Brayden Desjardins (left) and Evan Vossen (right) are the new U18 head coaches for the South Alberta Hockey Academy (Photos courtesy of South Alberta Hockey Academy & Banff Hockey Academy)

By Scott Roblin

South Alberta Hockey Academy

Desjardins, Vossen hired as U18 coaches for South Alberta Hockey Academy

May 26, 2020 | 10:28 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The two men tasked with leading the new Canadian Sports School Hockey League U18 teams for the South Alberta Hockey Academy have been announced.

Brayden Desjardins and Evan Vossen have been named head coaches of the AAA-level male and female programs, which will take to the ice this fall in Medicine Hat.

This comes after the relocation of the CSSHL’s Banff Hockey Academy to southeast Alberta earlier this month, bringing AAA hockey back to the Medicine Hat area for the first time in three years.

Desjardins is coming off his first year as head coach of the SEAC Bantam AAA program, leading the Tigers to an 11-19-3 record before losing out to the Red Deer AAA Rebels in their division finals series.

No stranger to the SAHA program, Desjardins previously served as an academy instructor and is the son of program director and Medicine Hat Tigers head coach Willie Desjardins.

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Coaching the U18 girls team will be Vossen, who will relocate to Medicine Hat along with the Banff Hockey Academy program.

Vossen’s first year behind the bench in Banff didn’t go quite as planned, as the team finished last in the league with a 2-24-0-0 record and missed playoffs.

A native of Swift Current, Vossen led the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s La Ronge Ice Wolves for three seasons as head coach and general manager between 2016 and 2019 and posted a 28-136-2-8 record over that span.

Vossen was also a five-year veteran as a player with at McGill University and played 62 games at the ECHL level with the Missouri Mavericks and Indy Fuel.

There is no word yet on when the 2020-21 CSSHL season will begin due to the COVID-19 pandemic.