After a successful junior and college career, Halfmoon Bay's David Arduin is trading in some of his equipment for a coach's whistle.
Arduin, who returned to the Coast the week of Aug. 13 for the Sunshine Coast Hockey School, is back at Geneseo, the state university of New York where he will begin his coaching career as an assistant with the same team he just graduated from.
"Hockey is everything I've ever known. It has shaped me and made me the person that I am," Arduin said. "I'm very grateful and blessed to have had the opportunities and for opportunities like this [the hockey school] to give back and give the kids something to look up to and realize the possibility of it.
"My last year of college was great. We lost in the semifinals of our conference tournament. I didn't come away with a championship, but it was an unbelievable experience finishing my hockey career as a player. I'm looking forward to starting my coaching career."
Arduin said after getting a few minor pro contract offers, he realized it wasn't something he wanted to pursue. Luckily he has a supportive coaching staff in Geneseo who convinced him to look at coaching.
"They [the coaches] just said that my hockey knowledge and my passion for the game is something that is needed in the game, and my ability to work with kids through this hockey game has showed me it is an experience I do enjoy and a passion I do have for giving back," he said. "Some very supportive people with a lot of connections at school were able to find me a volunteer-assistant coaching role on the team and a job offer from the school to help pay some bills. My plans are to do that for a year, to go to the NCAA coaching convention in May in Florida and hopefully this time next year, I'll have landed a paid coaching position in the NCAA or back home in B.C."
Arduin said his dreams have now shifted to coaching professionally one day rather than playing in the pros.
"I'm still young enough that I have this dream, and although I won't be playing in the NHL, one day it might be coaching in the NHL," he said. "I'm very happy with the terms that I'm ending my playing career on and looking forward to the coaching career aspect. It's something that could be very successful and have a lot of longevity to it."
