If you had asked Ken Pearson when he started his career behind the bench 30 years ago how long he would last in the business, he would have had no idea.
Now it's safe to say that it has become more than he ever expected.
The Neepawa Titans head coach and general manager celebrated two milestones Sunday night as he played his 1,500th Canadian Junior Hockey League game following a 4-2 win over the Dauphin Kings at Credit Union Place. The win was the Titans' 18th of the season and the 750th of Pearson's regular-season career.
Neepawa Titans head coach and general manager Ken Pearson played his 1,500th game in the Canadian Junior Hockey League with a 4-2 victory over the Dauphin Kings at Credit Union Place on Sunday night. The win also gave the hometown player his 750th career regular season win. (Submitted)
It's hard to put into words what just a couple of numbers mean to a person, but for Pearson it's quite simple.
“I just love the game,” said Pearson, who is in his seventh year playing for Neepawa. “I certainly never expected to be in the position I'm in today, but I still have the drive and I still enjoy coming to the rink every day and a lot of that has to do with all the people you meet and the relationships you build, whether it's players, coaches, that's what makes it memorable and keeps it going.”
Hockey has played a big role in Pearson's life since he was five years old when he started his first season at Carberry. His mother became a single mom of three boys after his parents divorced when he was young, but she still managed to find time to get everyone to the skating rink.
From the age of six to 20, Pearson played all of his hockey in his hometown of Neepawa, with the exception of a few years spent with the AAA Yellowhead Chiefs under-18 team, but when the Neepawa Natives entered the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in 1989, he turned his attention to the juniors.
Pearson played for his hometown club for three seasons from 1991 to 1994, where he recorded 14 points in 50 games and was also part of the leadership group in his 20-year-old season after serving as an assistant captain. He did not even suspect that this title would soon develop into even greater responsibility.
And all this thanks to chocolate and trauma.
In January 1994, Pearson's campaign took a turn for the worse after he suffered a serious shoulder injury that kept him out of the game for more than several months. At this point, he began to wonder where his career was heading.
“That was kind of the time when I really started looking hard and really thinking about what I was going to do when I turned 21 because I wanted to stay in hockey,” he said. “I just wasn’t sure where this was going.”
And that's when the perfect opportunity presented itself right in front of his lap.
At the time, Natives head coach Don McGillivray was also busy working as a salesman for Nestle Chocolates, so his schedules were bound to overlap at some points – and that's exactly what happened.
Ken Pearson is pictured on a hockey card from his senior season with the Neepawa Natives in 1992-93. (Submitted)
MacGillivray had to attend a sales meeting in Calgary, which meant he would miss two Neepawa games. So he asked the injured Pearson to replace him on the bench, along with assistant coach Jim Cockburn. He didn't know it at the time, but that's when Pearson learned of his fate.
“He made me stand on the bench with assistant coach Jim Cockburn and I really enjoyed it,” Pearson said. “When I turned 20, I knew I wasn't going to play any high-level college hockey or anything like that, and I knew coaching was something I wanted to do, so over the summer when Don presented me with the opportunity to join him as an assistant, I didn't hesitate.”
Pearson knew he made the right decision the following season as the coaching position was a perfect fit for him, but he faced some awkward dynamics with the players.
“It was definitely tough in the sense that I think there were 12 or 14 guys that I played with that were able to come back the next year. Two of them were my teammates,” Pearson said with a laugh. “I had to quickly find a way to separate myself from them as soon as we left the rink, as they left and went about their game business, and I had to go and do what an assistant coach does and get ready for practice the next day, do scouting and all that stuff.
“It was tough at times, but overall I think the players gave me the respect I deserved and I knew we would still be friends when all was said and done.”
After two seasons with the Natives, Pearson joined the Winkler Flyers as an assistant coach, but that was short-lived as the following season he was reunited with his buddy MacGillivray, who brought him on as an assistant after he landed a bench coaching position with the Prince Albert Raiders of the Western Hockey League. A year later, he rejoined the Flyers coaching staff for the 1997–98 season as they brought home their third Turnbull Cup title.
After several years in Winkler, Pearson became the head coach of the Brooks Bandits of the Alberta MHL, the Battlefords North Stars of the Saskatchewan MHL and the Winnipeg Blues of the MJHL, who gave him his second set of equipment after winning the championship in 2006.
After another stint with the Flyers, during which he coached and managed the club for eight years, Pearson hit the ground running in 2019 at the club where it all began – back home in Neepawa. He has been with the organization ever since and is now in his 28th season in the MHL. Being a coach for so long is certainly not easy, but he found a way.
“It's so difficult because the game has changed so much from what it used to be, so I just think it's important to keep your beliefs as a coach, but also move with the times and adapt, otherwise you'll get left behind. It's as simple as that,” Pearson said.
This year marks Ken Pearson's seventh consecutive season as head coach and general manager of MJHL Neepawa. (Brandon Sun files)
Pearson's well-balanced coaching style of being fair while still holding players accountable for their actions is a result of him knowing what it's like to be on both sides of the coin – whether as a player on the ice or as a coach on the bench. He believes this experience makes his relationship with players, especially the younger U18 players, much easier when it comes to adapting his personality on the ice.
“Throughout minor hockey and AAA, I was more of a goal-scoring guy, but when I came into junior, I kind of found myself more of a penalty-killing forward, a sixth-line forward. It was a tough adjustment when I was 17 and 18 years old and trying to change the style of game you played, and I had a hard time with that, and that it took a while, but once I realized what my role was and made that adjustment, I was happy,” he said.
“I'm so glad I went through it because now as a coach I can see both sides when they come to me and ask questions. I can talk to them about both sides of both situations. It's difficult because, I mean, your ego takes a bit of a beating, but again, to play in certain situations, that was what you had to do. I'm a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve and will do anything for his club, and that's what I did as a player.”
It is also what he will do as a coach as he continues to strive to bring the Turnbull Cup back to his home town of Neepawa.
“For a hometown guy, obviously winning a championship here would mean everything, so that’s definitely a goal.”
