After 20+ years in NHL, this hockey talent is coming home to coach the Tri-City Americans
I am old enough to vividly remember the Tri-City Americans’ Stu Barnes skating at high speeds, zigging and zagging through opposing defenses, on the Toyota Center ice back in November 1988.
It was the first season of Western Hockey League action in the Tri-Cities, played in a brand new arena (then called the Tri-Cities Coliseum) that then-owner Ron Dixon, a Canadian businessman, had built.
Dixon had moved his team from New Westminster, British Columbia, to our desert.
Barnes and goalie Olaf Kolzig were the team’s two stars, playing in front of a large audience of fans who, for the most part, didn’t know much about hockey.
Both players went on to become distinguished NHL careers. Both players married Tri-City girls and raised families.
And both have been co-owners — along with Ams governor Bob Tory and local businessman Dennis Loman — of the Americans since 2005. That was the year that foursome helped save the franchise from being moved.
It’s been a long journey for two of the original Ams, Barnes and Kolzig.
But now another step has been added. At a weekend news conference on the currently ice-less Toyota Center floor, Kolzig introduced Barnes to the crowd as the team’s new head coach.
Barnes will be the Americans’ 15th head coach, replacing Kelly Buchberger, whose contract was not renewed after three seasons.
Last week, Buchberger signed a deal to be an assistant coach for the Laval Rocket of the American Hockey League.
Tory told the crowd that he had previously tried to convince Barnes to become the Americans head coach two other times. But the timing never worked.
Now, it does.
Barnes, now 50, has plenty of hockey experience.
He scored 141 points (59 goals, 82 assists) that first season, 1989-90, for the Ams. For that, he was named the WHL’s MVP. He was drafted in 1989 by the Winnipeg Jets.
His next season in the Tri-Cities, 1989-90, Barnes scored 144 points (52 goals, 92 assists).
Then he embarked on a 16-year NHL career, playing for the Jets, Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres, and finally the Dallas Stars.
He was an assistant coach for the Stars for four seasons over the last decade, and had been a scout these past two years for the expansion Seattle Kraken.
Now he’s back where he began, and he gets to put his stamp on the team and on the ice.
The Barnes Era begins with training camp later this month, and with the season opener set for Oct. 1, a home game against the Portland Winterhawks.
Cal Ripken baseball
The two Kennewick Cal Ripken teams of 12-year-olds got off and running at their respective Cal Ripken World Series tournaments over the weekend.
The Kennewick National 12’s are in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where they’re playing in the Cal Ripken 12U 60’s World Series — which means the basepaths are 60 feet.
After an opening-day bye on Saturday, Kennewick National fell to Owensboro, Ky., by an 8-5 score on Sunday in pool play.
The Nationals — which won the Pacific Northwest Regional tournament a few weeks ago to qualify for this tournament — have three more pool-play contests.
They were scheduled to play Hanford, Calif., on Monday at 7 a.m. PDT; then will battle Palm Beach Gardens American at 4 p.m., Tuesday; and finally take on Rockville, Md., at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 11.
After that, Kennewick National will compete in tournament bracket play beginning Thursday. Which bracket — the championship bracket, or the Iron bracket (consolation) — will depend on how the team finishes in pool play.
▪ Meanwhile, the Kennewick American 12’s are off to a 1-1 start in pool play at the Cal Ripken Major/70 World Series in Branson, Mo.
The Americans did not qualify by winning the Pacific Northwest Regional, but rather earned an invitation when it won the regional for 11-year-olds back in 2019.
There is no official World Series for 11-year-olds. But any team that wins an 11’s regional has the option of declaring for the World Series the following season as 12-year-olds.
Because there was no World Series in 2020 because of the pandemic, those who took the invitation in 2019 qualified for this year’s series tournament.
The number 70 stands for 70-foot basepaths.
On Friday, Kennewick lost 5-2 to West Raleigh, N.C., in its first pool-play contest.
The team had a bye on Saturday, and then beat Lexington, Ky., 16-3, on Sunday night.
In that contest, Kennewick’s Ryan Wade was 2-for-3 with a double. He also scored four runs and drove in three more. Teammate Bradley Parker added two hits and three RBIs, while Nicholas Wade scored three times.
Kennewick American was to play Hawaii, the Pacific Southwest champion, at 9 a.m. (PDT) on Monday; and then it takes on Bryant, Ark., at 9 a.m., on Tuesday.
Bracket play begins after that.
Rodeo
The National High School Rodeo Finals were held July 18-24 in Lincoln, Neb., and there were some highlights from some Mid-Columbia cowboys and cowgirls.
▪ Kennewick cowgirl Macy Brown performed well enough in her two go-rounds in pole bending — she finished 23rd and 30th in her go-rounds, which consisted of 165 competitors — that she made the finals of that event.
Pole bending, by the way, is a timed event in which a rider runs her horse in a weaving pattern around six poles arranged in a line.
Brown’s time of 21.849 seconds in the final earned her a 12th-place finish in the finals.
▪ Hermiston’s Alyson Terry placed ninth in the first go-round of the same event, clocking in at 20.268 seconds.
▪ Eltopia’s Trav Johnson had a great time of 4.65 in the first go-round of the steer wrestling event, giving him sixth place in that go-round.
▪ Benton City’s Brayden Schmidt teamed with Jett Stewart of Heppner, Ore., in the team roping event. The pair had a 6.53 seconds time to place sixth in the first go-round.
This story was originally published August 9, 2021 at 12:05 PM.