The Virden Oil Capitals have added to their coaching staff by hiring former Brandon Wheat King U18 AAA head coach Curtis Brolund. Brolund will occupy an assistant coach role with the team and will join head coach Tyson Ramsey and assistant coach Brett Braybrook on the bench to start the 2023-2024 MJHL season. He has been a part of the Oil Caps scouting staff for the past 4 seasons and he spent some time on the bench with the Oil Caps during their run to the MJHL final this past spring.
Brolund, at a young age, has already enjoyed an extensive coaching career that started in the MJHL with the OCN Blizzard in the fall of 2011. Brolund played in the MJHL from 2006-2011 spending time with the Blizzard, Winkler Flyers and Dauphin Kings. He also played 6 games in the SJHL with the Nipawin Hawks during the 2009-2010 season before returning to Manitoba to finish his junior career in OCN with the Blizzard. Following his playing career he spent one season as an assistant coach with that same Blizzard team before returning to Brandon where he spent 7 seasons as an assistant coach with his alma mater Brandon U18 Wheat Kings, winning a MU18HL championship in 2018-2019. He was then hired as the head coach of the U18 Wheat Kings in 2019-2020 and held that position until being hired by the Oil Caps this summer. From 2014-2018 in his assistant coach role with the Wheat Kings, Brolund was a part of Tyson Ramsey’s staff so the 2 have worked together and know each other well. He was also hired as an assistant coach on Team Manitioba’s U16 Program of Excellence team this spring which will compete in the WHL Cup in October.
Curtis is married to his wife Bekah and together they have a one year old daughter Poppy. The young family will be planning a move to Virden at some point this summer.
GM and Head Coach Tyson Ramsey was excited to bring Brolund on board to compliment his coaching staff.
“I am really happy to be able to bring Curtis and his family to Virden”, said Ramsey. “I have had the pleasure of working with Curtis in the past and have watched him grow enormously as a coach and as a person in that time. He is an outstanding young man that comes from an excellent family and one of the brightest young hockey minds I have worked with. He is constantly studying, analyzing and researching the game to develop his players and himself as a coach. Brett and I had the chance to work with him in the playoffs and we really liked what he brought to our group. We have been looking to add a second assistant coach for the past couple seasons and we feel like Curits is a great fit. We are very excited to welcome Curtis and his family to Virden.”
The Oil Caps will hold their annual Comfort Inn and Suites Prospect and Development Camp on August 8-10 and main camp will start September 1st.
