photo by Nick Gerhardt

Players invited to the final camp for the Albert Lea Thunder lined up for 40 yard dashes Wednesday at the City Arena. The camp got under way Wednesday with the team introducing its new head coach and ends Friday.

Thunder finds coach

Brad Zangs takes the reins as Thunder begins final camp

Staff

Published Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Albert Lea Thunder introduced Brad Zangs as its new head coach Wednesday at the City Arena ending an exhaustive search that began July 11.

Zangs, 42, lives in Farmington and last served as an assistant coach for the Simley boys’ hockey team during the 2007-08 season. Zangs has coaching experience at the junior hockey level and in college hockey.

“I wanted someone this time that had more junior and college experience,” said team owner Barry Soskin. “That was the only addition that I put on the qualifications.”

Zangs coached at Iowa State University and won a national championship in the American Collegiate Hockey Association, a non-varsity league. He also spent time at Hamline University and Northland College. The Thunder will be the first NAHL team Zangs has coached. He previously coached the Butte Irish in the American West Hockey League. That team later became the Wichita Wildcats who joined the NAHL after Zangs left.

“I feel like I bring a lot to the table with these kids,” Zangs said. “It’s not just the game of hockey they’re going to want to see, it’s life lessons.”

Soskin said Zangs came highly recommended and was told by those who recommend Zangs for the job that no one will be outworked.

Zangs has coached more than 40 Division-I players and 15 players who were taken in the NHL entry draft. The contacts he has established in the college hockey community will likely aid Thunder players looking to make the jump into college hockey.

Zangs was hired as the head coach for the Lake Erie Vikings, a professional minor league team in the Mid-Atlantic Hockey League, but resigned when he was offered the head coach position with Albert Lea.

Assistant coach Brian Murphy and Zangs both spent time coaching the Wisconsin Fire a Tier I bantam hockey team based out of Hudson, Wis. Zangs coached the team two years ago and Murphy took his position last year.

“He’s a very demanding coach,” Murphy said. “He runs one of the best practices I’ve ever been around in 10 years of coaching.”

Offense will certainly be a point of emphasis for Zangs as the head coach.

“We are going to be in your face,” Zangs said. “We will be a very offensive team. I’d rather lose a game 8-6 knowing we scored a lot of goals. I don’t want to lose a game 2-1 going, ‘Why didn’t we shoot?’ We will hit 40 shots a game, I guarantee that. I’m a very up-tempo coach.”

Zangs enters at a critical time for the Thunder as its final camp began Wednesday. Sixty players arrived at the City Arena looking for one of the 25 roster spots up for grab.

The short amount of time Soskin had to replace previous head coach Paul Willett, moved Zangs to the top of Soskin’s list because of his past work in junior hockey. Willett resigned on July 11.

“With the previous coach I didn’t have to worry about a time frame,” Soskin said. “I could educate – remember this is not my first dance and if it’s your first dance I can teach you, no problem. Because of the timing I didn’t feel that I had the time available to teach somebody what they needed to know at the start of the season.”

Soskin said he went through 35-40 résumés before deciding on Zangs.

Zangs also led the Northwest Knights, a Tier-III Junior A team based in Wisconsin that plays in the Minnesota Junior Hockey League, as the general manager and head coach.

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