When Travis Crickard was named the new Head Coach and General Manager of the Swift Current Broncos on April 24 it fulfilled a hopeful prediction made a decade earlier.
While an assistant coach with the Kelowna Rockets in the summer of 2016, Crickard was discussing his career ambitions with his wife.
“I remember speaking to Natalie about my dream to be a head coach in the CHL. I told her that we may need to move somewhere else for me to achieve that goal. She asked me where. I remember I had the team’s magnetic calendar in front of me and my eyes were on Swift Current, when we were playing Swift Current. I said, ‘It could be Swift Current.’ She first asked me where that was, where is Swift Current,” Crickard explained. “Then it kind of became a thing between us where we used to kind of say, ‘All roads lead to Swift Current.’ Although the roads took me to a couple other places along the way we finally figured out where exactly Swift Current is and we finally made it.”
Crickard, a St. John’s, Newfoundland native, brings with him a lengthy coaching background, most recently with the Saint John Sea Dogs in the QMJHL.
Crickard said the first time he considered the possibility of coming to Swift Current was back in January when he spoke to former Kelowna Rockets head coach and Swift Current Broncos Hall of Famer Dan Lambert about interest in the Swift Current Broncos.
“You need to know how thorough the Board of Directors were. I had 14 different people text me along the way saying that someone from Swift Current had reached out to them to check on who I was and my background. I have a strong appreciation for that. I really can’t thank the Board enough. We’re really energized to make a positive impact and that will be my goal going forward to have a positive impact on the Broncos and for the city of Swift Current and all the fans.”
Crickard and his wife made the trip to Swift Current a few weeks ago to interview for the job.
“We are really excited to move to Swift Current and become part of the community. I think that any time you take a position of leadership on a team or in the community you almost become part of other families too. So the second family is the team and my job will be to make a positive contribution to our players’ lives and to help them and everyone start again each day toward improving and doing it in a way that it’s joyful and exciting to improve and go through a season together or seasons together. Then the third is the community of Swift Current, I really look forward to us being key contributors to in the community,” he said.
Crickard also has an extensive background with Hockey Canada and has won three IIHF U18 gold medals.
“I am very values driven. I believe that once values are established they’re not just words on a wall. I’m someone who makes constant connection to the values, so there’s good clarity in what we’re trying to achieve. I think when you have strong values and you constantly connect to them everyone knows what we’re trying to achieve,” he said when asked to describe himself as a coach. “I think the second thing for me is I really pride myself on communicating with the people that I work with and the players that we work for so that everyone understands what their role is, how they can make a significant difference on a daily basis and then just having a sense of clarity of what we’re trying to achieve on a daily basis.”
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