The Randall Weber Interview.

Randall Weber was raised in Leduc, a small town 20 miles from Edmonton, Alberta. He came over to Nottingham here in the UK with his parents at age eleven.

It seems that all Canadian youngsters play hockey, after all it is Canada’s national sport. Randall was no different having played 4 or 5 years in the minor hockey system in Leduc, his home town, before his UK move.

Junior Hockey

However with no junior hockey in Nottingham at that time, Randall had to be content with trips to Lower Parliament Street to watch the Panthers for a few years before the team evolved into a full ice hockey club with the formation of the junior hockey development section.
Needless to say Randall didn’t hesitate to jump in and became an integral part of the juniors there.

First Team

Just a few years later and Randall was given his debut for the senior Panthers team during the 1985 – 86 season in front of a capacity 2300 Lower Parliament Street crowd.

That season was quite memorable for Randall and the team, the unwanted highlights probably being the 2 bench clearances when Scottish teams, the Murrayfield Racers and the Ayr Bruins came to town.

Playing a total of 17 seasons and scoring 345 goals, in all competitions, for his only club Randall helped the Panthers to win the Norwich Union Cup in 1986-87, the Playoff Championships in 1988-89, Autumn Cup winners in 19991-92, 1994-95, 1996-97 and in 1998-99.

On 29th September 1998 Randall had his testimonial game, with stars past and present in attendance, including panthers legend Jimmy Keyes who had flown in especially from Canada to be there.
Over 1600 fans turned out on that Tuesday evening to pay tribute to a true servant of the club

Randall played a whopping 845 times for the Panthers, his only professional team, which to this day remains a club record.

Retiring

On retiring, the club paid him the huge honour of retiring his #10 jersey in recognition of his achievement.
A few years later the opportunity arose to return home, with his family, to Canada to work as operations manager at Rexall Place, the home of the Edmonton Oilers.

Randall now runs his own Hockey business. Hard Hockey  run camps for the development of PeeWee players through to Junior levels (ages 13 to 21).
Courses are designed to improve a player ‘s hockey skill set, including powerful skating, shooting techniques and confident stick handling.

Using his coaching skills developed over the last 15 years, including 5 years as Director / Head Instructor for the Edmonton Oilers Hockey School, Randall is  now head coach of the Leduc Chrysler midget AAA Oil Kings.
Last season he guided them to their divisions  championship title. That earned him the accolade of Head Coach of the Year by his fellow coaches during his leagues annual award banquet earlier this year

When asked if he ever saw himself coming back to coach in the UK, Randall’s reply was “I wouldn’t say no, maybe with a few years more experience, it’s something that I’d definitely entertain.”

Never say never ‘eh Randall!

You can listen to my Audio Podcast interview with Randall right now.

You can also listen to Podcast interviews from Randall’s alumni of former Nottingham Panthers players:

Marc Twaite Episode S1E02
Graham Waghorn Episode S1E06 
Randall Weber Episode S1E07
Jamie Leach Episode S1E10
Frankie Killen Episode S1E12
Jimmy Keyes Episode S1E13
Paul Adey Episode S1E16
Fred Perlini Episode S1E20
Craig Melancon Episode S1E21
Kenny McKie Episode S1E25
Todd Bidner Episode S1E27
Chuck Taylor Episode S1E29
Selmar Odelein Episode S2E01
Steve Carpenter Episode S2E06
Mario Belanger Episode S2E10
Paul Blahji Episode S2E12
Scott O’Connor Episode S3E03
Greg Hadden Episode S4E02
Barry Nieckar Episode S4 E06

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