Doré, Garry

BORN APRIL 29TH 1958 in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in Canada, he was raised there then finished high school at Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, Saskatchewan. He began organised hockey from about the age of 8, mostly on rep teams, then later played senior hockey at College. He arrived in Australia in 1981 at the age of 22 to play for the Newcastle North Stars in the National Ice Hockey League (NIHL).

That league folded the same year, but he stayed on as player-coach of the North Stars in the newly-formed NSW Super League in 1982, playing half a season before the rink shut down. He structured the team, recruited the other imports, and fell in love with Newcastle and also Leanne Copas whom he married. They went back to Canada, but he missed the Australian lifestyle after six months.

When he returned to Newcastle, he commuted to Sydney to play for the Sydney Bears between 1984 and '86, as Canadian expat, Jim Kendall, had done many decades earlier. That was no longer possible after he joined the NSW police force, so he turned to his other love - American men's softball — playing and coaching Newcastle and representative teams for many years.

He retired as a police detective after a work accident, met former surf and swim legend Les Lazarus, and became involved with the development of Hunter Ice Skating Stadium (HISS) at Warners Bay. He was rink manager when it opened in September 2000 and bought into the business several years later. HISS soon set new national standards in management and operation, hosting 2 IIHF World Championships and many Nationals.

He put together a Bantam (U15) team for the 2001 NSW league and coached them to the state Championship, assisted by Ray Sheffield. The Blacktown team they defeated had never lost a game in its history. He then coached the Midget rep teams for a number of years, but it was in 2001, 20 years after he had first arrived, that he was approached by the newly-formed AIHL, which at that time consisted of just 3 teams. He took on the role of GM of the North Stars when they joined the League in the 2002 expansion, controlling hockey operations and player recruitment.

He was coach for 5 or 6 years of the club's ECSL Junior team, set-up as a farm team for the AIHL, and he has also been Assistant and Head Coach of the AIHL North Stars whenever required. He won a Goodall Cup as a player with the Macquarie Bears in 1985, then a record six times as GM of the Newcastle North Stars in the AIHL (2003, '05, '06, '08, '15, '16). In 2016, he played for Team USA in an exhibition game with and against NHL legend, Wayne Gretzky.