Handy steps down as IceGators coach

Breaking News LAFAYETTE, LA – Three games into its inaugural SPHL season, the Louisiana IceGators are already making changes. Big changes. Tuesday morning, the team announced via its website that Head Coach Ron Handy had resigned to take a more active role in the development of the

franchise. Team President and General Manager Brent Sapergia will take over the reigns behind the bench, replacing Handy on at least an interim basis. “I resigned as head coach to help out the club further in the offices with corporate sales and community relations,” Handy said in a phone interview from the team’s offices. “I’ve got a vested interest in this team  and I just think that at this time I’m better off in the community in which I’ve lived for 15 years and making sure that everything goes smoothly in game day operations and that corporate sponsors are taken care of.” Handy, who last coached a pro team in 2000 (ECHL Arkansas RiverBlades) saw his IceGators lose its first three games – all to former ECHL and now SPHL rivals Mississippi and Pensacola. He had remarked prior to the season about how the talent in training camp had caught him by surprise. As the three regular season games progressed, Handy indicated that he had a sense that maybe coaching in today’s pro game was quite unlike what he had encountered ten years ago. “Me being an old time player, the game’s changed a lot and maybe it has passed me by. I haven’t seen it for a couple of years at that level,” he candidly admitted. “I think we underestimated the league and the talent in the league. The talent has gone up I would say 30 to 40 percent from what we watched on the tapes from last year just because of the lack of jobs out there.” The IceGators ran into issues with their opening game at the Blackham Coliseum last week, among them being malfunctioning scoreboards and ice that had been somewhat adversely affected by the shooting of scenes for an upcoming Disney movie at the Blackham. Handy said that in his new role, he will be working to eliminate such issues as well as being a liason between the team and the fans and sponsors. “I guess opening night with the storm going on and the scoreboards not being ready, there were a couple of things (that went wrong) but that’s always (the way) with a new franchise. When I’m out there, all of that is going to go a little better,” he said. “My job on Monday morning will be to call the sponsors and take calls from the fans with their concerns whether it be the food at the concession (stands) or maybe we didn’t play a corporate account’s vision board commercial or their dasher board wasn’t put up so I’ll basically be there to put fires out.” Despite the 0-3 start, Handy doesn’t see any reason to panic nor does he think that IceGators fans should read more into his resignation than simply repositioning himself to better assist the franchise in its growth. “There’s adjustments that have to be made when working on a system. There will be players that will come in and go. At this level, there’s a lot of players that are being released  up in the CHL and the ECHL that will be coming down so inserting them into the lineup will help out a lot,” Handy said. “Three games is not the end of the world but the Cajun fans are used to winning teams here and when you start out like that, it is a little bit of a concern for us.” The team has scheduled a press conference at the Blackham Coliseum for Wednesday at 3 P.M. CDT to further discuss the coaching situation. Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com