The YKK sponsored Widnes Wild are pleased to announce that Joey Coulter will return as Player Coach for the 2023/24 season.

The hard working Scot was the Wild’s top points scorer last season with 13 goals and 27 assists in all competitions and stepped up to take over as head coach after the departure of Richard Haggar in January.

Coulter has a huge amount of experience at Moralee Division level having played in his native Dumfries for the Solway Sharks team for 7 seasons. He also played his junior hockey there and iced for several seasons for the Sharks Scottish National League team.

He played for Leeds in the NIHL National Division for the 2019/20 and 2021/22 seasons where he was Alternate Captain and, during the Covid lockdown period, he was a member of the Widnes Wild team that won the North 21 Cup and Division 1 National Play Off. In all, Coulter has played over 400 senior matches and has won 7 league, cup and play off titles.

Talking about his appointment as player coach for the new season, Coulter said:

“I’d like to thank team owners Danny and Georgia for this opportunity by putting their trust in me to guide this team towards success. Last year was a roller coaster of results, the fans here in Widnes are world class and they deserve better. I’ve spent countless hours watching the games back, identifying our strengths and weaknesses, studying other teams’ habits and I’ve got a very good understanding of what we need to lift silverware next season.”

“We have a lot of talent in the squad members returning from last season and I’ll be working with those guys over the summer to make sure they hit the ground running next season. We’re working hard behind the scenes and there will be new additions to the squad – guys that can play my desired style of hockey, ready to compete every night and have that winning mentality.”

“You could see glimpses of what we are capable of last season, that is a standard we expect every minute going forward. Once the fixtures are released, get those dates in the diary – you don’t want to miss this team in action next season.”