Yellowstone Quake to Part Ways with Head Coach Phil Oberlin
Written by Cole Havens on January 27, 2021
Phil Oberlin he will not return as Head Coach of the Yellowstone Quake Hockey team for the 2021-22 season. Coach Oberlin’s contract expires at the end of this year and it will not be renewed.
Chris Hatfield, President of Quake Hockey released the following statement:
The Yellowstone Quake board of directors has decided to not extend the coaching contract to Phil Oberlin for the upcoming 2021-22 season. As a board, we have nothing but great things to say about coach Oberlin and we appreciate everything he has done for our organization and community. We are proud to have had him representing our organization over the last three years, but have decided that we needed to make a change for the upcoming 2021-22 season. The decision was based strictly off of what the board feels is in the best interest of the program moving forward. We’ll continue to have a good working relationship between the board and coach Oberlin for the remainder of the 2020-21 season.
We have not hired a replacement coach, however we are preparing to post the job opening and start receiving resumes of candidates as soon as this week. Our hope would be to have a coaching decision made by the end of this season.
“We wish Coach Oberlin the very best in his future endeavors and would love to be a reference for him in his future career. We would love to have him back to participate when we are doing alumni events.” – Chris Hatfield
“I want to thank the Yellowstone Quake organization for the opportunity they gave me to begin my junior hockey coaching career. I’ve learned a lot over the 3 years I spent with the Quake and in Cody, WY. I appreciate everything the board, the players and the community have done for me and my fiancé Helen while we have called Cody home I wish the program continued success into the future and I am proud to have been a part of the great tradition that the Yellowstone Quake represent in the hockey community.” – Phil Oberlin
The Quake are currently 8-17-1 on the season and have a road contest against Great Falls this weekend.
During the 2019-2020 season coach Oberlin led the team to a 4th place finish in the Division. They finished the season 19-25-2-1 and knocked off Gillette in the first round of the playoffs. COVID-19 would shut the season down before their semi-final match-up against Bozeman.
Coach Oberlin took over the team in 2018 and it was a total rebuild for the team. They would finish 2018-19 season 5-40-2.
