Nanaimo, BC – March 21, 2011
The Nanaimo Clippers would like to announce that Mike Vandekamp has agreed to join the team as Director of Hockey Operations. This will include the general manager and head coaching duties. Kelly Hrudey states “Mike has won a championship trophy in three different leagues; the BCHL, AJHL and most recently the Allan Cup.” Mike will be joined by wife Lana and their two children in the harbour city.
The Clippers have offered Bill Bestwick a position in the head office and would like to thank Bill for all the hard work he has done for the Clippers over the last 11 years. Ken Wagner adds “Billy is part of the fabric of the Clippers and we hope he decides to work with the team moving forward”.
Mike had this to say of his new position “I am very excited to be joining the Nanaimo Clippers organization and returning to the BCHL. I am looking forward to working with the Clippers ownership, staff, and players to ice a team that the whole city of Nanaimo will be proud of. My family and I are looking forward to calling Nanaimo home and we can't wait to get started”.
Vandekamp was an assistant coach with the Centennials in 1998-99 and took over as interim co-coach in January 1999 with GM Ray Stewart. He served as head coach in Merritt from 1999-2001 before moving on to Vernon.
