Rattlers announce new head coach

Despite having interest for his team’s head-coaching vacancy coming from around the world, Saskatchewan Rattlers general manager Barry Rawlyk decided to promote from within.

On Wednesday, the Canadian Elite Basketball League team announced that former assistant coach Chad Jacobson will be its head coach for the upcoming season.

“We’ve all had the experience where you are searching for something and you are thinking, ‘Where will I find this?’ and it’s kind of hidden there and then it appears to you,” Rawlyk said about the temptation to look elsewhere to fill the position.

“That’s part of the Saskatchewan mentality that we have. I don’t know if it’s our inferiority complex or what it might be that we tend to think that we have to go elsewhere to produce quality things and that is clearly not the case and it’s not the case here.”

Rawlyk, the current head coach of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s basketball team, is very familiar with Jacobson and what he brings to the organization. Jacobson has been one of Rawlyk’s assistant coaches at the U of S for the past seven years.

“I’ve seen him firsthand at work and in terms of his technical knowledge of the game, his ability to adapt to different situations, his work ethic — those are all important things,” said Rawlyk.

“But I think the piece that he really brings is his interpersonal skills, the ability to appeal to players and get them to buy into a culture of the team. That’s a real strong suit for him.”

Although Jacobson will be remaining in his role as an assistant coach with the Huskies, he is excited for his new role and to continue developing as a coach.

“It’s something that I’ve been striving for for some time. Obviously I am in a very good place right now with the University of Saskatchewan and being a full-time assistant coach,” he said.

“But becoming a head coach is an end goal for me and I think this opportunity is just going to help me continue to grow and develop as a coach and I really look forward to the upcoming season.”

According to Rawlyk there is still lots of work to do before the Rattlers tip off against the Fraser Valley Bandits in their first game of the 2020 season on May 8.

“Free agency begins on Feb. 1. We haven’t put any ink to paper yet but we do have some verbal commitments to some players who have expressed their desire to come back,” he said.

Despite Rawlyk and Jacobson moving from their previous tandem of head coach and assistant coach to GM and head coach, Rawlyk doesn’t believe their working relationship will change much.

“I think there has to be great cohesion between us in terms of building a roster. And obviously building an assistant coaching staff, (Jacobson) is going to have input into that,” he said.

“And so the partnership continues. I don’t think there is a huge shift in dynamic there at all.”

The Rattlers are the defending league champions and are looking to follow that up with another strong season in 2020.

“There’s a target on our back for sure; we know that,” said Jacobson.

“We had an incredible run down the stretch last year so the expectation has kind of been set but I am really confident in the roster that (Rawlyk) is going to put together. We are going to do everything that we can possibly do to help this team be successful.”