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Jon Goyens with his Triple-A Lions during practice at the Dollard Civic Centre on Tuesday. (JOHN MAHONEY/The Gazette)
With The Coach: Jon Goyens
A teacher who's a student of the game
John Meagher
The Gazette
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Jon Goyens with his Triple-A Lions during practice at the Dollard Civic Centre on Tuesday. (JOHN MAHONEY/The Gazette)
With the Coach is a weekly series featuring a conversation with a local coach.
Coach: Jon Goyens, 31-year-old Île Bizard native and substitute teacher
Team: Lac St. Louis midget Triple-A Lions
Years coached: 15
Playing experience: Junior AA for West Island
Best coaching tip: Purposeful practice makes for purposeful play.
Hockey coach Jon Goyens has always been a student of the game.
But he’s also a teacher.
When he isn’t mentoring the Lac St. Louis midget Triple-A Lions, he fills in as a substitute teacher at St. Thomas High School or Kuper Academy.
Where did you play your minor hockey?
Goyens: Outside of novice, I always played in North Shore. I grew up on Île Bizard. I also went to Rennie back in the day when the John Rennie Renegades were the pride of that school for quite a while.
How did you get involved in coaching?
Goyens: I was 15 and started coaching with my dad with a bantam C team in Dollard. My dad was probably my first and biggest coaching influence. He’s always been involved in coaching.
What coaching lessons did your father, noted hockey author Chris Goyens, teach you?
Goyens: To study the game. For any young coach starting out, if you’re not a sponge, if you’re too set in your ways, you’re not going to develop. I like to coach by giving my players options, not limitations. I found growing up that I was taught, and I wasn’t the only one, through limitations. We were limited to do certain things. By doing that, you don’t emphasize confidence. So, always think outside the box. Don’t try to mimic everyone.
What is unique about coaching at the midget Triple-A level?
Goyens: Well, it’s really the last year of minor hockey. What the Quebec Midget Triple-A League does is a very good version of a mini major-junior league or a mini college league.
What’s the biggest off-ice distraction for midget hockey players?
Goyens: Probably a lot of it has to do with their access to social networks. You can call and tell them to be home for curfew at 10 or 10:30 at night. (But that doesn’t prevent them) from being on Facebook or the Internet, just being social on the computer till 2 o’clock in the morning.
What was your experience last season as an assistant coach with the Lewiston MAINEIACs major-junior team?
Goyens: Experience-wise, it was actually pretty incredible, considering it was my first opportunity to jump into coaching at that level. The different responsibilities I had just based on the fact I was the only person on staff who could speak French, which became quite an asset.
One thing you picked up in junior?
Goyens: A lot of people don’t want to recognize this, but Xs and Os are one thing, but the relationship you build with your players is probably the way you get them to play for you and get them to play as a team. Letting them know what their role is, and let them succeed in their role.
Do you have aspirations to coach professionally someday?
Goyens: Absolutely. Last year, I got a taste of coaching in a professional setting. In the last few years, I’ve interviewed with some NHL teams for scouting jobs as well. My aspirations are to move upwards and onwards, to make coaching my career and not my job.