Coach ‘Dev-O’ goes out on top

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Devin Olson’s tenure with the Wheatland Athletic Association has come to a close, as he is retiring after 10 seasons of coaching with all three levels in organization.
After amassing a 378-161-37 record in 576 games, and winning three out of the last five league titles with the midget double-A Chiefs, he felt it was time to move on from the game he so dearly loved and focus on family and work.
He began his coaching career with the peewee Braves and worked his way up from there.
“When I first started coaching, they asked me if I wanted to coach and I’ve never coached before. They didn’t have anyone else so I was like ‘yeah sure’ and kind of got thrown into it right off the bat,” said Olson.
Olson recalls that first year being such a great experience, working with a limited number of players that went on to enjoy successful careers.
“The first year was a good learning one, we only had 26 kids try out for our team and we didn’t have a very good team that first year but when you look back on it, I think there was all but three kids on that team played junior A or WHL,” said Olson.
His coaching career took a turn for the best after that season as he brought the program back into a winning brand of hockey.
“The problem was the coaches that they had in there before from Calgary and I guess they wrecked it. They made it where nobody wanted to come try out, they always had good numbers up until that year,” said Olson.
“After that we started getting the numbers and the team back. Once you field good numbers, you usually get a pretty good team from this area.”
What made it appealing year after year to come back was the great people that he was fortunate enough to be around with his teams.
“I’ve always had a good group of kids and parents that made it fun. They weren’t on us (and) didn’t make it so you didn’t want to coach,” said Olson.
What made his life behind the bench easier was that he developed and moved up each level with the some of same players and coaches.
“I coached two years of peewee, one year of bantam and after that midget. There were families like the Wittenburgs, I coached their kids for eight out of the 10 years,” said Olson.
“Just knowing the kids all the way up through helped and you knew what kind of group you had. Once you got to midget, the kids were closer in age, it’s faster hockey and what you’re used to.”
His coaching style could be best summed as being calm, and he wanted to make sure the players were enjoying playing the game.
“I never screamed and yelled, that kind of stuff, I was always calm. I always tried to make it fun, you want the kids to enjoy playing,” said Olson.
“There’s different ways of dealing with the kids because I found that work better than trying to do it as a group. There were kids that I remember that I would tell them that ‘come on I know you’re better than that,’ and that would go a lot further than me sitting there screaming and yelling.”
There were numerous occasions were Olson had the opportunity to move up in the coaching ranks but decided that the double-A level was where he wanted to be.
“I was asked about the Bisons job every time it came up and I always had people telling me that I should throw my name in there. The hard part was the commitment and with the job wise and stuff, it didn’t work too well,” said Olson. “I also got settled in coaching the midget double-A’s and we were successful. I knew I could always coach there.”
The three championships stand out as his best memories.
“The first one was awesome because it was the first championship. The second one was the year after so it was exciting and everything because you’re building off the year before and we didn’t have as good a team that year,” said Olson.
“The group that we had this year, winning (the third one) up in Red Deer in my last year coaching, everything worked out.”
He plans on staying in the game in a scouting capacity with a heavy focus on the double-A level.