Lambton Jr. Sting Coach's Corner: U11 and U16
Let's get to know our U11 (Philippe Talbot) and U16 (Brad Riley) coaches a little better...
Philippe Talbot
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Phil has a chemical engineering degree from the University of Waterloo, he started his career at Nova Chemicals and is currently working for Shell Canada.
His coaching experience started with IP/Tyke with his son Mathieu. Phil coached rep hockey for Sarnia at the Novice and Atom divisions, assisted with the U18 AAA program and finished the previous season with the 2012's AAA program.
Phil played rep AA and high school hockey for the south shore of Montreal Quebec until Midget. He made a conscious decision to focus on football, which brought him to the University of Waterloo and a great education.
Phil had this to say on his favourite hockey team and player: "Growing up in Montreal Quebec you would feel like I should be a Montreal Canadians fan, but on the opposite I was a Quebec Nordiques fan. I followed Quebec to Colorado and am still an Avalanche fan. My favourite player is Joe Sakic and now I get to enjoy the way he manages the Avalanche."
Phil's favourite quote is "Listen to understand and not to repeat."
On family, Phil says "I am married to my beautiful wife Tanya, and together we have such lovely kids (Olivia and Mathieu). Outside of hockey my personal passion is fishing, more specifically, bass fishing. I had the pleasure to fish as a co-angler in many Bass tournaments, where I met my childhood fan Bob Izumi."
Brad Riley
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Brad grew up in the South end of Sarnia, where he went to Devine Street Public School and S.C.I.T.S. Secondary School. He started playing hockey when he was 7, and played a mix of house league and travel. He also played travel Baseball and 5 years of High School Football.
Brad started coaching in 1995, continued until 1999, then took a few years off until he started coaching again in 2006. Since then he has coached right up to the present. He has coached House League to Jr. C, and everything in between. He has coached kids to win numerous Tournaments and a couple of championships.
Brad has been a Certified High Performance Level 1 coach for the past 5 seasons and will maintain his qualifications for the next 5 seasons.
When asked about his favourite hockey team Brad had this to say: "I've been Diehard Montreal Canadiens Fan since my dad, who was a Leaf fan, always wanted to bet me my allowance every time the Leafs and Habs would play..... needless to say, I won a lot of money off my dad back in the day!"
When asked about his favourite quote, Brad says: "I've heard a lot of hockey quotes and sayings over the years, but I must say this one is very fitting for myself and a lot of guys I used to play hockey with " When Hell Freezes Over..... I'll Play Hockey There Too"!!!
This season will be Brad's 4th time coaching a U16 AAA team. He first coached U16 in 2012-13, again in 2019-20, then again in 2020-21 and 2022-23 He can't wait to get started!
Brad believes that hockey is a game that keeps on giving, no matter how long we've played or coached, we will always be a student of the game.