With A Little Help From My Friends

One of the things that many people do after transitioning into retirement is travelling. With the extra time retired folks have, hitting the road for some exploration and cultural experiences can be scheduled far easier since there are no work demands that eat up most of the week. Yes, there are still family commitments and friendships that need to be maintained, but retired folks often take the extravagant vacation they put off while working. For former Bisons men's hockey coach Mike Sirant, it seems that his retirement from U SPORTS hockey has led him to pursue all the coaching opportunities he couldn't while running the Bisons!

We mentioned Sirant's new opportunity on The Hockey Show a few days ago, but it might require a little more examination as the 65 year-old seemingly hasn't reduced his workload by taking retirement, but may have actually increased it while racking up a few travel miles as he jumps into these new opportunities!

Sirant hung up the clipboard for the Herd after 30 seasons at the University of Manitoba, and both Jason and myself wondered if that would be the last we had heard from Sirant when it came to coaching. After all, he was recruiting players, teaching classes, and coaching the team while being involved in a number of community-based initiatives and program-related efforts. We guessed he'd devote more time to those community-based programs in which he was involved, but Mike Sirant was far from done when it came to standing behind a bench and coaching a team.

Unbeknownst to us, Mike Sirant had accepted an associate coaching position with the AIHL's Brisbane Lightning, allowing Mike and his wife to move to Australia where he's coach through the Australian winter. Let me be clear that winter in Brisbane is nothing like winter in Winnipeg with temperatures checking around 20°C daily, so moving to Brisbane would be more like a vacation with those temperatures during a hockey season. Nonetheless, Sirant landed in Brisbane and began work with the Lightning!

You might be asking how Sirant even got his name into the mix, and it seems that a personal relationship he had forged in Winnipeg put him on a path to Brisbane. From Hockey Hype Australia,

Click to read the passage.

In the end, knowing that Kiliwnik worked in hockey in Australia and having a daughter in hockey who was playing for St. Mary's Academy in Winnipeg seemed to be the kindling needed to spark a friendship that crossed international borders for Sirant, and that relationship ended up bringing Sirant to Australia to work with Kiliwnik in Brisbane this summer as the two try to push the Lightning higher!

The Lightning are 5-9-1 with Sirant as one of the coaches, but they are somehow clinging to that second-place spot in the Rurak Division. Much like we saw with the Bisons, the Lightning give up far too many scoring chances and surrender too many goals to be a winning team, head coach Terry Kiliwnik and associate coach Mike Sirant have squeezed enough out of this team to keep them in a playoff spot despite them giving up an average of 4.7 goals-per-game.

Sirant wasn't going to solve all of Brisbane's problems overnight, though, so this effort with the Lightning is more of a work-in-progress right now. We'll see if he can help the Lightning make the AIHL Playoffs this season, but his time off between AIHL seasons won't be spent lounging on beaches near Brisbane or touring the outback looking for adventure. Instead, Sirant will need his passport again.

On May 28, it was announced that Mike Sirant had accepted an assistant coaching position with the EIHL's Glasgow Clan! The Clan finished in last place in the Elite Ice Hockey League across Great Britain this past season with a record of 10-24-9-11. They only missed the playoffs by two points, but the Clan are looking to climb back into the mix of perennial powerhouse with the help of the Bisons' former bench boss!

Again, you may be asking how a guy from Winnipeg is landing in Glasgow to coach hockey in the fall, but this one goes a little deeper into Sirant's career. Clan head coach Chris Neilson stated,

Click to read the passage.

The description given by Neilson may be inaccurate as Sirant had played back in the early-to-mid-1980s with the Bisons while Strachan came slightly afterwards, but there may have been some crossing of the paths between the two at the time. Sirant, though, would get an opportunity to run the Milton Keynes Kings in the British Division-II league where a young Rick Strachan landed as a defender after stints in Nottingham, Humberside, and Haringey. After being promoted to the British Division-I league with Strachan still on his blue line, Sirant left for an opportunity in 1992 with the University of Manitoba where he would coach for the next 30 years.

Strachan clearly formed a friendship with Sirant during his time at the University of Manitoba and during the two seasons they spent in Milton Keynes, and that hockey bond has remained strong over the years. With Sirant working down in the AIHL and having nothing planned for the winter, Strachan's recommendation to Neilson will see Sirant join the Clan for the 2024-25 season as they look to rise back to prominence in the EIHL!

I wrote the passage below back on March 31, 2021 when I had my integrity questioned. It's funny how I recognized the importance of personal relationships in the game as being vitally important, and now I'm talking about how Mike Sirant's friendships from 30 years ago are leading to opportunities today. Back in 2021, I wrote,

"If there's one thing I've learned from writing this blog and doing a radio show, it's that personal relationships matter. People who trust one another and respect one another because they have good personal realtionships are honest with one another, and that goes a long way in attracting future players to university programs when we're talking about words like 'family' and 'team'. Players will tell their friends. Teammates will tell teammates. The cycle is never-ending if these personal relationships are forged."

It would seem that also rings true for coaches who have left their playing days behind, but are still giving back to the game by passing on their knowledge. Personal relationships have turned into amazing coaching opportunities for Mike Sirant in both Australia and Scotland, and it really proves the point that personal relationships forged through hockey are a never-ending cycle when it comes to new, unique opportunities with chances to see the world.

With the title of this article being a famous song by The Beatles, it's kind of cool to see Mike Sirant ending up in Great Britain thanks to a little help from his friends. For a guy who was supposed to be retired from coaching, that must only mean at the university level because it seems like Mike Sirant is busier than ever in travelling to all these new destinations for work!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!