[News] Rich Hesketh no longer strength and conditioning coach for the Flames

[sureLoss]

via his twitter account

Rich Hesketh @RichHesketh
After 19 NHL years it's time to say, so long! Thanks, everyone who made it fun. Guess I'm a free agent. #speed #power pic.twitter.com/4jrV7L5pJH

[AC]

Woah, that's a surprise.

Everyone seems to think the world of him.

[SportsJunky]

Sam Bennett was heard to say "and take your damned pull up bar with you!".

[irrevocable]

Great guy, he'll find something he loves and wherever he lands will covet the man.

Good luck Rich, thanks for everything.

[getbak]

Interesting. That makes it sound like it wasn't his choice.


Good time to make the change if they felt it was necessary. I assume they've already hired his replacement so they'll be in place for the prospects camp next week.

[dammage79]

Did we hire Ivan Dragos training staff then?

[Wolfman]

Wtf

[VladtheImpaler]

Not enough phò in his training plan IMHO.

[irrevocable]

Situation where Pascall, Treliving, and Conroy probably have spoken at lengths about a new candidate. If Brad and Brad are sold on someone else.. I say let's see who they bring in and support them.

Can't get pissy over a move like this -- the ppl in charge want what they want. I happen to think they have that right.

Can't wait to see our Flames in a couple years!

[Dion]

[Drury18]

April Fools was 3 months ago.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by getbak

Interesting. That makes it sound like it wasn't his choice.


Good time to make the change if they felt it was necessary. I assume they've already hired his replacement so they'll be in place for the prospects camp next week.

I doubt it was. Hopefully this doesn't minimize him when I say this, but for a Trainer / strength and conditioning coach,he basically had the top job you could get.

Can't believe he's been with them 19 years, holly crap! I wonder if he has interest in perusing work outside of Calgary, I'm pretty sure he was from here and worked his way up the ranks to the top job in town. Regardless, I'm sure he's disappointed, but 19 years is a damn good run for any profession,especially a coach of any sort.

All the best to him on his next gig!

[Reggie Dunlop]

19 years is quite the run. Survived a lot of regime changes.

[Mike F]

Given that the most positive attribute of the Flames was their work ethic, which drew praise from the fans, opponents, and Burke himself, it's hard to believe management suddenly decided strength and conditioning wasn't good enough.

Color me confused.

[kn]

How does a fan even begin to evaluate this? I'm guessing they didn't like the way some of the prospects had been developing in the strength and conditioning department?

Hesketh would have been the last guy I'd expect to go but I guess new management wants to go in a different direction.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by Mike F

Given that the most positive attribute of the Flames was their work ethic, which drew praise from the fans, opponents, and Burke himself, it's hard to believe management suddenly decided strength and conditioning wasn't good enough.

Color me confused.

What does work ethic have to do with strength and conditioning? You can have useless strength or conditioning and still bust your ass every night to the best of your abilities.

Hesketh was also the strength coach prior to last season when the country club atmosphere and consistent no shows we part of this teams culture. I'm also sure that had very little to do with him either, not directly correlated things.

19 years is a long time, but I wonder if there are some new training methods out there that Hesketh doesn't subscribe to being around a while, or maybe just Treliving has his own guys, but I doubt it due to dissatisfaction with the effort. We are getting younger as a team, maybe they all grew up on different training methods and it's just time to change with the changing needs and make up of the team.

[irrevocable]

Originally Posted by Mike F

Given that the most positive attribute of the Flames was their work ethic, which drew praise from the fans, opponents, and Burke himself, it's hard to believe management suddenly decided strength and conditioning wasn't good enough.

Color me confused.

Suddenly decided? First off, we have zero idea that happened. In fact, I'd hypothesize, they've been discussing this at length.

This is what I don't get. A firing happens and ppl start acting like "well what the heck, this makes no sense" ... really? REALLY?

For all we know they've targeted this issue for months now. They're hired to make decisions and make us better. Unless someone has personal knowledge on Rich, we kinda have to roll with it -- and believe it was done for a reason.

This is the basis of a society and community. Not everyone will have perfect vision on the issue.

Oy. Time for some Masterchef and a glass of wine.

[schooner]

One of those positions that are so hard to evaluate. Really I have no idea if he was good or not. Just seems a little strange as even in the last week the media was hyping him to the new draft picks.

All I can say is all the best Rich! Good luck in whatever you do next.

[Mike F]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

What does work ethic have to do with strength and conditioning? You can have useless strength or conditioning and still bust your ass every night to the best of your abilities.

No, if you have shi**y conditioning, you can't bust your ass every night.

On account of the shi**y conditioning.

Did that really slip by you?

[OzSome]

Flames should hire Gary Roberts. Wow, what a surprise!! he's been here 19 years??