Dean Birrell has accepted the position of Head Coach for the Chelmsford Chieftains for the forthcoming season.

Last season Dean shared the Head Coaching role with Erskine Douglas who has decided to move back down the A12 to Romford.

It was an automatic decision for General Manager Ollie Oliver to ask Dean if he would like to take over the Head Coaching role.

Oliver said: "I have every confidence in Dean as our Head Coach. He has served his apprenticeship and views the game, not only from a coaches perspective, but with playing experience as well. I wish him all the best with his new role. Dean will be announcing his assistant shortly."

Oliver further commented: "I am sad to lose Erskine. We both work extremely well together."

Birrell's first major signing for the 2003/2004 season is Andrew Power. Andrew proved to be a great success on as well as off the ice last season. The popular 6ft 2" Canadian forward had a superb season last year with 53 goals and 73 assists for the club, a total of 126 points. Quite an achievement considering his "Bad Boy" image which saw him top of the Premier League stats for penalty takers with a total of 317 penalty minutes.

Andrew Power stated "I have spoken to another couple of Premier League Teams but I really enjoyed my first season with the Chieftains and I am happy to stay."

Oliver is sure that this is a signing that will be well received by fans, players and coaching staff alike. Birrell is already negotiating with many of last seasons players as well as some old and new faces to Chelmsford. Further signings will be posted on the Chieftains website.

Last season Chieftains returned to the English Premier League after a year in the lower English National League, finishing joint fourth with Swindon and narrowly missing out on the Play-off final.

After being let down by a couple of promised sponsorship deals, last season stretched the club to it's financial limits. A spokesman for the club said "The easiest thing for the club to do this season would be to return to English National League, but we believe that the County Town and the fans deserve Premier League ice hockey.

"Behind the scenes we have people working very hard for the club to secure sponsorship money to get a successful team on the Ice for this season and for many seasons to come. People are not aware that it takes in excess of £130,000 per year to run a Premier team so it is important that the fans and businesses around Chelmsford get behind us."

If you would like to sponsor or help the Chieftains then call 07765 943 553

Published Thursday, June 5, 2003

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