Scott Owens

Scott Owens - Head Coach

The Bucs welcome back Scott for his second season as the Buccaneer Head Coach/General Manager. Scott played college hockey as goalie for the Colorado College Tigers, graduating in 1979 with a degree in business administration, and was a "79 NHL draft choice of the Colorado Rockies. After college, Scott spent five seasons as a player, assistant coach and youth coordinator for the Kempten Ice Hockey Club In West Germany.

Owens previously served as GM (84-90) and Head Coach (86-90) of the USHL's Madison Capitols, guiding them to four appearances in the National Jr. A Tournament, and posting a record of 141-88-9, including an exceptional 33-12-3 mark in 1988-89, the club's best ever.

Owens served as recruiting coordinator at Colorado College from 1991-95, and was promoted to Associate Head Coach prior to the 1993-94 season. Scott was named USHL "General Manager of the Year" following the 1986-87 season. He has been involved with USA Hockey since 1986, serving as GM of the South Team at the U.S. Olympic Festivals in 1986 and 1987. More recently, he worked as an asst. coach with the 1994 Select 17 Team in Mexico City, and as an evaluator at Lake Placid, NY in 1995 and 1996.
In-Depth Interview

October 3, 1996

Sarah: How old where you when you first played hockey? What kind of a league did you start in?

Coach Owens: I started when I was ten years old. I started first as a forward. I changed to a goalie when I was eleven years old. I played in a hockey association, much like the Des Moines association. It was the Madison West Side Hockey Association. It was exactly the same.

Sarah: What motivated you to start playing hockey?

Coach Owens
Coach Owens: I think what motivated me most was that we had a neighborhood full of guys all my age, we used to play pick up hockey down at the park. That's where we learned how to skate, down at the pond outdoors. We all joined at the same time

Sarah: What made you decide to start coaching?

Coach Owens: I really got interested in coaching after college when I played in Europe and Germany. I got involved in their youth hockey association and was helping coach a few of their teams, a pee-wee team and later a midget team. That really started to spark some interest in me for coaching and then when I came back to the states I tried to get involved.

Sarah: Let's talk about your years at Colorado College. How does Colorado differ from Des Moines in the hockey atmosphere?

Coach Owens: In some ways it's similar, because their both non-traditional hockey areas. Unlike maybe in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Boston, or Detroit. They have to battle with the other sports for publicity and numbers and everything else. I think here in Des Moines, as far as the fans, there more into the contest and the competition. Out there it's a little more laid back, when they watch games when they interact. The fan support out here is outstanding and it's growing in Colorado Springs.

Sarah: Do they have very many fans in comparison to other sports?

Coach Owens: The other sports are a little bit bigger there. At Colorado College there building a brand new 40 million dollar facility that seats 7,000. Right now there playing at the Air Force Academy which draws 3,000 so I think it'll be easier to judge that in a few years.

Sarah: Here in Des Moines we have all the little leagues, high school teams, and the USHL. However we have no real college team. In Colorado Springs did they have all the little leagues for younger players?

Coach Owens: They have a pretty strong youth program, very similar to here. The association has grown as a success of the local team has done well. In fact they host a big President Day's tournament in February that teams from Des Moines go and play in.

Sarah: Is there a difference between coaching a college team verses coaching this younger USHL team?

Coach Owens: There definitely is, I think first of all at the younger level you need to be on top of the players a little bit more. More on a day to day basis, you have to be very much aware of what they're doing all the time and you have to do a lot more teaching. They're younger, they're not as experienced yet, and you have to work on them to improve things. At the college level they still have to be taught things, you're just assuming that they can do a little bit more than they can at this level. Basically it's the same, you still have to have discipline, you still have to have comraderie, good chemistry, and a good work ethic to be successful.

Sarah: How do you feel the team has played so far during the pre season?

Coach Owens: I think the team has played well so far, offensively in particular. I think that we will continue to improve with our team defense and to a certain extent we have been a little inconsistent at times. I thought we were inconsistent Saturday. We put together four very good games in the Buc Bowl, we played very consistently there and I was very pleased. I'd give it right now about a B or B+. I think our goaltending has been outstanding, our offense has been very good, we just need to continue to work on our defense and the little things of the game. For this time of the year I give it a B+.

Sarah: What are your expectations of the team in the next couple of months?

Coach Owens: I expect us to be very good at home, work hard be competitive. I expect us to be a harder working team than we have been. I do think that we're going to have the ability to score goals, not because we have four or six really good players, but because we have good balance. I think you can see it already in the scoring, it's in the scoring results. We'll be having a lot of different people contributing on certain nights, which is a good sign because if someone has an off night you have some other people than can possibly pick it up. I just want to get out of the gate, get out of the start of the regular season in good shape. I don't want to be fooled by the pre season, because we had a lot of things go our way and good goaltending. I just want to put together a good first two months and keep in mind that it's a very long season.

Sarah: What are your goals for the team for the rest of the season and for yourself?

Coach Owens: There are twelve teams in the league and we want to be in the top four teams in the league, we'd like an opportunity to win in our division, but most importantly we want to be one of the top four teams and get home ice advantage. Also I want to be a team that plays exciting hockey, that is fast skating and offensive minded, and can play tough and physical if we have to. If we do get down in games that we have the capability of battling back I want to provide very exciting hockey. As far as personally, I'd like us to try and do as well as we can do and finish as high as we can in the standings and carry on from there. I don't have any big long term goals as to where I want to be, I'm very happy in Des Moines and I plan on staying in Des Moines.