BASINGSTOKE, UK – When Basingstoke Bison player coach Ashley Tait first made his senior debut in 1990 as a teenager for the Nottingham Panthers, the Berlin Wall had only recently fallen, while down in Hampshire his current club were adapting to their first season in the Heineken League in a shiny new arena.
Focus on what he can control in Basingstoke Image: 5 Hole Photography
At that time, Tait was earmarked as one of British hockey’s future home grown stars and the Wella backed Basingstoke Beavers as they were then known, seemed on an upward trajectory towards the top table of British hockey.
“I was born in Toronto and my mother is Canadian” explains Tait, when asked what attracted him to hockey, a sport that would shape his life.
“My parents married in Nottingham and then moved to Canada. Dad used to go and watch the Maple Leafs and got a taste for hockey. When they moved back to the UK he saw an advert in the paper as Nottingham were looking for kids to start a junior team.
“He took me down to the old Nottingham Ice Stadium and that was that I guess. I still have pictures of the first practice.”
It didn’t take long for Tait to catch the eye on Lower Parliament Street. He became a constant figure in the England youth set up and subsequently GB junior teams. Along with a number of talented junior players from Nottingham, Durham, Fife, Streatham and other traditional British hockey clubs, he made his senior debut in his mid-teens, a common sight at the time as the limited import Heineken Leagues expanded. Even so, few went onto make it a full time career – certainly not for any length of time.
“I knew it was what I always wanted to do but never regarded it as a career option” says Tait on his formative years.
“I remember starting to practice with the Panthers as a 14 year old when they still had 10.30 pm practices twice a week. Getting up for school the next day was no fun but my dad would always say no school no hockey so I would roll into school bleary eyed.
“My first games for the Panthers were in Scotland or at least should have been. We played Ayr in Glasgow then should have played in Edinburgh on the Sunday. Torrential rain meant the rink flooded and that never happened.”
Tait had just turned 16 at the time and picked up the MVP award at a tournament with the GB junior team in the same season. The Panthers, under the stewardship of Alex Dampier were a top flight team with expectations to match, led by eventual club legends Paul Adey and Randall Weber.
Success in Sheffield with the Steelers (Image Sheffield Steelers)
The hype around Nottingham’s exciting young prospect was justified, as he then went on to become a mainstay of the Great Britain team for almost two decades, bagging Elite League Championship medals with Coventry Blaze and Sheffield Steelers along the way, also lifting the Italian Cup and Super Cup with Ritten/Rennon in the Alps, amongst honours too long to list outside of a hockey CV.
Fast forward to the summer of 2018, and Basingstoke announced that the man who had been a constant figure in the top flight of UK hockey would be heading south to take on his first coaching role, while still lacing up the skates at the age of 43.
With the days of the aforementioned Beavers long since gone, the Bison had been the main show in town since a rebrand in 1995, enjoying time in the top tier themselves before slipping back down to the National Ice Hockey League when the EPL went pop in 2017.
Just a few weeks before Tait’s arrival the Hampshire side had cushioned the blow to their fans of returning to two import hockey by delivering a league and play-off championship under the stewardship of Doug Sheppard.
Soon after the elation of beating Telford at Coventry to lift the Play-Off trophy the future prospects of the team changed dramatically. Sheppard moved to Bracknell Bees along with several Bison favourites, while Captain Aaron Connolly and the influential Dan Scott headed to the Raiders in Romford.
With just a few weeks to put together a roster from the ashes, not to mention familiarise himself with realities below the top tier for the first time in many years, Tait set to work on what would end up being a relatively enjoyable campaign.
“I think the biggest adjustment was getting used to the overall level and the many differing talent levels we had on the roster” admits the now 44 year old.
“I was fortunate to have a few guys in the squad who’ve had decent pro careers at high levels but also remembered that they were young and trying to get somewhere once.
With his home town team the Panthers
“They were great to have in the dressing room and helped the younger less experienced guys an awful lot. On the other side it was a blank canvas so I could come in and use my experience and maybe showed the guys a way to see and think about the game in a way they haven’t done previously.”
Adapting from playing to a player coach role isn’t for everyone, nor is coaching in itself but Tait managed to steer his new team to a 3rd place league finish and cup final. If nothing else illustrates this achievement it was his award of Coach of the Year, voted on by peers across the league who understood and respected the job he had done with the Bison in difficult circumstances.
“There was obvious interest to coach but I suppose as a sportsman you don’t want to think about beyond playing” explains Tait when asked if the role had been a long term aim.
“I’ve had a lot of coaches, some I’ve taken a lot from and some not. A couple stand out though like Alex Dampier as he gave me my first chance with the Panthers.
“Mike Blaisdell was another as he had a great NHL career so he’d been there and done it. He’d tell stories about how it was dog eat dog in his day and that’s how he played and coached, his compete level was ridiculous.
“The last being Chuck Weber. His attention to detail was like nothing you’ve ever seen and his bench management was probably the main reason we won the Play-offs that year in Coventry. The way he coached made the game easy to understand.”
Now in his second season at the Bison, Tait perhaps has an even bigger challenge on his hands thanks to another league restructure that places Basingstoke back in a nationwide league with teams from the North of England as far as Leeds and Sheffield joining the party.
The new National League is pretty much a new version of the old English Premier League and the Bison now have more travel commitments mixed with an overall slightly higher level of competition.
“The issue this league has is that most teams rely heavily on players who are from their surrounding areas” says Tait, when asked if the new format had made recruitment more difficult.
“With the expansion meaning increased travel it made it difficult to attract players who weren’t local and who didn’t want to travel 4 to 5 hours home on a bus and then have to be up at 6am for work on a Monday morning.
“I fully understand their situation and I’m always relatively flexible to try and make that easier for guys. I’ve spoken to other coaches and they’ve also said the structure has made attracting players more difficult.
Another issue for Tait to contend with is the uncertainty and fragility of the Basingstoke rink. The shiny arena the Beavers skated out in during the late 80s and early 90s is but a distant memory and time has been unkind on the old barn. Local efforts to build a new rink are underway, but with some sections of seating taped off inside, it doesn’t paint a positive picture on match night. Tait however is adamant that it’s not a concern to the team on the ice.
“The rink is what it is” he continues.
“We can’t control it and as I’ve said before, I grew up playing in some rinks that were and are in far worse condition. Success is silverware really. Last year we surprised a few people but that’s gone. We can use that as a marker but we have to come back and improve on it.”
The Bison have retained the exciting Richard Bordowski, fellow import Michal Klejna, lively Liam Morris, experienced Brit Adam Harding and netminder Alex Mettam. Tait also persuaded defenseman Ryan Sutton to move from Bracknell Bees and perhaps most notably has two of the most exciting young talents on two way contracts with Slough Jets in the form of Sean Norris and Sam Talbot.
In fact the average age of the Bison squad is just over 23 years old, showing that Tait has to work with a lot of inexperience, yet on the flip side youthful speed and enthusiasm. The face of British hockey has taken many twists and turns since the relatively straightforward pathway the Bison player coach followed. So what does a man who has done and seen it all in British hockey say to kids who ask for his guidance to do similar?
“I think the biggest thing is to stay focused and make sure you do everything you can to give yourself that chance, if and when it comes along” maintains Tait.
“There are a million distractions today but a career in hockey isn’t a long one and you’ll get the chance to do all those distractions another day.”
Contact the author davidcarr_2@hotmail.com
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