Former Ice Wolves Head Coach/GM Shawn Martin. Photo courtesy of Facebook.
Former La Ronge Ice Wolves Head Coach and GM Shawn Martin is speaking out just days after being fired from the SJHL team.
Martin said today in an exclusive interview with MBC Radio that he’s a little bit surprised he was let go.
“Obviously, going into the season, we sat down as an organization and kind of identified we were going to need to go a lot younger than we wanted to, just for various reasons,” said Martin. “So, it was going to take time to develop this group of guys. The timing was definitely a lot earlier than I thought.”
MBC asked Martin what reasons the Ice Wolves Board of Directors gave him for his dismissal.
“Talking to a couple of the board members, there was concerns that sponsorship and attendance was down and a change needed to be made.” said Martin.
“They also talked about the players, they figured some players were underperforming. I don’t know if that’s really fair – a lot of the kids here right now are playing other roles that they probably shouldn’t be in. They’re a young group and I don’t think that they should wear this at all. It would probably be more of the players that didn’t report here or guys that left our team at the end of last season should probably share it.”
Martin said right now he’s on his way back to Alberta. He mentioned that he will likely take some time off to relax and re-evaluate, but he says numerous teams have already contacted him about various hockey jobs.
Martin also wanted to thank the Ice Wolves organization for giving him the opportunity. He also thanked numerous others for their support during his tenure in the SJHL.
Meantime, the search for a new head coach and general manager continues.