The longest-tenured coach in the SJHL will be behind the Flin Flon Bombers’ bench for at least another two seasons.
Head coach and general manager Mike Reagan has signed a contract extension that will keep him at the Whitney Forum until the end of the 2018-19 campaign.
“It’s been a great environment to work in,” said Reagan. “It’s not necessarily just the job, either. If I wasn’t happy here, we wouldn’t be looking for another contract.”
Reagan has been the Bombers’ head coach and GM since 2007-08, when he took over the job from Doug Stokes.
Reagan has taken the Bombers to the playoffs in each of his 10 seasons, including a run to the Canalta Cup final in 2016.
Reagan, who has 316 regular season wins, had been working under a one-year contract set to expire after the playoffs.
This season he approached the team for an extension before the board could ask.
“Mike came to the board and told us about his interest in having a contract extension,” said club president Hank Kosar. “The board had a vote that night and they decided that’s where we wanted the team to go.”
The Bombers enter this year’s playoffs with a 39-14-2-3 record, winning a division title and earning the second seed in the league.
Flin Flon scored more goals than any other team in the league and
ended the season with four straight wins.
Second place is not Reagan’s goal. He’s hoping for a league title this year – and maybe more.
“We’re hoping that we win a championship this year and have the opportunity to defend it,” he said. “If you look at the history of the league, there’s been a lot of back-to-back champs.”
It’s not known if
assistant coach Garry Childerhose and trainer and equipment manager Tanner Arnold will re-sign with the team, but Kozar is more than open to it.
“They might have a different vision of where they want to be, but we’d love to have them back,” he said. “Consistency is our biggest thing. Everyone’s been here for several years now and it really helps with selling our program to players and families.”
