Catching up with Casey Torres

Last week's reshuffle on the Windsor Spitfires bench saw Casey Torres elevated from assistant to head coach. "Literally ready to jump out of bed every morning and get going." said Torres of his first head coaching gig. "There's so many things you still want to do and you can't change everything overnight."

Source of pic: Windsor Spitfires

Torres has spent a lot of time game planning but hasn't had time to consider changing anything. After their eastern swing the Spits travelled home. Took Monday off. Practiced Tuesday. Hit the road to Barrie Wednesday. Played the Colts Thursday. Guelph Friday night.

The Kingston native knows he'll have time after the game in Guelph. Their next game after that is at home December 7th against the Colts. "We've got the weekend and then you got some good practice days. I think there'll be some good opportunity to implement a few new things going into that little bit of a home stretch there."

Focus on playing better

"If you look at the big picture it's daunting and you can psyche yourself out. There's still a lot of runway left in the season."

So far Torres has focused the players on getting better and not worrying about their record (6-17-1, last in the Western Conference). "We've been in a lot of close games throughout the course of the season but we haven't found ways to win games."

The 43-year old was happy to see his team find ways to win two of three against two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference last weekend. "They were tight close checking games. All credit to the kids. They really executed in some high pressure situations and it was fun to watch, fun to coach them."

Bowler assists

For a second straight weekend general manager Bill Bowler joined Torres on the bench. "I haven't thought about that at all." Torres said about not having official assistant coaches. "Billy and I worked pretty good this past weekend. We're working really well again here this weekend. I know he's still the general manager and he's got a lot going on. I've got Johnny Moran our video guy certainly helped pick up a lot of the load as well too. Until we hear otherwise it's, you know, the work has to get done. It just means you get up earlier to make sure it gets done, that's all, or stay a little later."

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