Depth

I don't know about you, but I had the best weekend EVARRRRRRRR!!1. I did run across the following bit from Drinnan this morning, I got nothing to add (shocking, I know) so I'm just gonna cut and paste.

It was only a few short years ago that the Tri-City Americans appeared to be
on the brink of extinction. Now here they are, six seasons later, riding high atop the WHL’s Western Conference, looking every bit like a championship contender. Again.

This season, they are doing it with a new (old) head coach, Jim Hiller having replaced Don Nachbaur, who now is head coach of the AHL’s Binghamton Senators. Hiller, of course, is hardly a stranger to the Americans, having served as an assistant with them before venturing into the BCHL and then on to a three-season stint as head coach of the Chilliwack Bruins.
Earlier this season, Hiller told me that once he had been in Kennewick, Wash., long enough to familiarize himself with the Ams’ organization, one thing stood out above all the rest -- depth.

And it is that depth -- the credit goes to GM Bob Tory, assistant GM/director of player personnel Terry Bangen and the scouting staff -- that has allowed the Americans to keep on keeping on they way they have and are.

Consider that they now are 21-8-0-0 and that this comes on the heels of
seasons in which they have won 47, 52 and 49 games, finishing atop the U.S. Division each of the last two season.

Consider, too, that since the present ownership group -- Stu Barnes, Olaf Kolzig, Dennis Loman and Tory -- took over, the average regular-season attendance has risen 35 per cent. In 2005-06, the first season under new ownership, the average per-game attendance was 3,857, an increase of 17.7 per cent from the previous season. In 2008-09, they averaged 4,117 fans per game.

The Americans, under Tory, do a lot of the little things right. The people, including players, in the organization are ultra-accessible. And, yes, they do all of the things in the community that junior hockey teams do. Which brings us to their media guide.

Not too many teams put out media guides these days and that's really too bad. Dan Mulhausen, the Americans’ director of marketing, media and game operations, oversaw production of this season’s gem and it really is a gem.

“We’re working hard to be fan friendly and to make sure the business is solid year to year,” Tory says, explaining why the Americans produce a media guide. If you’re a WHL fan, and specifically a fan of the Americans, you are going to want to get your hands on one of these 182-page babies.

I can personally attest to the awesomeness of the media guides. Really a spectacular job, and I'm not just saying that because several of my photos were used in it. It's really well done. Even designer Sister was mostly impressed!