NEWS

(pictured - Mike Tarantino behind the bench with the Toronto Lakeshore Patriots during the 2012-13 OJHL season - photo credit: Dan Hickling)

The Oakville Blades are pleased to announce that 2013-14 OJHL Executive-of-the-Year Award recipient Mike Tarantino has been named the newest head coach of the Junior A club.

Tarantino played his entire junior hockey career with the Blades, playing two full seasons with the club between 1998-200. The forward recorded 64 goals and 134 points in 95 regular season games over two years and led the Blades in scoring during 1999-00 with 35 goals and 81 points. After retiring as a player following four years with the NCAA's Rochester Inst. of Technology, Tarantino became an Assistant Coach at Bowling Green University in 2004-2005.

Tarantino would make his return to the OJHL as coach of the Toronto Lakeshore Patriots in 2010-2011. In order to concentrate on his teaching career at Iroquios Ridge High School in Oakville, a young family and his job as the general manager of Lakeshore, Tarantino would step down as the Patriots bench boss to focus on his task as the team's GM.

This past season, with a team that had former Blades Rory Bell and Evan Buitenhuis, the Patriots were able to win the 2014 Buckland Cup as winners of the OJHL championships following a solid playoff effort against the Aurora Tigers. Shortly after, the team went on to win the Dudley Hewitt Cup as the Central Canadian Junior A Champions before moving on to the RBC Cup earlier this month.

The Blades are very excited to have Tarantino on board in hopes of returning to the playoffs in 2014-2015!