RELEASE | SFU Red Leafs Hockey announces hiring of BCIHL Coaching Staff

BURNABY – The Simon Fraser University Red Leafs Hockey program is proud to announce the hiring of Head Coach Mark Soares and Assistant Coach Brian Stewart for the 2023.24 season. Soares and Stewart join the Red Leafs as the new BCIHL roster coaching staff.

Soares, from Burnaby, BC, played his junior career with the Coquitlam Express before joining Lakehead University of the CIS (now USports OUA). He would go on to play four years professionally in Germany and the Netherlands before returning to the Lower Mainland. Over the past 9 years, Soares has since joined the Coquitlam Express as a skills development coach, and founded Maxx Force Professional Hockey Development.

Stewart, also from Burnaby, joins the Red Leafs after eight years of professional play in the AHL, ECHL, and EIHL in the United Kingdom. Stewart backstopped the NCAA Northern Michigan University Wildcats for four seasons, posting an average .917sv% before joining the Adirondack Flyers organization; the AHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers. Stewart would eventually go on to win the EIHL playoffs in 2015 with the Coventry Blaze before retiring from professional hockey in 2018.

Former BCIHL Head Coach Mark Coletta and Assistant Coach Jim Camazzola will remain with SFU Red Leafs Hockey as the non-conference roster coaching staff.

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