Many don’t know the name Jason Payne outside of the hockey arena.
Today that should change.
Payne was promoted from assistant coach to head coach of the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL. According to Emily Kaplan of ESPN, that makes him the only current Black head coach in North American professional hockey.
It’s a move Payne hopes inspires others who love hockey and look like him.
“It’s important for younger players to see familiar faces, saying, ‘Yeah, maybe I can be the guy behind the bench, maybe I can be someone in hockey operations, maybe I can be a video coach,'” said Payne to ESPN. “The more you see the faces the more it sheds light on the opportunities that are possible.”
The 45-year-old head coach grew up in Toronto as a hockey fan. He played professionally for 14 years and even made it to the ACL.
“I know how hard I worked to play pro hockey for 14 years, and try to make it to the NHL,” said Payne. “I only made it to the AHL. But if I fought that hard to play, why would I not fight just as hard, if not harder, in coaching?”
Jason Payne followed Matt Thomas to the Cyclones when he was hired as their head coach in 2018.
Under their leadership, the team was 89-30-12-4 and made the postseason twice.
Yesterday Thomas was hired by the Providence Bruins of the AHL, opening the door for Jason Payne’s ascent.
“Jason is more than ready to take over the helm for our team and I am proud to offer him this opportunity,” said Cyclones Vice President and General Manager Kristin Ropp.Â
Payne is the sixth head coach in Cyclones’ history and their first coach of color.
It’s a role he understands the significance of.
“There weren’t many Black coaches as I was coming up, but when there were, you took notice,” said Payne.
Jason Payne entered the coaching ranks in 2010 as an assistant in the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL).
He follows in the footsteps of other history-making hockey coaches like Ed Wright, Dirk Graham, and Kelsey Koelzer.
In 1970, Wright became the first Black collegiate hockey coach when he was hired by the University of Buffalo.
Graham was hired by the Chicago Blackhawks in 1998, becoming the NHL’s first, and only, Black head coach.
And this past May, Kelsey Koelzer became the first Black female head hockey coach in history when she took the job at Arcadia University.
Jason Payne has his first head coaching job but has no plans of stopping there.
“I’d love to coach in the NHL, it would be a great achievement,” said Payne in an interview with William Douglas of The Color Of Hockey. “To get there, you’ve got to pay your dues, earn your way there, show that you can work and grind it out. And that’s my goal: Work as hard as I can, the same thing I did as a player.”
Today, Jason Payne took another step in that direction.
