Former Viper Pierce Has Cents Back On Track In Rookie Season:

Merritt coach Pierce has Cents back on track in rookie season

Monday, January 25, 2010 - Submitted by Chad Klassen

The return of a local kid to his roots is making all the difference for the Merritt Centennials, a franchise that is moving up the BCHL’s Interior Conference standings after a pair of disappointing seasons.

Centennials head coach Luke Pierce, who grew up playing in the Merritt minor hockey system before suiting up for the team, is helping resurrect a squad that was in need of fresh new leadership.

Merritt finished the 2008/09 campaign with a disappointing 13-44-0-3 record, prompting the team to let go of longtime coach Al Glendinning. The Centennials opened the current season losing 20 of their first 28 games under the guidance of Dylan and Tyler Forsythe before the society that runs the club decided to hands over the reins to Pierce on November 25th.

Despite being only four years removed from their last winning season, the Centennials organization had won a mere 26 games the last two years and had looked positively at 2009/10 as the time for a turnaround.

“He more than jumped at the opportunity," says Brian Barrett, the club's Director of Hockey Operations. "He’s very passionate, hard-working young man and I think he portrayed to the players kind of an air of believability as to what they had to do to succeed and play in this league,”

Nineteen games into his head coaching career, the players have shown their full support for Pierce’s program and the team has made a significant strides in the standings since the late November move.

“He’s utilized his past experience as a player and really got the players to rally around what he was talking about, and I think he’s done a tremendous job,” adds Barrett.

For Pierce, the Merritt native who was initially hired as an assistant coach this season, being promoted so quickly with the league's the longest-running franchise couldn’t have come as a better opportunity.

“For me, I couldn’t have picked a better place to get started,” he says. “The support you get from the community and family and friends has been pretty awesome, and I’m just glad I was given an opportunity here – a place that means a lot to me.”

While essentially a rookie head coach with just one season on the staff at the Royal Military College in Kingston prior to returning home, Pierce has proven he can get the job done. He’s pulled the Centennials into fifth place in the Interior Conference on the strength of a 9-9-0-1 record since being called into duty.

“My biggest goal was to actually create a culture – something that was lacking I thought,” Pierce says. “We really needed to form an identity of who we were going to be as a team. That was really the first step – really pushing an identity of being a difficult team to play against and a hard-working group.”

Pierce was known as a gritty hockey player with lots of character during his playing days in Merritt and at RMC, and the Cents have already shown resilience and toughness during his tenure.

“The biggest difference is our competitiveness. Last week, we were really frustrated losing to Penticton in a game we thought we should’ve won, but two months ago we would’ve been happy just keeping that game close,” explained Pierce. “We’ve had a lot of come-from-behind wins, which to me speaks to their willingness to never give up, whereas before we’d get down by a few goals and next thing you know it’s 8-1.”

The 25-year-old has brought a tremendous amount of positive energy into the locker room – something he found to be a challenge with the losing culture – and he maintains a genuine belief in his players, stressing they can compete with any team in the league.

“I’m really big on the mental side of the game,” Pierce said. “I think it’s really important with this age of kids, keeping people positive and giving them a real sense of belief in their abilities.”

Centennials’ captain Jordan Soquila has seen a significant difference in the team’s play and his own game under Pierce’s leadership.

“The best thing about Luke is he’s 110 percent behind us. He believes and knows we’re a winning team. He thinks every single guy on this team has the skill and the talent to do what the team needs to win,” says Soquila, who’s put up 40 points in 46 games this season.

“It’s a great feeling. It’s a complete turnaround from last year. Winning makes everyone on the team happy and keeps the spirits high. You want to go to the rink and practice and play and go to hockey,” he added.

Winning also has its positive side-effects away from the rink. Barrett points to a lack of attendance and turnover of personnel over the past three seasons as by-products of a struggling oragnization.

“The chemistry the last few years on the team wasn’t that great, and I think it became a problem to get kids to come here and stay here,” he explains. “Then, of course, when you’re not winning, people stay away in droves. It’s hard to go out there and garner that corporate financial support.”

But now with Pierce firmly in place in his old backyard, junior hockey in Merritt has been revived in the short term – with the playoffs in sight – and should continue to flourish with his presence behind the Centennials’ bench.

“The overall play has improved tremendously and I really believe that if we get all areas of our game going here with the defense, our offense, our goaltending, we’re going to be a team to be reckoned with down the stretch and in the playoffs,” concludes Barrett.