Life as a hockey coach can often feel nomadic, and first year Calgary Hitmen bench boss Mark French knows this as well as anyone. During a 19-year coaching career, he’s been part of six different hockey leagues and coached on two different continents.
French began hos coaching career at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., in 1996, mere weeks after playing for the team. In 1999, he started his CHL career as an assistant in the OHL with North Bay. He then spent a few seasons back in the CIS with Wilfrid Laurier University before heading to the ECHL’s Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies as an assistant. French got his first head coaching job in the Central Hockey League with the Wichita Thunder before moving up to the AHL with the Hershey Bears, first as an assistant and then as a record-setting (60 wins and franchise-record 123 points in ’09-10 and 100 wins faster than any coach in AHL history), Calder Cup-winning head man. Last season he guided Croatia’s Zagreb Medvescak to an 11th-overall finish in the KHL.
French has been pretty much everywhere that there is hockey and he’s won a lot of games. And although it wasn’t all rosy this season, he now has his Hitmen poised to make a big playoff push.
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Back in 2007, he was brought on in Hershey as an assistant after the Washington Capitals promoted Bruce Boudreau to the NHL. He worked under Bob Woods—currently the head coach in Saskatoon—for two seasons and was part of back-to-back championship teams. He took over as the head man in Hershey back in 2009 and in his first season led the Bears to the Calder Cup. “The team that I took over in Hershey had won the year before when I was an assistant,” French says. “That was a special group.”
When Calgary president Kelly Kisio and GM Mike Moore gave him a call about returning to North America and the CHL, hejumped at the opportunity. “Even though I went through the professional ranks I always knew that junior hockey was something I wanted to come back to,” he says. “You have a chance to have an impact on young men at a time that’s pretty formidable.”
The Hitmen ended last season tied with Edmonton for the Central Division’s top spot but were bounced in the first round of the playoffs by the sixth-seeded Kootenay Ice. That led to the club removing Mike Williamson from the bench and turning to French, who has been successful at every stop he’s made. But the Hitmen want more than just regular-season success, they’re looking for post-season success. “We’re trying to find a way to have success as a group and as an organization to take it to the next level,” French says. “I’d like to think we could make a run.”
Whenever a coach moves from the pro ranks to junior there is always a question about whether or not he can relate to teenagers. French says he went into the Calgary season ready to adjust. “Dealing with what they can take in and what you can give them was an important step for me to understand,” he says. “Less is generally more with these guys in our preparation and how much detail we get into.”
As the season unfolded, French had to put his coaching acumen to the test. Loaded with NHL prospects like Jake Virtanen, Travis Sanheim and Adam Tambellini there were high expectations for the Hitmen. They got out of the gates slow and had one player, Greg Chase, beg his way off the team. They were more or less a .500 team and didn’t really get going until after the new year.
They lost back-to-back games against Red Deer and Victoria in mid-January in what was the low point of the season. French says the team had to regroup and get back to playing its game. He got the players to buy in and they responded by out-scoring their next two opponents 12-2. They would go on to win nine in a row and 15 of 16. When the dust settled, French’s team had caught and passed Medicine Hat for the Central Division lead.
A team that started with high expectations was starting to live up to them. “Our staff tries to stay very process driven,” French says. “It’s about the next game and making sure we’re playing our best hockey at the right time and knowing that the biggest expectation should be the ones in the room.”
Most remarkable about the hot streak was that most of it happened on the road. They went on a 11-game road trip through February and the first two weeks of March and picked up wins against tough teams like Seattle, Portland and Kelowna. French says that the success on the road should pay dividends in the post-season. “I think it was a great opportunity to be a badge of honour if we handled it the right way,” French says of the trip. “It showed we could handle adversity and where our character is.”
If French can repeat his first-year success that he had in Hershey you can bet that he might get some calls from the next level. “When you get in this business you always dream of being able to coach in the NHL,” he says. “I think through 19 years I’ve had enough experience to know that it’s unpredictable, this business, so it’s important to enjoy where you are and kind of take what’s given from there. It’s always a goal to strive for the highest level, but for now I’m happy where I am.”