BARRHEAD - Barrhead Bomber alumnus Austin Strathdee hopes to impart what he has learned to a new crop of players.
The 22-year-old Athabasca native joined the Canadian-American Junior Hockey League (CAJHL) team as an assistant coach shortly after the 2022-2023 season started.
Strathdee reached out to the Bombers via social media just prior to the start of the season, asking the franchise if they were looking for involvement from past players.
Strathdee joined the Bombers for their inaugural 2019-2020 season when they were still part of the Western States Hockey League. He officially retired from junior hockey at the end of the last season, when he effectively aged out. In most junior hockey leagues in Canada, the age limit is that a player cannot be older than 20 at the start of the season.
He then met with team owner and general manager Ally Virani and head coach Mario Haase. Strathdee told them that while he did want to be involved with the team, what he really hoped is be involved at the instructional level, such as an assistant coach or dryland/fitness trainer.
Strathdee is now serving as the defensive assistant coach, working with defencemen and forwards on their game without the puck in addition to acting as the team's dryland trainer.
When Strathdee is not at the arena with the Bombers, he is busy working towards getting his journeyman certification as an apprentice welder with Steele Tech Fabrication.
As for how he likes his first stint as a coach, he has no regrets.
"It's been a great experience, and it is something that I knew as a player that I always wanted to have a career in hockey and pass down what I have learned and help other players continue their dream to play hockey," he said.
Strathdee grew up about 25 minutes outside of Athabasca, towards Calling Lake, with his parents and older brothers, John and Zac.
"My dad's a head electrician at the pulp mill in Boyle while my mother stays busy fostering, something our family has been doing for 30 years," he said.
Presently, the Strathdee family is fostering twin five-year-old boys, and he considers them his brothers.
"We are really close," he said. "They are my little brothers, no doubt about it."
Strathdee spent the majority of his minor hockey career in Athabasca before playing Midget 'AA' in Morinville with the Sturgeon Sting before making the jump to Junior 'A' with the Bombers.
He noted that for most of his minor hockey career he was a forward. However, when he reached Midget, he decided he wanted to become stronger defensively and switched to defence.
"It was a tough transition, especially the first handful of games," Strathdee recalled. "But after I got comfortable, I really loved it, and I never looked back."
Unlike many players who try to emulate or pattern their game after an NHL star, Strathdee said that was never the case for him.
"I always wanted to be like my brothers," he said, noting that they both just stopped playing recently to devote more time to their families. "They were both very strong players, and I wanted to play like them, especially John, a defenceman."
Strathdee added he was fortunate to have many people, in addition to his brothers who have helped him develop along the way, not only in hockey but as an individual.
"I think that is one of the reasons I wanted to get into coaching, to help pass all the things I learned from them to a new group of players. I am especially appreciative for the role the Bombers played. It was an honour to play for them," he said.
