Sheffield Steelers Head Coach Aaron Fox is preparing for his eighth season with the club, with preparations now under way ahead of the new campaign.
“Summer was good. I was able to get back to Minnesota with the family and spend some time with family and friends back there for a few weeks,” said the 50-year-old Minnesota native.
“Obviously, when you’re doing both roles, the summer goes quick, and until you get that last guy you feel like you’re still in it, but everything worked out there.”
Fox, who holds the record for the most games coached in Steelers history, believes Sheffield have addressed some of the areas that needed strengthening from last season.
“I thought we were a little thin down the middle last year, and losing Brandon Whistle last year affected the British core, so obviously we’ve addressed that this summer,” he explained.
“We’ve also added a few more pure centres, which I think will really help us. Depth-wise, I think we’ve added some size to our forward group and some youth, as well as veteran presence.
“We’ve added some character to the group, so I feel like we’re in a pretty good spot right now.”
Now entering his eighth season in Sheffield, Fox has been encouraged by the early signs from the group despite only having a few days together on the ice.
“We’ve only been on the ice a few days in Sheffield, but the early signs are good,” he commented. “We’re getting through a lot of systems and concept work, trying to get back into hockey shape.
“We know we have a big weekend with Cardiff coming up, with them having had a couple of weeks of camp already and having played three games. We’ll probably be behind them a little bit from that point of view, but we’ll use the weekend for what it is and start to build our identity and implement some concepts.”
For the Steelers’ long-serving Head Coach, the next stage is about bringing the group together and building the standards he wants to see ahead of the season.
“We want to get the group together, have some team-building after the weekend, and build that trust and accountability in each other,” Fox added.
“We’ll focus on what type of team we want to be and what I think we can be. Two weeks isn’t a long time to get fully prepared, but we will get through what we need to and have the full week ahead of our first weekend in the Challenge Cup as well.”
Photo: Dean Woolley
