Assistant Travis Young takes offer to coach professional Hungarian team

story courtesy of acadiau.ca on 25/06/2013 4:08 pm

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – Acadia men’s hockey coach Darren Burns will be searching for a new assistant coach in the coming months prior to the 2013-14 season.

Assistant coach Travis Young will be heading to Hungary to head up the Miskolc Polar Bears. Young, who played for the Axemen for two seasons beginning in 2004 before retiring from hockey in his third year due to reoccurring concussions, was named as a CIS All-Rookie during the 2004-2005 season. Young became an assistant coach with the Axemen during the 2007-2008 season.

In his six years as an assistant coach, Young coordinated Acadia hockey’s summer camps along with working on Axemen’s special teams including the powerplay and penalty killing units.

Young will join the Polar Bears beginning August 1st. The Miskolc Polar Bears, centered in Miskolc, Hungary, play in the MOL league – an international ice hockey league organized for clubs based in Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. The league, founded in 2008, is sponsored by the Hungarian petro-chemical company the MOL Group.

While Axemen head coach Darren Burns was sorry to hear about the news from Young earlier this week, he was thrilled to see him move on with his coaching endeavours. “I am extremely happy for Travis. Although you never want to lose such a quality individual who knows so much about hockey and I am very happy he is getting this opportunity” pointed out Burns.

Adding, “He was a huge part of our program as a player and as a coach. His hockey mind and loyalty as a person always made him a great fit with the Axemen program. Becoming a head coach is usually a goal of assistant coaches. He certainly deserves this opportunity. His efforts in helping develop young players at our camps, while his work with the Acadia Minor Hockey Association has allowed him to leave a positive mark in our community.  We wish him the best of luck and know he will achieve success in his new job”.

Young had mixed feelings of the decision to accept the job in Hungary. “It was a very difficult choice to leave Acadia as it has been home for the last nine years and Darren gave me a great opportunity to get involved in the coaching side of the game when I was forced to stop playing, but the chance to become a Head Coach in a professional league was tough to pass up”, noted Young. “It was also always a goal of mine to play professionally in Europe after my university career ended and I didn’t get that chance due to some injuries, so this seems like a great opportunity to see a different part of the world while also gaining some very valuable coaching experience”.

The opportunity to coach in Hungary has also opened the doors at the end of March 2014 for Young to work with the Hungarian Under 18 National team for the month of April and coach at the World Championships Division 1 Group B.

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