Canada’s next opponent at the 2008 world junior championship is Denmark, a team for the second consecutive year has been coached by Canadian Ken Babey (pronounced Bab-ee).
Babey, 52, is likely familiar to hockey buffs from the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. In his playing days, he skated for the University of Saskatchewan and for the last 20 years he has coached at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary.
Babey, from Saskatoon, also is no stranger to the Canadian junior program. He guided the 2002 under-18 team to the world championship.
A couple times a year, he leaves his post at SAIT, where he also is the athletic director, to run Denmark's junior program summer camp and to coach them at the world juniors. Last year, Babey’s Danes claimed the B pool championship to advance to the top flight, but they have dropped three consecutive games in Pardubice: 5-2 in their opener against the Czechs, 10-1 to Sweden and 4-3 to Slovakia last night.
Babey has one junior player who is honing his skills in Canada this winter and that is Kitchener Rangers forward Mikkel Boedker.
Babey earned a Bachelor of Education degree at the University of Saskatchewan and went attained a Master of Science degree in Health and Human Performance at the University of Montana. He and his wife Debbie have three children, T.J., Joey, and Jaclyn.
T.J. is in his fifth year playing under his father with the SAIT Trojans and Joey plays for the Calgary Royals of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
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