Silvertips coaching staff has family ties

Published 3:38 pm Friday, September 18, 2009

EVERETT — What’s been the most difficult aspect of Everett Silvertips coach Craig Hartsburg and his son, Chris, being united on a coaching staff for the first time?

Has it been learning about a new league, team and players together, as neither had been involved in the Western Hockey League before? Has it been managing the dynamic of father and son being coach and assistant?

No. It’s been the living arrangements.

“He’s 29 years old and we kind of wish he’d get his own place at some point,” Craig Hartsburg quipped.

“I already had to handle the moving of their furniture into the house when they weren’t here yet,” retorted Chris Hartsburg, who is staying with his parents in Everett until he’s able to rent out his condo in Colorado. “So I think they’re happy to have me around in that sense.”

All kidding aside, Craig and Chris Hartsburg are learning the subtleties involved in working together on the same staff, and they’re enjoying the opportunity to connect in a new way.

The union of Hartsburg and son occurred in a flash during the offseason. Craig Hartsburg was hired as Everett’s head coach in June, and his staff was already set as associate head coach Jay Varady and assistant coach Mark LeRose had been retained from the previous administration.

However, in late July LeRose accepted an assistant position with the American Hockey League’s Houston Aeros, leaving the Tips in need of an assistant.

Craig Hartsburg had never really considered the possibility of coaching with his son. However, when the position opened up, Chris, who began his coaching career as an assistant with the Central Hockey League’s Colorado Eagles the previous season, was the first name that popped in his head.

“He’s the type of coach we were looking for, a young one,” Craig Hartsburg said. “Jay’s got some experience in this league, so we didn’t really need another experienced guy. We wanted to bring in another guy who can learn, but also help us with his knowledge. So it was the perfect fit, really. I didn’t go into any big search when I knew Mark was leaving.”

Chris Hartsburg jumped at the opportunity to move up in the coaching ranks to major junior, as well as work with his father.

“I hoped at some point maybe we’d work together,” Chris Hartsburg said. “I think it happened a lot sooner than I thought. I would rather have played for him at some point, but it happened this way and I’m very excited about the opportunity.”

This has been the first chance for the Hartsburgs to spend significant time together in a hockey setting. When Chris Hartsburg was playing youth hockey, his father was still a player in the NHL, which, because of travel, limited his opportunities to interact with his children. Then Chris Hartsburg moved away at 15 to play junior hockey, just as Craig Hartsburg’s coaching career was beginning. Therefore, not only had the two never coached together before, they never had the coach-player relationship, either.

“Hopefully we’ll catch up on some lost years here,” Chris Hartsburg said. “But for me it’s been a daily process where I learn something new or something different about the game that I never really thought about before.

“It’s one thing to spend as much time around him as I did growing up, but it’s another thing to work with him,” Chris Hartsburg added. “You learn a lot more about him, and how much more he knows about the game than myself. You just try to take something every day and keep it.”

One might think there would be challenges trying to navigate the dynamic of being both father and son, head coach and assistant. However, so far it’s been a smooth transition for the Hartsburgs.

“It’s funny, but when we walk into the building he’s not really my son,” Craig Hartsburg said. “He is my son, but I look at him as my assistant coach. There’s been players who played for their dads. I coached in Philadelphia when Kevin Dineen played for his dad (Bill Dineen), and he walked into the rink and he was a player. It’s the same with Chris, we walk in the building he’s my assistant coach, we walk out of the building and he’s my assistant coach but my son. We talk about other things away from the rink besides hockey.”

From a coaching standpoint Chris Hartsburg will focus on the forwards with the Tips, as he was a forward when he played. As a younger coach who isn’t far removed from playing he’s also able to relate with the players.

But as the low man on the totem pole, Chris Hartsburg is also stuck with many of the mundane tasks.

“He’ll have a lot of jobs that aren’t a lot of fun,” Craig Hartsburg said with a grin. “He’s big on curfew calling, we’ll leave that as one of his jobs.”

So while they may be father and son, it appears the hierarchy of head coach and assistant will remain firmly intact.

Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog