Former Swift Current United Soccer Club and Swift Current Comp. Colts player Lonny Behm is the new head coach of the Red Deer Polytechnic Kings soccer and futsal programs.
“I’m excited and honoured to take the position. It’s the next step in a person’s coaching journey. I think we have a solid core of returning players that are wanting to get better and wanting to learn,” said Behm.
Behm has been coaching for over 20 years prior to making the jump to the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference.
“I’ve coached all levels throughout Alberta from Tier 4 to Tier 1 to women’s and men’s,” he explained. “This is just the next step in the natural progression. After their coaching search was done they asked if I would interview. Once I heard their story and what they were looking for it kind of seemed like a pretty good fit. When an opportunity is presented it’s kind of nice to take it just in case the door closes.”
Behm has held key leadership roles in the Central Alberta Soccer Association, Ponoka Storm Soccer Club, and Alberta Soccer over the past two decades.
“I’m very player centric. The game is for the kids. My job is to help guide and teach. I’m very intense. I have high standards. We play a high energy, high work rate game.”
The ACAC features 13 teams in men’s soccer.
“I think it’s a level down from U Sport, but there is still a lot of quality soccer players that are coming from the AYPDL, which is the top level of Alberta. There are a lot of players coming from Saskatchewan that have played in the PSL or Div 1. A lot of international students coming over and playing from Japan and Brazil. The level of soccer is quite high and it’s a little more of a physical game.”
The Kings missed the post-season in 2025 with a 2-5-3 record in the South Division. Behm won’t have much time to settle into his new role as the Kings open the 2026-27 ACAC season on August 29 in Calgary against the SAIT Trojans.
“The hiring timeline wasn’t ideal, so one of the biggest challenges is the recruiting process for this coming season and following into next season,” admitted Behm. “Ideally we would have liked more time to recruit and look at our roster, that’s probably our biggest challenge going in. The second biggest challenge is creating a new culture within the program and team that just finished a season that was 2-5-3, so trying to build on the culture and bring some positivity into the line-up.”
Behm is hoping his connections in Swift Current will lead to some recruiting opportunities in Saskatchewan.
“I think with Saskatchewan, Medicine Hat is close and Lakeland is there, but I find Saskatchewan has really pushed itself forward in the player talent and technical side of things. I believe it is a little bit untapped. There’s no colleges really there with soccer programs. We can hopefully tap the market and become a destination for Saskatchewan because the quality of Saskatchewan kids that are coming is extremely high.”
Behm lives in Ponoka, 55 kilometres north of Red Deer.
“I created a program in a small town that’s just a little but smaller than Swift Current. We became one of the top female programs in all of Alberta… I got to coach two Alberta Summer Games teams, one male and one female team, and got the highest finish for our zone for the boys program, we won a silver medal. The teams I’ve coached in the past, we’ve won five provincial championships, we’ve won two silver medals at provincials and a bronze medal.”
Behm has also led teams on international trips to Scotland and Portugal.
“I got to learn from different coaches in some of those countries by going to their academies and learning their systems.”
Behm was a member of the Westcan United U17 Boys team that won one of Swift Current’s first provincial titles in 1998.
“Growing up in Swift Current we were lucky enough to have a couple coaches and got to learn from them. One is obviously Dale [Perry], who is a big influence in my life and my coaching journey. Then when I went to college I had a coaching mentor there.”
Behm was also member of the SCCHS Colts when the soccer program was in it’s infancy and said one of the lessons from coach Perry has stuck with him all these years later.
“We’re coming from a smaller community. We’re usually the underdogs, so having that mentality really helped me as a player and then going further as a coach, always being the underdog, always pushing, always going to have to work hard for what we get,” he said.
“One of the biggest moments of my career in Swift Current was the first game of high school soccer we lost 13-1 or 13-0 and we ended up having to play that team in the playoffs. It was one of the biggest upsets I think probably still to this day, winning 1-0 against Caronport. It was just the bulldog mentality, the underdog mentality. It was probably my first really understanding of tactics. We pressed really hard that day and it’s something that I’ve kept in my back pocket in my coaching journey is pressing high and being competitive in every game.”
He looks back on his days on the soccer field in Swift Current fondly.
“I never ever thought I’d be doing this for this long and where I am at, but it all started back in grassroots soccer back in Swift Current and with the people there that pushed soccer forward. I’d like to thank everybody there, growing up a big part of my life was Swift Current soccer.”
