Sitting in the basement of the National Lacrosse League standings, Saskatchewan Rush general manager Derek Keenan decided it was time to make a change on Tuesday.
Hitting the quarter-way mark of their season, the Rush have shaken up their coaching staff, parting ways with offensive coordinator Bruce Alexander following a 1-4 start to the year.
“It was obviously a pretty difficult decision to relieve a guy of his duties that’s a real good guy, a great friend and was a great player for me at one time,” said Keenan.
A former member of the Edmonton Rush organization, Alexander was hired by Keenan in September to lead the team’s attack.
Despite sitting middle of the pack in both goals scored and goals allowed, the Rush have not been able to string together victories to begin the season with three of their losses coming by two goals or less.
Saskatchewan’s inability to garner two points came to a head on Saturday night, taking a 9-5 lead into the fourth quarter against the Vancouver Warriors only to allow six consecutive goals over the final 15 minutes of play to fall 11-9.
“We need to be a lot better out of time-outs at both ends of the floor,” said Keenan. “Those game situational things like the other night when we let it slip because they got on a big run, managing those situations better. Those are really important.
“I think we need to add more substance to our offence, more set plays including our power play.”
As part of the coaching changes, Keenan will be back on the Rush bench as co-head coach for the remainder of the season alongside Jimmy Quinlan.
While the move comes early in the NLL season, Keenan is eager to keep Saskatchewan in the playoff race following two straight years without a post-season appearance.
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“I didn’t want to let it fester,” said Keenan. “We still have an opportunity here to do some things in this league this year. I see a young group who are really hungry, hungry to learn, hungry to get better. I think my hands-on experience can help with that.”
Keenan remains the winningest coach in franchise history, serving as Rush head coach for a decade before stepping aside in 2020 to focus on his general manager duties.
He briefly returned to the bench in 2022 following the firing of head coach Jeff McComb, winning four games alongside Quinlan to close out the season.
According to Keenan, it became clear over the last few weeks that this year’s young roster could benefit from his decades of experience as a coach in the NLL.
“I’m sitting up in the press box going, ‘I think I could help here in this situation and I’m not helping up here,'” said Keenan. “I think I just felt a lot better about the team going forward if I was more involved.”
While Keenan and Quinlan will share the co-head coach title, Keenan made it clear that he will be coaching in a supporting role and has full confidence in Quinlan’s ability to lead the Rush.
“Jimmy is very capable of running the offence,” said Keenan. “It’s still his team, we’re co-head coaches and he’s the main guy. I’m really there to help him with game management, help him with some preparation things in practices and things like that.”
Since earning their lone win of the season against the Las Vegas Desert Dogs on Dec. 15, the Rush have played just two games with a pair of bye weeks and a Jan. 13 contest in Philadelphia being postponed to March due to inclement weather.
Even though Keenan said it’s been a frustrating schedule to begin the season, he is encouraged about the chance to move forward with a clean slate when the Rush return to play in February.
“The good thing about this week off I believe is it really gives us as coaches an opportunity to hit the reset button,” said Keenan. “To be really organized going into a week and a half from now being prepared as best we can.”
The Rush will aim to right the ship on February 3, welcoming Panther City Lacrosse Club to SaskTel Centre at 7:00 pm.
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