Naish, Chuck

BORN CHARLES NAISH IN 1960 IN MANITOBA CANADA, he began skating on frozen lakes when he was two, and played Junior A for the Selkirk Steelers in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League where he was an All-Star in the 1972-73 season. He moved to the Portage Terriers in the same league for the next 3 seasons, 1974 to 1976, where he scored over 1 goal on average each game. In 1982, the left winger was among the Macquarie Bears' imports in Sydney Australia, with Glen Foll and Wally Leskiw.

He joined the Knights in 1983 with Ken Bennett, a former Vancouver Junior A player, and the club finished a close second to the Warringah Bombers in the playoffs. "I had a talk with the Knights' coach, Jim Fuyarchuk, and I could see that he was getting some good players together," he has said of the move. "I wanted something different, so I came to Canberra." In 1984, the Knights were the undisputed champions of Australia and Naish was voted the club's Most Valuable Player. That honour went with his MVP award in the televised Slapshot series, which the Knights won earlier that year before going on to take the Superleague title.

He became a captain of the club and was appointed the national association's development director in 1985. He was responsible for the administration of development programs throughout Australia. In 1986, he was head coach of the World Championship team and in 1989 he played for Australia in the Worlds hosted in Sydney. He was assistant coach of the Canberra Knights from the time he arrived at the club, succeeding Jim Fuyarchuk as head coach. He coached the ACT Tange (U18) team, and his work in that and other national squads influenced many future players including David Batho, Dom Cook, Con Dionissiou, Michael Harrow, Jason Thewlis.

He returned to Canada and became a teacher and later a principal in the Northern Manitoba school system. In 2000, he moved back to Portage La Prairie to become Principal at North Memorial School and 7 years later transitioned to La Verendrye School to lead the school for 6 years. He then became Academic Director for several early year schools and a learning centre in Central China. [1]