http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=941617&auth=Neil+Acharya
Posted By Neil Acharya
Posted 5 days ago
If the hockey stars align and the Kingston Voyageurs win their playoff hockey series with the Wellington Dukes, a familiar face could be waiting for them behind the opponent's bench in the next round.
Rick Cornacchia, however, isn't yet thinking about the possibility of returning to Kingston 25 years after he got his start in junior hockey.
"I don't scout a series until my team has won," said the coach of the Markham Waxers.
It's one of those lessons Cornacchia has learned along the way, since he arrived in Kingston in 1983 to interview for the vacant job as coach of the Kingston Canadians.
It was a job Cornacchia didn't expect to get.
"Initially, I was thinking of taking the year off to get married and coach in Europe," said Cornacchia, then director of the hockey school at St. Michael's College.
Those plans changed in one phone call from Ken Slater, the new general manager of the Canadians.
"Instead of the Alps, it was Kingston," Cornacchia said.
Cornacchia now finds himself opposing the St. Michaels Buzzers in the Provincial league's South Conference final. The Buzzers lead the series 2-1.
He reflected on his days in the Limestone City.
"The club was in disarray," he said. "They had made some bad trades and we had to set some rules."
One of the rules laid down by Cornacchia was a curfew that was broken on the first night it was implemented. The rookie head coach looked at his first challenge proactively.
"We traded all the older guys who weren't setting a good a example and created an all-rookie team from scratch."
Heading into his second season with the club, in 1984-85, Cornacchia recalls the team's owners were not in line with Cornacchia's rebuilding process.
"There were 12 owners, there was a board and support was not great at that time," he said.
One night in January, after a game, they gave him his walking papers.
"You're not a real coach till you get fired once," Cornacchia said. He sold the home he had just purchased in Collins Bay with his wife, Margaret - who was pregnant at the time with the couple's first child, Cara - and they made their way back to Toronto.
In the fall of 1985, Cornacchia joined the Oshawa Generals as an assistant under coach Paul Theriault.
"There was unbelievable structure in Oshawa," recalls Cornacchia, who in two short years was helping to coach the team in a battle for the Memorial Cup in 1987. As the host city, the Generals eventually lost in final to the Medicine Hat Tigers.
When Theriault left to coach a New York Rangers affiliate prior to the 1988-89 season, Cornacchia moved up to be the head coach just in time for Eric Lindros to arrive via a trade from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, to whom he had failed to report after being drafted.
"Nobody could have prepared me for that circus," recalls Cornacchia, who remembers vividly his first encounter with Lindros.
"I told [Oshawa general manager] Frank Jay that if we are going to get this kid I want to meet him, so I did at a Toronto hotel over lunch. We sat for three hours and by the end I told Frank, 'Make the trade.' "
With an already good team in place, Cornacchia set his sights on the Memorial Cup that eluded the Generals in 1987. After beating the Kitchener Rangers for the Ontario Hockey League championship, the Generals met the Rangers again in the Memorial Cup final in Hamilton. Bill Armstrong scored the thrilling overtime winner to give the Generals their fourth Memorial Cup.
"The trivia question is, 'How many goals did Lindros score in that tournament?' " Cornacchia said. "The answer is none. He had eight assists.
"He was a team player and wanted to win."
In 1992, Cornacchia coached Canada at the world junior tournament in Germany but finished well out of the medals.
"It was a great experience," he said.
"The outcome was not very good. Things happen that are unforeseen. Both of our goalies were so sick we had to fly in our last cut, Chris Osgoode, from Canada."
At the end of the 1994 season, Cornacchia resigned as coach in Oshawa and took his long-awaited trip to Europe, where he stayed with his family for two years, coaching Alleghe in the Italian First Division.
"The first year we stayed 50 yards from the gondola that would take us up the hill," he said. "My kids still talk of it. It was great. My wife, who is a teacher, home-schooled the kids."
Two years later, Cornacchia was back with his family in the Toronto area taking on a job as director of on-ice operations at the Ice Gardens at York University. Soon after that he began coaching his son, Mark, at the AA level.
After a number of coaching gigs, Cornacchia was approached by the Markham club to come on board as a coach and minority owner. The decision was easy for him to make.
"I live in Markham, my house is five minutes from the rink."
As well, Cornacchia gets another chance to coach his son.
Regardless of whether the Waxers and Voyageurs meet in the next round, a man who puts a lot of stock in life experiences says Kingston will always be an important benchmark in his career.
"Everywhere is a learning experience," Cornacchia said. "Kingston was a real eye-opener."
Article ID# 941617
