Fuyarchuk, Jim

BORN AT TWO HILLS, ALBERTA IN CANADA on June 28th 1957, he began competition hockey here in 1980 as a 22 year-old with the Footscray Pirates in the Victorian League where he was the state association's Best Defenseman in 1981. In 1982, he joined the Warringah Bombers in the inaugural season of the NSW Superleague, then transferred to the Canberra Knights in 1983. Both Chuck Naish and he were recruited as player-coaches. He was head coach of the Knights in 1984 and 1985 while a player.

He competed there for five seasons in which time Canberra went from wooden spooners in 1982, to runners-up in 1983, and CP Air Super League champions in 1984. He represented Australia in the 1986 World Championships in Spain and the 1987 Worlds in Perth where Australia won gold, the nation's first international medal. He was also coach of the Australian National U18 Team with John Botterill for four years from 1984, kicking-off a long career that has now spanned well over three decades. Fuyarchuk is credited with starting the National Youth Team (NYT) program and its work at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. NYT program co-coach, John Botterill, described this as a major step forward. It introduced professionalism to the national program and to the sport in general.

He left the Knights after the 1987 season and became an assistant coach with the Brandon Bobcats in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association where he remained for two seasons. He moved to the Brandon Wheat Kings (1990-92) in the Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League and the New Brunswick Varsity Reds in the Atlantic Universities Athletic Association. He spent a short time in South Africa working with the National Senior Men’s Team, which competed at the C-Pool World Championships in Barcelona, Spain in 1994.

He coached 5 years in the Great Britain Superleague (1995-99), of which 3 were with the Bracknell Bees organization. He took them to the first final in their history. He served as Head Coach of the Brandon University Bobcats (CIS) and spent four years with the Waywayseecappo Wolverines (2007-10). He was a scout for the Portland Winterhawks for two seasons and then in 2014 he coached the Miskolci Jegesmedvék U18 Ice Hockey Club in Hungary. He coached Team Western (Hockey Canada—POE) in the Hockey Canada Program of Excellence with the U17 World Challenge in Nova Scotia in 2001.

A member of the Hockey Manitoba Coach Mentorship Program, he is a professional educator and in 2016 he was Head Coach for the Neepawa Natives of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, one of the ten Junior A Leagues in the CJHL.

"No, I'm not surprised I'm still employed in hockey," he said in 2010 when he was with the Manitoba League's Waywayseecapo Wolverines. "Since I was a kid in Two Hills, Alberta, I always planned to make the game my career. That's why I studied coaching and sports management at university. But would I have predicted when I started coaching pro twenty-five years ago that I'd work for twelve teams in four countries, including Australia, England, and South Africa? No, probably not. But then no one in this business should be surprised with where their career path takes them."

It took Fuyarchuk back to Australia in 2018, where he coached the Adelaide Generals to the Finals of the AJIHL. He took over the top coaching job at the Adelaide Adrenaline in the AIHL, a club that had moved from the middle of the table, where it had been for some time, to the bottom in 2016 where it remained with a handful of wins each season. Senior players continued to retire and the Club produced 3 wins in 2018, and none in 2019.

Although regarded as a young club, both the under-25 and under-21 cohorts were about League average by 2019. But they were rebuilding, and Coach Fuyarchuk was unable to lift them from the bottom where they had been for two seasons before his arrival. The reasons were a reflection of state hockey and its rink. For instance, the club struggled with one practice a week, when 2 was considered minimum.

In Jamie Holland's absence, Fuyarchuk also coached the Adelaide Rush in the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League for a few games in 2019.