BWC: Alumni Profile Bobby Henderson, Assistant Coach, BCHL Langley Rivermen

December 01, 2011
Posted in BC Edition, Minor, Junior A

By Graham Perkins /

Say the popular surname “Henderson” around your average hockey-wise Canadian and the iconic moment of the 1972 Summit Series will probably be the first thing that springs to their mind. Say the same name around the Burnaby Winter Club or the Langley Events Centre and you’re much more likely to get a response akin to “which one?”

For posterity’s sake, lets start with Bobby Henderson, the 29-year-old former BWC Bruin who now works as an assistant coach for the Langley Rivermen in the BCHL. You could also be referring to his brother, Taylor, the Director of Hockey Operations with the Rivermen. Or their father, Roy, team owner and founder of Global Sports Scouting. Of course, there’s uncle John, who co-owns the team. And for the younger generation there’s GW, John’s son and Bobby and Taylor’s little nephew, currently enrolled in BWC’s Hockey 4 program. There’s more, but you get the picture.

“We’re all passionate about hockey,” said Bobby. “We’ve always been all hands on deck.”

For a family with such strong local hockey ties, it’s not surprising that they jumped at the chance to buy the Langley Junior A franchise when it became available. The brand new Langley Events Centre is tailor made for local hockey games, and the community has a long history of supporting the Chiefs, even if naming rights forced the Henderson’s to switch monikers to the Rivermen.

The move behind the bench was certainly not a shock for Bobby, who had just spent a year learning the ropes behind the bench in Junior B with the Mission Ice Breakers.

“The biggest difference is the commitment level of the players. In Junior B you have a handful of guys on each team who put in the time and a lot of the programs aren’t as structured. Here, everybody wants to get to the next level and everybody puts in the extra time,” he said.

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