NEWS PHOTOS JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Cubs head coach Trent Derzaph and defenceman Austin Derzaph celebrate capturing an HJHL championship Saturday in Red Deer after a 5-2 Game 3 win over the Vipers to sweep the finals 3-0.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Austin Derzaph wasn’t sure how his last season with the Medicine Hat Cubs would go, playing for his dad Trent as head coach.
He certainly couldn’t have predicted they would end the season as champions.
The father-son duo captured an HJHL championship as Saturday as the Cubs swept the Red Deer Vipers in the league finals, capturing the franchise’s first HJHL crown.
At the start of the season, with Trent’s hiring announced in the offseason, he wasn’t sure how the year would go. He says the fit was apparent quickly, paying off with the ultimate goal.
“It was a little weird at first, having my dad coach me, but he fit in perfectly with the guys,” Austin said. “The guys love him and everything, just super emotional, too, to win.”
Standing at centre ice post game, looking over the scene of championship celebrations unfolding in front of him, the magnitude of the win with his son brought emotions for the Cubs’ bench boss.
“It means a lot to me, honestly that’s a tough one,” Trent said. “It’s his last year, he’s my boy, but he’s a defenceman on the team and he kicked ass this year.”
This season, Austin’s second in Medicine Hat and last in the HJHL as an overager, saw him run as an established pillar on the blue line. He finished the regular season with seven goals and 31 points in 36 games. Derzaph added a goal and eight points in 10 playoff games, assisting on Ethan Burgeson’s game/series winner Saturday.
Trent says he knew what he had with him and the rest of the group.
“When you have a leader like him and a guy who’s played at the level he’s played, I knew what I had,” Derzaph said. “Then I brought in other guys and we have other vets here, I knew we had four defencemen (already). Hands down, I’m confident we had the best defensive core in the league.”
Austin agreed with dad’s assessment on the D-core.
“All of our defencemen, all seven of us, they can run the play wherever, whenever, they can do it at all, it’s impressive,” Austin said.
Trent took over behind the bench after general manager Randy Wong stepped back in the offseason from the coaching role. Wong says Derzaph was a missing piece they needed to get to the championship level.
“Bringing Trent in brings a different look to the team, guys believed in what he was trying to do and they bought into the program, the process, that’s what we’ve always kind of said is that the process has to be that,” Wong said “When you get guys to believe in that and the leader in Trent has to kind of preach that, guys have to buy in. So kudos on him and Johnny (Stehr). Just everybody in our organization that has stuck through it, we got a great board and through everybody involved, that’s a championship for all of us.”
The Derzaph family impact goes beyond the ice. Holly Derzaph, Trent’s wife and Austin’s mother, is the Cubs’ secretary and is on the board of directors. For the family to share the moment together, it’s a lasting memory Austin says.
“My dad and my mom, my entire family, put in so much for me just to play hockey,” Austin said. “So it’s just important, I’m so happy that they did it for me.”
