The Whitley Warriors have rolled back the years by appointing club legend David Longstaff [left on photo] as player-coach at Hillheads ahead of next season. 'Lobby' has been capped over 100 times by Great Britain and returns to his spiritual home where he starred in front of packed houses in the good old days of the Heineken League. Whitley’s former coach Simon Leach [right on photo] has moved into a new role as part of the Warriors off ice operation.
A Warriors statement read: “Whitley Warriors are delighted to announce that former GB international David Longstaff who has won over 100 caps for his country has been appointed as the clubs new player-coach. Longstaff began his career with Whitley back in 1989 when he first appeared for Warriors in a competitive match up in the old British League as a teenager.”
David Longstaff: “I’d been with the Guildford Flames in the English Premier League for about the last five years and just felt it was time to move closer to home. I’m good friends with Simon Leach and when I was speaking to him he mentioned he was planning to step down as Warriors coach at the end of the 2014/15 season. Things went on from there really and I’m delighted to be coming back to Hillheads as the clubs new player coach. As far as coaching experience goes I was involved with the coaching for the GB national team when Tony Hand was Head Coach of the senior set up and I’m really looking forward to coaching the Warriors on a day to day basis. It’ll be a learning curve for me but over the next couple of weeks I’ll be speaking to a lot of players and we’ll go from there.”
Simon Leach: “The signing of David as our new player coach is a great capture for the club. His career speaks for itself and all of our players will surely benefit from this. This is another fantastic stride the club has made and I am certainly looking forward to seeing David back in a Warriors Jersey. As a life long friend and on behalf of our club I would like to welcome David home and wish him all the success going forward. We now believe we have assembled a solid group of people all supporting each other to help change the clubs fortunes for the better.”
The Warriors also announced they will release details of next season’s playing roster for the 2015/16 season in the coming weeks. Hopefully that will include Shaun Kippin. 'Skippy' played for the Deesside Dragons (formerly the Flintshire Freeze) for two seasons after work commitments took him to Cheshire. However after sitting out last year due to shoulder surgery, Whitley's former Captain is on his way back, having completed a work out in some recreation games recently. Provided he can prove his fitness, Kippin should be a shoe-in for a roster spot.
For those across the pond in North America, David Longstaff is a British forward, who spent the past five seasons as captain of the Guildford Flames of the English Premier (Hockey) League. Longstaff started his career with his hometown team, the Whitley Warriors. Yes the same Whitley Warriors as current Detroit Red Wings Coach Mike Babcock.
With the Warriors owners deciding not to pursue a place in the then Super League, Longstaff moved to the Sheffield Steelers in 1995, enjoying several victories and success in a variety of league and play-off games. During that Era the Steelers dominated British Ice Hockey with Longstaff awarded Young Player of the Year and Superleague Player of the Year.
Longstaff returned to the UK, signing with the newly-formed Newcastle Vipers in 2002, but missed most of the season due to a serious injury. He also had brief spells with the Manchester Storm and in Switzerland with HC Sierre-Anniviers. He returned to the Vipers in 2003 before joining the Guildford Flames prior to the 2010/11 season.
Longstaff became the first man to reach 100 caps for Great Britain against Romania in a 3-0 win in the qualifiers for the 2012 Winter Olympics in Socchi.
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