Wranglers face wave of change

The Wranglers have for six years been a cruise ship gliding around the Caribbean, directed by people with a deep affection for the organization and a profound enthusiasm for producing a stellar product.

The waters are choppier today.

Change has seen to it.

The best coach at any level in any sport this town has known over that time is gone, a result of Glen Gulutzan accepting the head coaching job with the Texas Stars, an expansion franchise in the American Hockey League. Gulutzan also served as general manager here. He recruited players. Signed them. Developed them. He was superb.

He also won't be heading to Austin, Texas, alone.

It will be announced this week that Josh Fisher, the Wranglers' director of broadcasting and media relations who also sold corporate sponsorships, will join Gulutzan in the exact role he held here.

Which is to say Fisher wore more hats around the Orleans Arena than Justin Timberlake on tour.

"We've had it easy for a while," Wranglers president Billy Johnson said. "Up until now, everyone we wanted to keep, we kept. But people need to move on and find new challenges. It's just that time.

"Glen is the prodigal son of the Wranglers. Our task now is to find someone to continue that legacy and hopefully build on it. It's a big, big, big job.

"With Josh, the heart on the sleeve was the biggest thing he wore. He cared for this organization and its success, and he took that (feeling) to every level. His heart is irreplaceable."

This is what happens in minor league sports. While there are different objectives, at the core is always helping members of the family -- both athletes and those in the front office -- advance to higher levels.

Gulutzan's wife and four children have known of the move for weeks, and yet it might not have sunk in until Tuesday morning, when Nicole Gulutzan picked up the newspaper and saw her husband's face with an accompanying headline about his new job. She began to cry.

They had known for weeks, and yet Glen Gulutzan had known for years. Since he was 15. Since he realized how his life should progress.

"Even when I was playing," he said, "I knew that I would become a coach. ... This is the natural progression. Whenever you get the opportunity to be a head coach in the second-best league in the world, you have to take it.

"For a guy like me, who never played in the NHL or really the AHL, I've got to pay my dues. To be in the NHL (as a coach), I have to prove myself in the AHL. I'm excited about the challenge."

Johnson said he will miss most watching Gulutzan's young children run down the arena hallway after games to hug their father.

Few people can balance both a professional and personal life as expertly as Gulutzan did here. His family always came first, and in between, he managed to win 290 games and become the first ECHL coach to produce three straight 100-point seasons. Pretty darn impressive.

"I'd leave here with a much bigger smile on my face had we won a championship," Gulutzan said. "Make no mistake, that will linger with me."

It shouldn't. What people Gulutzan and Fisher brought is the kind of daily constancy needed to build a successful organization. It's vital at this level. You can't win -- certainly not as much as the Wranglers have -- without it.

Charles Davenport is an owner today in search of a head coach and general manager, and Johnson is a president in search of someone who can be as capable delivering a professional play-by-play broadcast as they are raising revenue and visiting radio shows at 5 a.m. with donuts when a needed bump in attendance calls for it.

Their searches should be made easier by the foundation laid from those departing.

"The (Wranglers) give you anything and everything you need to do your job well and expect you to work hard," Fisher said. "I don't know if it has happened before where two people with so many (roles) leave for the same place at the same time. It makes it a lot easier, not just for me, but I think for (Gulutzan), too."

The waters are choppier today. The Wranglers have lost two skilled, dedicated soldiers, people who cared about producing a stellar product.

Filling roles is one thing.

Doing it with passion is much different.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com