Former Medway Park Crusaders men’s head coach James Vear will take the reins at Danish Pro A team Aalborg Vikings after signing his first professional coaching contract last month.

Vear is currently an assistant coach with the GB U20 men’s team as it continues preparations for the European championships next month in Romania.  He spent last season an assistant with Dalhousie University men’s program in Canada after leaving Crusaders following the previous season.

Club Chairman Jesse Sazant, who brought Vear to Crusaders in 2009 to coach at the club’s elite academy at Canterbury High School and assist with the men’s team, is very pleased to see how the young coach has progressed since leaving the club.

“I couldn’t be prouder of or happier for James.  He played a massive part in the success we have had at Crusaders and we have worked closely for a number of years.  He is exactly where we hoped and planned he would be five years ago and that is completely down to his hard work to develop as a coach, constantly challenging himself to get better and to learn.  He has now established himself as one of the best British coaches anywhere and that is a fantastic achievement,” says Sazant.

Coach Vear takes over an Aalborg team that will continue to compete in the Danish professional league thanks to winning a relegation play-off series at the end of last season. He will have three assistants and a strength and conditioning coach on his staff. The team trains every day during the season and many Danish pro games are televised.

“The team has a good core of Danish players and the potential to be one of the top teams in the league. My primary goal for the season is to make sure we remain a top division team.  After that I want us to progress as a team and compete every time we step on the floor. If we can do that we will have a successful season,” says Vear.

The former Crusaders coach began his coaching career with Sevenoaks where he coached U16 and U18 boys. It was with Sevenoaks that he met the Crusaders chairman at a national quarter-finals game and subsequently joined Medway.

Vear was immediately successful with the club. After taking over the men’s team midway through the 2009-10 season after head coach Mads Olesen resigned, he took a team with a losing record into the playoffs. The next season he would lead the team to capture the only silverware in club history by winning the EB Division 2 men’s playoffs, and promotion to Division 1.

The following season Coach Vear got Crusaders into the playoffs in its first season England’s top flight. He then, with the full support of the club and Chairman Sazant, joined the staff at Dalhousie University.

“My year at Dalhousie was the best coaching decision I made so far in my career.  It gave me the chance to be an assistant coach and to learn from one of the best coaches in Canada, Head Coach John Campbell.  John taught me a huge amount technically but he also taught me how to build a program and what it takes work ethic wise to be a successful coach,” says Vear.

Joining Aalborg also means a reunion with Olesen, who has coached the Vikings over the past two seasons and has left the bench for the front office in order to make room for the signing of Vear.

After the U20 European Championships the coach will travel to Denmark where he will officially take the reins of his new team and begin preparations for next season.