RMC Hockey Press Release 18 Sep 2006

PRESS RELEASE

18 Sep 2006 (Article courtsey of OSPREY MEDIA - KINGSTON WHIG STANDARD)

Kingston - RMC Announces Hiring of Assistant Coaches

     Jim Hulton, newly minted benchboss of Royal Military College's varsity hockey club, needed "two people I know very well" to assist him during the upcoming Ontario University Athletics campaign. Accordingly, he hand-picked his brother Brian as well as a garrulous, gregarious chap who, while not family, has been a trusted ally and confidant of the native Wolfe Islander since their days together at Regiopolis-Notre Dame Catholic High School - his old teacher, Tom Carty.
     In one fell swoop, Hulton not only filled that familiarity requirement but landed plenty of shinny savvy to boot. "Brian has coached and been actively involved in minor hockey at every level for the past 20 years," the youngest of four Hulton brothers said of the oldest. �As for Mr. Carty, he's a lifelong teacher and coach," he added. "He likes to let on that the game's passed him by, but in fact he's as current as you can be."
Brian Hulton, a 46-year-old auto-parts salesman, who along with friend John Finlay has co-coached Greater Kingston Hockey Association teams for the past two decades, jumped at the chance to work with baby brother.
     "I always wanted an opportunity to coach with someone who's had experience at higher levels," he said. "Jimmy's had that kind of experience with the national program [and major junior]. I'm interested to see how he prepares and if the things we're doing in minor hockey are roughly the same things he teaches. It's an opportunity that can only make me a better coach."
     For Carty, the erudite skipper of Kingston Ponies baseball teams the past eight years, it means a short off-season. Like his fellow assistant, Carty is far from a neophyte coach. He's guided hockey, football, baseball and basketball teams since 1958 - the year he was selected Regi's MVP in football and hockey and earned the school's B'nai Brith award. His last hockey coaching stint came three years ago in the Church Athletic League, helping Jamie Turcotte with the St. Joseph's peewee boys squad.
     "The first time I was out [at a Paladins practice], I felt like I was standing at a train station and all the trains were whizzing by," quipped Carty. The 64-year-old former pro puckster - he later starred with (and for three games coached) the old senior A Kingston Aces - is a member of the Kingston and District Sports Hall of Fame.
     "I'm kinda old, but I'm looking forward to it," he added on his volunteer position with the Paladins. "The kids are first-rate, bright, they pick up stuff quickly and their level of politeness is terrific."
     Carty retired from the professional game following a trade from the Omaha Knights to the Springfield Indians, who were owned by the parsimonious Eddie Shore. Carty doubts he'll be introducing the cadets to the mercurial Shore's peculiar coaching style any time soon. "No ballet dancing, no tying goalies to the crossbar, no forwards skating between two chairs five feet apart and then being hammered by two defencemen as they skate through.
     "Then again, Shore's methods were made for a military atmosphere in which people are trained to do what they're told and not argue," he added, laughing. "I think one priority for Jim was to get people he could trust," said Carty, who thinks the world of Hulton as a coach and a person and was among those dismayed at the latter's dismissal from the Kingston Frontenacs last spring.
     "After my open-heart surgery a couple of years ago, I went to the Memorial Centre and exercised by walking around the [mezzanine] while watching the Frontenacs practise," Carty recalled. "That's when I realized how prepared and thorough Jim was as a coach; certainly the best practice coach I'd ever seen. Every drill was preparation for some part of his system. He's very committed."
Carty is not taking his duties lightly. He's started to compile a notebook on drills and keeps abreast of current coaching methods via the Internet. Retired after a 32-year teaching career, he has time to show up one hour before practice to discuss that day's workout.
     Both Hultons will be behind the bench. So, too, will Carty, if the head coach has his way. "Tom probably prefers to be an eye in the sky," said Hulton the younger, referring to a press-box vantage point, "but I'm sure we'll talk him into joining us." During games, Hulton, 37, said his brother will work mainly with Paladin defencemen while Carty will focus primarily on the forwards. "That way I can do what I'm supposed to do - concentrate on the game and get the right people on the ice at the right time," he said."
     And should undisciplined positional play become a problem, Carty could suggest a remedy straight out of the coaching manual of one Scotty Bowman, his coach in Peterborough - where Petes teammates included future NHLers Gary Dornhoefer, Terry Crisp and Claude Larose. "Larose drove Scotty nuts by chasing the puck and always being caught out of position. Scotty called him a river skater," Carty remembered, drifting back nearly a half-century. "One time at practice he said to Larose, 'You want the puck that badly? Go and get it!' And he threw the puck over the boards high up into the stands, then he made Larose go up and get it, skates and all."