys go right away, but it’s not an overnight success, it never has been.”
Cote said he could learn from his new head coach’s experience. Babcock began coaching the Moose Jaw Warriors in 1991 and had a one-year stint with the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns in 1993-94 before six seasons in Spokane and two with the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks in the American Hockey League. Babcock is now a part of the ‘triple gold’ club with a Stanley Cup, an Olympic Gold medal and an IIHF Men’s World Championship.
“You look at Mike Babcock’s career and everyone thinks that he got there right away. Well he didn’t. He spent 14 years grinding in the college levels, the Western Hockey League, at the American Hockey League level for a couple years. No one is an overnight success, so you have to pay your dues, you have to put in your time, and you have to continue to work and learn. That’s really the journey of it and something when you start you don’t realize how long it takes and the work that needs to be put into it. I feel that I’m on the right path and I just have to stay with it and work at it. You do the best job that you can with where you’re at, whether your successful or not you’re always learning something and then you move on from that and you continue to work your way up and that’s the way I see it. The next step is the U of S and I plan on being there for a long time, both as an associate coach and then hopefully as a head coach. Then you never know what happens later on.”