The Surrey Eagles are proud to announce Brandon West as their head coach and director of player personnel to a multi-year deal. West has been in the BCHL for the past seven years, the previous three as the head coach for the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
The Prince George, B.C. native comes to the Eagles highly recommended from numerous members of the NCAA coaching fraternity and the BCHL. West, along with his staff at the time, aided in the development and progression of many great players in our league including, Angus Redmond (Michigan Tech/Anaheim Ducks), Shane Hanna (Michigan Tech) and Taro Hirose to (Michigan State).
“I am honoured and excited to be joining the Surrey Eagles organization,” said West. “We have an eager group here that is driven to make an impact on and off the ice. After meeting with all the staff, things just lined up in what we are all looking for and we believe we are heading in the right direction. I’d like to thank the ownership and management for this opportunity. My family and I are very excited to be Surrey Eagles.”
West, 32, will be the successor on the bench to Blaine Neufeld. Neufeld who has been head coach for the Surrey Eagles for the past three years will move to general manager of the hockey team for the upcoming season.
“It is something we have been planning to do for some time now and it was all about finding the right person that shared the same vision as myself and that I’d be willing to trust to carry it out,” said Neufeld. “We have taken our hits and have continued to get up and are stronger from them, but now we are so close to winning that it was extra important it was the perfect fit, which we feel it is.”
The Eagles have a potential 15 skaters returning for the 2017-18 campaign.
“It is the core coming back that we have that is certainly very strong and the recruits to add makes us very optimistic that this will be a very successful year in Surrey,” said West.
