{"id":49951,"date":"2018-03-16T16:30:24","date_gmt":"2018-03-16T20:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=49951"},"modified":"2018-03-16T16:32:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T20:32:54","slug":"from-life-saving-surgery-to-career-saving-opportunity-the-journey-of-badgers-coach-marty-williamson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2018\/03\/from-life-saving-surgery-to-career-saving-opportunity-the-journey-of-badgers-coach-marty-williamson\/","title":{"rendered":"From life-saving surgery to career-saving opportunity: the journey of Badgers coach Marty Williamson"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Marty Williamson got the call about an opportunity to coach the Brock Badgers in the summer of 2017, he wasn\u2019t sure if saying yes was the right move to make.<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019d spent more than a decade coaching in the Ontario Hockey League before being unceremoniously fired by the Niagara IceDogs after leading them to six-straight playoff appearances. He thought maybe it was time to change directions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI debated getting into scouting or doing something else. I wasn\u2019t sure this was the path I wanted to take,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

But something about the Brock job made Williamson take the plunge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, seven months and a one successful debut season with the Badgers men\u2019s hockey team later, and the 54-year-old coach has a renewed sense of focus.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis team has done a ton for my psyche and knowing what I wanted to do,\u201d Williamson said Thursday in Fredericton after the Badgers were eliminated from the USPORTS Cavendish Farms University Cup National Championship tournament. \u201cI\u2019ve just loved this season and loved this hockey team. It has re-energized me to know that coaching is what I love to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The fact that Williamson is even still able to coach is a bit of a miracle.<\/span><\/p>\n

In March 2015 while the IceDogs were battling Oshawa in the OHL playoffs, it was discovered that Williamson had suffered an aneurysm in his aorta as a result of a problem with one of his heart valves. The aorta had ballooned to nearly four times the normal size and would require surgery to repair it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very lucky. There were no symptoms, so it was pure blind luck that they found it. It\u2019s just something going on inside of you,\u201d said Williamson, who credits IceDogs athletic therapist Peter Dobbin with saving his life after pushing him to go to the hospital after he fainted in the shower.<\/span><\/p>\n

Williamson had major surgery to replace the damaged aorta and then spent further time in the hospital dealing with an elevated heart rate. But by fall of 2015 he was given the green light to coach again.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt really has changed things for me. I look at things a little differently,\u201d Williamson said. \u201cIt happened so fast that you really couldn\u2019t get caught up in it much. I think it\u2019s tougher on your wife and kids than it is on you because you just kind of go through it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Williamson served as coach and general manager of the IceDogs again in the 2015-16 season before the team decided to take things in a different direction and released him. He coached his son\u2019s St. Catharines minor hockey team the following year before the job opened up at Brock.<\/span><\/p>\n

Williamson\u2019s first time coaching the team in a game was at the Steel Blade Classic held at the Meridian Centre in downtown St. Catharines \u2014 his old stomping grounds with the IceDogs.<\/span><\/p>\n

After going 14-9-5 in the regular season, the Badgers dumped Laurier, Guelph and York in the playoffs to earn themselves a trip to the National Championship tournament for just the second time in school history.<\/span><\/p>\n

A loss to the St. Francis Xavier X-Men in the quarter-finals Thursday in Fredericton brought a successful season to an end. But reflecting back, Williamson said he couldn\u2019t be happier that he said yes to the Badgers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say enough about the people at Brock. I\u2019ve said it\u2019s like you\u2019re on two teams. There\u2019s a fantastic team at Brock with all the coaches and management and the athletic director pulling for you and then there\u2019s the team that\u2019s in the dressing room that\u2019s a fantastic group,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey were a team that wandered. They hadn\u2019t done much the past couple of years, so to have this much fun, I couldn\u2019t be prouder of what they accomplished this year.”<\/span><\/p>\n

As for how his coaching style has changed since his 2015 health scare, Williamson admits he\u2019s still \u201cpassionate\u201d behind the bench.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI said I would settle down a little bit, but these guys will tell you pretty quickly that it didn\u2019t last too long. I\u2019m kind of fiery at times and laid back at other times so I don\u2019t think it has changed me in that way at all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Marty Williamson got the call about an opportunity to coach the Brock Badgers in the summer of 2017, he wasn\u2019t sure if saying yes was the right move to make.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":49943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,3319,1,4,58],"tags":[4437,5658,698,6423],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49951"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49951"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49954,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49951\/revisions\/49954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}