FAYETTEVILLE, NC When the Fayetteville FireAntz hired Sean Gillam as head coach, the front office was looking to send the team in a new direction. Thursday morning, that direction hit a dead end.
According to the Fayetteville Observer newspaper, the FireAntz fired Gillam, who spent less than one full season with the franchise. The paper said that team president also announced the hiring of Todd Bidner. Bidner’s first game will be Friday night when the Huntsville Havoc visit the Crown Coliseum.
Gillam was hired during the off-season to replace long-time coach Tommy Stewart, who failed to take the FireAntz to the playoffs in 2011. Gillam had come from the CHL as an assistant coach yearning for his inaugural head coaching chance, promising a change of attitude. His roster was a combination of the past and new blood that included CHL experience.
Under Gillam’s watch, Fayetteville posted a 12-25-5 record, putting the FireAntz at the bottom of the SPHL. The team has struggled all season to find a winning balance, finding consistency in losing. Away from the Crown, Fayetteville is 7-11-3, slightly better than its 5-14-2 mark at home. Offensively, they rank in the middle of the pack, having scored 132 goals but defensively they have given up 183 goals, the most of any team in the SPHL.
The 40-year old Bidner, a sixth round pick (110th overall) of the Washington Capitals in the 1980 NHL Entry Draft, played his first pro game for the AHL Hershey Bears during the 1980-81 season. His NHL experience shows 12 games played for the Capitals a year later with two goals and an assist to his credit. He was actually traded twice, first to Edmonton for Doug Hicks in March of 1982 and then from Edmonton to Detroit for Rejean Cloutier in October of 1984.
In 1985, he headed to Great Britain where he played into the 1993-94 campaign. He also played for Great Britain’s national squad which failed to qualify for the 1994 Olympics. Following his retirement he became a youth counselor in his hometown of Petrolia, Ontario and later founded the Skill Shots Off-Ice Development Center, a dry-land training school in Sarnia, Ontario.
Bidner is listed as having been an assistant coach for the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights during the 2006-07 season under now Washington head coach Dale Hunter. That team boasted a number of current NHL players including Columbus’ Steve Mason, Edmonton’s Sam Gagner, Nashville’s Sergei Kostitsyn and Chicago’s Patrick Kane.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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