By paNOW Staff

Raiders fire head coach Cory Clouston

Oct 31, 2014 | 9:25 AM

The Prince Albert Raiders announced on Friday that the team has relieved Cory Clouston of his head coaching duties effective immediately.

General manager Bruno Campese told paNOW that the decision to fire Clouston came on Thursday night at a special meeting of the board of directors. Campese said that everyone involved with the on-ice product has to take responsibility for the move.

“It’s never easy, but it was something that the organization thought, moving forward was in the best interest of the hockey team,” Campese said on Friday.

“People can speculate all they want, but it was something that, you know, I think has been discussed at a board level for, you know, a few days, but the actual decision was made last night.”

Dave Manson, associate head coach, will be the interim head coach for Friday’s game against the Moose Jaw Warriors. Campese told paNOW they will be hiring a new head coach from outside of the organization as soon as possible.

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“There will be, you know, an outside source that will be given the job as the head coach here for the remainder of the season and potentially even beyond, but you know, there still needs to be a little bit of work done in the next day or two to solidify that,” Campese said, and added that the team hopes to have a replacement in the next day or two.

Clouston was in the second year of his two-year contract. Hired in June 2013, Clouston had a record of 41-41-3-2 with the Raiders.

Under Clouston, the team reached the playoffs at the end of the 2013-2014 season, but were swept in the first round by the Edmonton Oil Kings.

The players, currently on the tail end of a road trip, were informed of Clouston’s firing on Friday morning. When asked about their reaction to the news, Campese said “it’s pretty quiet.”

He reiterated that it’s never easy relieving someone of their job when they have a family. “Everybody needs to take some accountability for it,” he continued.

“And I mean everybody. I mean it’s something that  players, you know, just can’t shrug off and I don’t think they will by any stretch, I think it’s something that hits home and hits to the heart that individually everyone needs to be better. We need to be better as a team, and there’s a lot more to give and you know, hopefully we can get it going in that direction.”

-With files from Drew Wilson, voice of the Raiders

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