Dave Matsos speaks

SHEFFIELD, UK – A week is a long time in sports, so they say and over the last seven days there have been mass-resignations and recriminations at one of the UK’s biggest hockey clubs, the Sheffield Steelers. In amongst all this was Coach Dave Matsos’s departure to pastures new. PHN caught up with the ex-Steelers coach at his home in Canada to get his take on current events and his future plans. In his first interview since leaving the club, Matsos talks about his time in Sheffield and how this move to the OHL came about.
“I am leaving Sheffield very proud of what I have accomplished there,” Matsos said. “And I have no hard feelings for Bob Phillips, none whatsoever. He’s been great to me. I have had some great times and I am sad to be leaving. It is not a personal thing against anyone. If anybody had asked me before Winsor came up what would I wish for it would be just for a team to be able to run in Sheffield. Keep hockey in Sheffield because it would be disastrous if it wasn’t.”
Matsos leaves Sheffield with a mightily impressive record for a ‘Rookie’ coach. A record he is rightly very proud of.
“I’ve got some terrific emails that I will never erase,” Matsos said. “Some great people saying awesome things. My wife and I are gutted that we’re not going back but the security side of it was the biggest issue. Just say we get off to a .500 start in September; would that be good enough? I don’t know. Well then we’re stuck because the baby’s due at the end of September and that means travel is out”
So how do you look back on the last few years?
“It wasn’t an easy decision by any means, my wife is just as gutted as me. We absolutely loved our time in Sheffield and met some great, great people you know and we enjoyed some unbelievable times and thank goodness there were more good times than bad. We all stuck together when times weren’t well. It’s part of growing and growing as a coach. The city, the fans, I’m walking out with a smile on my face. I’m slightly stunned at how it’s come about, but we’re all set to move on now and we got ourselves a good position here in Windsor and they are a successful team and we’re going to try and add to that”
You started building a team here (Sheffield) for next year. How do you see them shaping up?
“My goal was to win the league and as many trophies as I could at all costs. I was criticised last year for the lack of entertaining and stuff and I took that to heart. It’s not like I just wished it away. So we were trying to build a team this year that was going to win by locking it down from the goalie and going forward. I think arguably we pieced together the best D core in the league. But then I was trying to add the element of excitement in to it. And you know we’re getting size, there’s no doubt about it; we got toughness – there’s no doubt about it; we got goals – there’s no doubt about it. I was going be patient with the last 2 slots, there is still a lot of high pedigree guys out there and I think whoever comes in to fill those last 2 spots is going to have a big selection of quality players to put in there”

Did you have any players in mind for those last two spots? And have you passed those details on?
“To be fair, I was offered a job and I was not searching; I went out to the Memorial cup and watch the hockey out there and an agent that I was familiar with, that I’d known for 20 years, had been paying attention to what we had been doing in Sheffield. He asked me how things were going and at that point it really wasn’t an issue and I was like “Good, we’re on a two-year deal and we are going back.”
“Later that week he got back to me and said he had a job for me in the OHL and I turned it down to be fair. I was set on going back. But when things got a little bit more stirred up with the things going on in the press and the public being aware of it I started considering it a little more seriously. I have got a wife with two kids and a third on the way. I realised that coming off a mediocre season, although our team shaped up differently, and I had the utmost trust in out team; that we were going to come back hungrier than ever.”
“But weighing all that up and having another (baby) in early October and as everyone knows, the buy-out clause in the UK isn’t enough to get you by and search for another job. Windsor stepped forward and offered us a 2 year (deal), and that’s pretty much 2 years of security and get our feet planted over here; that was a big decision for me and I think sometimes in life you have to put your family first at the front of the gates and take care of stuff.”
It must be a surprise then to hear you are part of a mass-walkout? It seems your decision was personal and for all the right reasons?
“You know what? I can’t even comment a lot on the mass walk-out. What I can say is it would have been a risk just to walk out, I don’t know what closing doors it would have been if a job didn’t come up. I had to go. I don’t have a dual income. My wife has been raising kids for the last four years and another kid on the way. Our family functions solely on what I make and if there is any question marks that I was going to be on the plank or headed out if I had a bad start or if the ownership is going to change hands or if it wasn’t. All these questions didn’t have an answer and for me I took the job security. Mind I don’t feel I am making a bad career move also, there’s room to elevate there. But I had to look out for family as option number one.”
But it was essentially a personal decision?
“Yes. Personally I couldn’t risk not leaving. It is no offence to anyone. Just purely for obvious reasons I had to look after my family”
Finally, Dave, we have not had chance to say good-bye to you as a club. Do you have any message for the fans?
“You know what? In the end like I said we’ve suffered from loads and it’s hard, especially when everybody including myself is very passionate about winning and the players and fans. But thanks to many (people) we’ve had a chance to crack that Champagne more times in four years that the club has done in a while. I think we are headed in the right direction, got those winning ways back and enjoyed those ways together. I loved my time there, thank you everybody. I will come back to say thank you to everyone at the club. Who would have thought a guy with one years assistant coach experience would have been given a shot at Sheffield? Probably nobody. I’m not going to say I’m not grateful for that. I wouldn’t be on the Winsor Spitfires bench without the Sheffield experience.”
In his time at the club Dave Matsos secured 1 league title, 2 Play-off Championships and a 20-20 cup success. He departs with the best wishes and gratitude of the Sheffield faithful.
Contact: neil.edwards@prohockeynews.com