New Head Coach announced for Senior Mustangs at first practice of season

Senior Mustangs Head Coach Wayne Alexander with Jaimie Kiffiak and Alex Oliver
C. Davis photo

Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice

Pincher Creek's Senior Mustangs held their first coach led practice of the season today at Matthew Halton field.  Due to circumstances unrelated to the team, Head Coach Peter Brannen has resigned and former Offensive Coordinator Coach Wayne Alexander has been asked to step up into the top spot.


"I didn't know until this morning that I was the new head coach, said Alexander.  I am excited.  It's a very young and enthusiastic team.  We graduated 13 players, so there are teams like Claresholm that are licking their chops for that trophy that is sitting in that room.  They held it for seven years and they think it's going back."

Alexander doesn't intend to let that happen.

"We've had two really good seasons, and we're building off that.  The Bantams that have moved up are really strong.  We have a number of players from the Pass.  This will be their first year playing, but they were here in the spring and they're going to be fine."

I asked him what his guiding philosophy as a coach was.  "My philosophy is that I don't like losing!".

 "I've coached for 41 years, 25 in football.  Somebody has to do it, and I have as much experience as anybody else.  I've coached in three Provinces, in Medicine Hat, Winnipeg and Kenora Ontario."

"What I mean is that I've seen things in other places that we could mix together and come up with something really nice.  It's like being a teacher.  I wouldn't want to be just like that guy, but I can take parts of what he does, and someone else, build, still being myself."

Unsurprisingly, Alexander is somewhat tight-lipped about any upcoming strategy.  He did drop a hint though. "The basis of it is what Peter actually had.  It's a running dominance offense."

At this first practice Coach Alexander was joined by Assistant Coaches Jamie Kiffiak (4 years with the team) and Alex Oliver, the big man who graduated last year.  Coach Alexander hinted at a rotating coaching staff.  Several other Mustangs graduates were also on the field helping out.

Let's pause there and wish Coach Brannen the best.  In 2011 Brannen and then Head Coach Dennis Sokownin led the team to their first Division B Trophy win.  In 2012 Sokownin stepped down and Brannen stepped up, guiding the team to a second Division B win and further: eyeball to eyeball with the big prize - Provincial success.  It eluded them by a hair, so very close.  Undefeated in regular season, it was the most successful Senior Mustangs squad in the team's history.

Undefeated in the regular season, persevering despite daunting injuries that often resulted in crucial holes in their lines, last season's team proved they were no underdog fluke.  A bum play at the very beginning of one game put Eddie Many Guns out for the rest of the season, right at the critical point.  Yet there he was, sidelined and still a huge part of the action, exhorting his teammates to excel.  Stephen Hochstein patrolled the sidelines sporting a pair of crutches.  Opposing teams sometimes outnumbered them 2, even 3, to 1.

Games where there were so many guys out of an already small team that they had no subs at all.  Against teams that were swapping lines out almost every play, determined to wear the Mustangs down.  Add in twilight shrouding an already treacherous field.  Crashing into forever renewing waves of hurt, that Mustangs team found it in themselves to win.  Game after game, they beat the odds.  They held it together. The worse the odds, the better they played.  They won.  Over and over again they won.

They're going to be a hard team to live up to.  It's a good thing those 13 retired players are being replaced by Mustangs.