BLACKBURN, UK – New Blackburn Player-Coach Jared Owen is looking forward to steering the Hawks in an upward direction this season as he takes on the role full time.
The Lancashire outfit finished mid table last season in English National League Division 1 North, with Owen joining half way through the campaign. With ten goals in thirteen appearances, the 29 year old made an instant impact on the ice. Now charged with making an impact off the ice, the 5’ 8” Telford native cut his teeth in coaching by helping out Jason Parry whilst involved with the Telford Titans a couple of years ago. At such a young age, the move into coaching seems a strange one, but Owen insists that it suits him:
“I wish I felt young” he laughs. “The coaching side has always interested me, I’ve always been a vocal player who was happy to put my ideas forward to a coach or say where I things could be improved,
“So this kind of is a natural progression for me following on from my experience with the Titans. I was taking a break from the game when Daniel Brittle called me to say Blackburn would be interested in me and him going up to join the team for the rest of the season,
“We decided to give it a go and really enjoyed ourselves. The team had a great bunch of lads in the dressing room, the management looked after us really well and we started to pick up some great results and eventually finished in fifth spot,
“During the summer I had a conversation with Gary Rogers (Hawks Manager) and he asked me if I wanted to take up the position, I wasn’t to sure to begin with due to my wife giving birth to our first child in June, but after talking it through it was too good an opportunity to turn down and I approached Daniel Brittle to be my assistant coach”
Owen and Brittle have been working hard over the summer to build a roster that can do justice to the Hawks enviable set up. They have managed to retain last season’s top scorer David Meikle, along with key players Rick Bentham, Ric Hughes and Chris Arnone. In addition they have managed to persuade Tom King and Sean Day to switch from local rivals Trafford Metros. Owen admits that the excellent set up at the Blackburn Arena makes things easier for him:
Photo: www.kipax.com
“I’m very confident in this Hawks team” he says.”Last years team was very talented, it just suffered from a few coaching changes throughout the year and kind of lost its way. The play offs were a bit of a sore point really as the team had worked really hard to secure a spot in them, and then we were immediately put on the back foot with two points lost before we’d played a game,
“I think that has made the lads more determined this year to come back stronger. The team will be very solid this year, we have managed to make upgrades in the summer and it’s surprising to see how many people want to come and play for the Hawks,
“The management of both the rink and the Hawks look after the players and this is invaluable to attracting fresh talent. We have some very good offensive options that I hope other teams will find hard to shut down”
With an Olympic size ice pad, seating for 3,200 people and high quality facilities throughout, it is a crying shame that the Hawks find themselves in the English National League at all. Long gone are the halcyon days of Perlini, Moria, Kaese and Chartrand, as are the four figure crowds that such talent attracted back in the nineties. A mixture of league structure changes, management decisions and misfortune have seemingly contributed to the Hawks current position in the third tier of British ice hockey; however Owen believes that despite recent upheaval, there are positive signs now sprouting:
“I think there is great potential in Blackburn” he admits.”I just think there has been a few years of constant chopping and changing of coaches and players, and this has lead to the performances on the ice not being of the level expected,
“I think with a few seasons fine-tuning the current talent base that is in Blackburn and helping to develop the players from the u14’s, 16’s and 18’s the team would be prime for a move into the EPL,
“They certainly have the facilities and the fans are probably the best I’ve ever played in front of in any rink, they love the team and turn up week in week out through the good and bad times. The perfect example of this was last season when we beat Whitley 6-5 in January the whole place was rocking with about 750 fans and that really motivates players playing in front of such a good crowd”
Hawks fans delight
Whitley Warriors will be a major hurdle Blackburn will have to overcome this season if they want to lift any silverware. With the Warriors and last season’s runners-up Nottingham Lions showing little signs of weakness for the forthcoming year, Owen concedes that they will both prove major obstacles for the Hawks. He believes that whilst difficult, the task is not impossible:
“I think Nottingham will always be there or thereabouts as they have such a strong junior development system in place” he says. “The same goes for Sheffield, they (Nottingham) can churn out talented players every year and they have stability within the Lions, I think Martyn does a great job at getting the best out of them and these kids pay to play so you know they have the desire to be there,
“Whitley are a big strong team that play a solid system and have players who can find them a goal when they need it most, I think Leachy (Warriors Coach Simon Leach) has them well drilled and no one likes to go and play in their rink which is a real bonus for them and they always make it hard for teams coming in,
“I like our team, I think we have added in areas we were missing last year and are trying to ensure we can play three solid lines at all times, I think that’s really important now, the league is improving year on year and you need three good lines now to stand a chance. We have set ourselves a goal of reaching the play-offs as a minimum and we’ll keep evaluating where we are through the season to see if we can challenge for the league title. I have the belief this set of players can; it’s just about making sure they can play to their potential week in, week out”
With so much to organise in Blackburn and the new challenge taking up most hours of his day, Owen could be forgiven for not paying too much attention to the hockey revolution taking place in his home town. The Telford Tigers are back in the English Premier League under the tutorage of former Coventry Blaze and GB international forward Tom Watkins, and he is building a decent roster of home grown talent. Owen is Telford through and through and they were the only club he had ever played for before his move to Blackburn. Was he tempted to give it another shot with the Tigers this year?
“I think I’ve had my time in the EPL” he smiles. “I enjoyed being part of the Telford teams as we were never supposed to do any good and we always ended up creating a few surprises through each season. Telford was a great place for young players to develop as well as they could get good ice time and play in all situations. If you look at Joe Miller and Matt Towe, who will be two of the top British players in the league next year they both spent time playing in the EPL at a young age with Telford,
“I think there are a few guys that Tom has signed this year that will go on to be very good players as they develop. I think Tom’s built himself a solid squad who will be tough to beat and will give everyone a game and I wish them all the best,
“I think Telford needs a team at the highest level it can sustain and I’m looking forward to going and watching this team play. With regards myself, I have a young family now and the EPL is too big a commitment, the league is at a level now where it’s not just the training and games, it’s the full off-ice training that takes up so much of your time, I’m happy in Blackburn and wish the Tigers all the best for the season ahead”
Blackburn face off their league campaign with a trip to Telford to take on their ENL side on Saturday 4th September, face off is at 5.30pm. For details on the Hawks visit their website at: http://www.blackburnhawks.com/
Contact the author: david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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