Darris Kilgour was fired as head coach of the Buffalo Bandits yesterday, and he isn’t taking too lightly to it.
“I have no feelings toward the team right now. The last thing I said to them is to take my number out of the rafters. I don’t want anything to do with them.”
That was Kilgour to the Buffalo News’ Budd Bailey in an interview about being fired by the Bandits. Kilgour was the Bandits first overall pick in 1992, also the first draft pick in franchise history. He has been coaching with the team since 2003.
However, after a 6-10 season where the Bandits have no first round pick to rebuild, the Bandits had to make a move behind the bench. Kilgour is not happy about it, either.
“I’ve had a bad taste in my mouth about the team since Dave Zygaj came into power,”
Steve Dietrich became the team’s general manager this off season when they fired Kilgour from that role. Since then, it has felt like the beginning of the end for the Buffalo coach. There were several incidents in the season where he called out his team and they lost on their last day of the season, thus missing the playoffs.
“I want to clear that up – I’m the one who suggested that we bring in a GM. I wasn’t seeing eye-to-eye with management, and I didn’t think they were listening to me.”
Rich Kilgour and Dan Teat have a chance to apply for the head coach, but the name everyone is talking about is Troy Cordingley who was head coach of the year in the NLL but fired after the season. Cordingley is a former assistant coach with the Bandits as well.
Dietrich is the GM of the Kitchener Waterloo Kodiaks of Major Series Lacrosse where John Lovell coaches. Lovell was just hired to coach the Rock, which is why they fired Cordingley. That is an interesting dynamic to add into all of this.
The Bandits need to rebuild but need to do so without a first round draft pick. Their entire roster is up in the air as well; will Luke Wiles and Tracey Kelusky be brought back? Will Anthony Cosmo be brought back? Will John Tavares retire?
They have a new young core with Dhane Smith, Derek Hopcroft and Mike McNamara. Other players that might be not there next season is Shawn Williams, who could easily be moved for picks and has bounced around the past two seasons.
Dave Pym is a scout with the Toronto Rock and coached the Calgary Roughnecks for years, and his name has been thrown around. Ed Comeau, who applied for the Bandits GM role last season might also get a shot at the new gig. But I think the name everyone wants to mention is Troy Cordingley.
The Bandits need a new outlook, and with Kilgour it won’t change. Were his closing comments about the franchise appropriate? Will he find another NLL job before 2014?
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