McDonald back as the Cotton Kings Head Coach

May 2, 2002 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Lubbock Cotton Kings News Release


THE "MACK" IS BACK BEHIND THE BENCH BILL McDONALD RE-SIGNS AS THE HEAD COACH OF THE COTTON KINGS

LUBBOCK, TX: May 2, 2002 – The Lubbock Cotton Kings of the Central Hockey League have announced the re-signing of Bill McDonald as the head coach and the director of hockey operations for the 2002-2003 season.

"We are glad to have McDonald returning as the foundation of the Cotton Kings," said Cotton Kings general manager Mark Adams. "He has produced consecutive winning seasons while behind the bench, leading the Cotton Kings to the Western Division Championship two seasons ago, and producing a winning season this past season, while also facing the adversity of leading the league in the amount of players finding their name on the injured reserve list with 17 different players."

McDonald, a 49 year-old native of Thunder Bay, Ontario, signed an undisclosed one-year term to remain in Lubbock for a third season. Over the previous two seasons, McDonald has compiled a Cotton Kings all-time high 70-46-19 record (58.9% winning percentage). When the WPHL and the CHL merged prior to last season, so did the coaching records, and McDonald's combined CHL/WPHL coaching record of 180-113-41 ranks him fifth in games coached (334 in the CHL/WPHL) and wins (180), and sixth in winning percentage (60.0%) amongst coaches who have coached over 250 games in the combined history of the CHL/WPHL.

Despite not leading the Cotton Kings to the post season last season for just the first time in the organization's history and the third time in McDonald's 11 professional seasons, he did produce a winning season this past season (30-23-11) and lead the Cotton Kings to the President's Cup Finals during the 00-01 season with a 40-23-8 record. Coach McDonald was a finalist for the WPHL's "Coach of the Year" award and co-led the "Best-of-the-Best Poll" voting for the league's best coach in the 00-01 season.

"Macker" is stepping into his 12th season of coaching at the pro level, after coming to Lubbock from Dallas, where he served as an assistant coach with the NHL Western Conference Champion Dallas Stars during the 99-00 season. While with the Stars organization, Coach McDonald served as the head coach of the Michigan K-Wings of the International Hockey League, where he compiled a 50-57-16 coaching record in two seasons (98-99,99-00) with the Dallas Stars affiliate.

"It is tremendous for the Cotton Kings organization and the entire CHL to have such a quality individual as Bill McDonald returning to Lubbock for his third season," said CHL President Brad Treliving. "Bill has repeatedly proven throughout his career the ability to build championship caliber programs and I am proud to have him as part of our coaching fraternity."

McDonald's overall coaching record in 11 seasons is 381-259-75 (.585 winning percentage), ranking him third in wins amongst active CHL coaches.

He started his coaching career in 1991 with the Thunder Bay Thunder Hawks of the Colonial Hockey League (currently called the United Hockey League). McDonald coached 4 seasons in Thunder Bay compiling a 151-89-18, including "Coach of the Year" honors for the 1992-93 season. He led Thunder Bay to three CoHL Championships, with his first being during the 1991-92 season, and then back-to-back championships (1993-94,1994-95,) under the renamed Thunder Bay Senators. It was after the back-to-back championship that McDonald would head south to Fort Worth, where he would catch the Dallas Stars attention. McDonald coached three seasons in Fort Worth with the Fire of the Central Hockey League (1995-97) and the Brahmas of the Western Professional Hockey League (1997-98). After leading the Fire to the CHL championship title in 1996-97 and collecting his second "Coach of the Year" honor, he left to join the WPHL's inaugural Fort Worth Brahmas, and led them to the President's Cup series, but lost out to El Paso.

McDonald captured his third "Coach of the Year" honor during that (1997-98) season, winning the regular season championship with a 41-17-11 record, which ranks as the best record for an expansion team in the WPHL.

In his eleven seasons coaching, McDonald has won 4 league titles, 3 "Coach of the Year" honors, has produced a 58-34 playoff record, and has only coached 2 seasons in which his squad failed to qualify for the playoffs, when coaching the team from start-to-finish. McDonald played four seasons in the Canadian amateur ranks with Thunder Bay, and did appear in 7 games with the Port Huron Flags of the International Hockey League, where he recorded 2 goals and an assist.



Central Hockey League Stories from May 2, 2002


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