Walters and Bowler
Greg Walters, who has a winning record as an Ontario Hockey League head coach with both the Oshawa Generals and Owen Sound Attack, has a new gig.
And it is a captivating one.
The 53-year old Walters is taking his seasoning and aptitude as an OHL bench boss to the Windsor Spitfires. Walters takes the helm in Windsor after a 2023-2024 season in which the Spitfires missed the playoffs with Casey Torres as the interim coach following the firing of Jerrod Smith.
Through shrewd planning by general manager Billy Bowler via player movement and development of younger skaters, the Spitfires are poised to return to Western Conference prominence in 2024-2025. And in Walters, the Spitfires are getting a head coach who has never had a losing season, be it four years in the OHL with Oshawa and Ottawa and eight years as the bench boss with the Georgetown Raiders of the Ontario Jr. Hockey League.
Walters has rarely taken a break from the game.
After three OHL seasons as a high scoring forward with the Ottawa 67’s while playing for legendary coach Brian Kilrea, Walters (in photo at left) embarked on a 10-year minor pro playing career. Along his minor pro journey, Walters played for coaches such as Frank Anzalone, Bruce Boudreau, Marc Crawford, Gene Ubriaco and John Tortorella. (Anzalone coached a national championship team at Lake Superior State University while Boudreau, Crawford, Ubriaco and Tortorella have all coached in the NHL.)
Following his retirement as a player, Walters turned to coaching and spent eight seasons with the OHL’s Sarnia Sting as an assistant. He then went to Georgetown of the OJHL for eight successful seasons of heading coaching apprenticeship. Then came four seasons as an OHL head coach, two with Oshawa and two more with Owen Sound.
Walters had a two season record of 75-40-15 in Oshawa and was 71-56-16 behind the Owen Sound bench. He was fired by Owen Sound seven games into the ’23-24 season despite the fact that the Attack had a record of 4-2-1.
To be sure, Walters is taking his winning ways as a head coach into a favourable situation in Windsor where the Spitfires can return a freight of fine talent led by National Hockey League draft pick forwards Liam Greentree and AJ Spellacy.
And with the aforementioned Billy (The Kid) Bowler (in photo at left) as a gunslinger GM, the Spitfires are in position to potentially trade from their depth of younger players and draft picks for impact veterans presently with OHL teams who are in a rebuild.
Bowler, who might be described as having the balls of a burglar, has not been shy to trade with rival Western Conference teams, including major moves with the Saginaw Spirit.
Meanwhile, Bowler was short and sweet when commenting on the hiring of Walters as the Spitfires’ head coach.
“Greg is a veteran coach who holds his players accountable,” Bowler said. “I would consider him a players coach who will lead through the relationships he builds with his players.”