When he arrived in Kearney, Jim Hulton was reminded of home.
“I walked out of the hotel the first day and there were two tractors by the road with a for-sale sign on it,” said the newest head coach of the Tri-City Storm. “I broke out into a big smile because my dad restores old tractors; it was right up my alley.”
Hulton grew up on his parents’ farm on Wolf Island, a rural island located between Toronto and Montreal, just above the northern border between New York and Canada.
“It’s very unique,” Hulton said. “You have to take a 20-minute ferry ride to get there. It’s a largely rural farming community and I grew up on a small dairy farm. We milked about 30 cows and had about 200 acres of land so I was very much rooted in farm life growing up.”
The youngest of four boys, Hulton went to elementary school on the island but had to attend high school in the nearby city of Kingston.
“Every morning we caught a ferry at 8 a.m.,” said Hulton. “High school started at nine, we landed in Kingston at about8:30 and away we went. It was just a way of life. Some people in a big city ride a train or a metro, for us, we took a ferry.”
Kingston, a city with a population around 125,000, was also where Hulton played minor hockey and high school football.
“It was nice for us because we had the best of both worlds,” Hulton said. “You could get to the ‘big city’ if you wanted, but you had the tranquility of a small town and the peace of mind that comes with knowing all your neighbors.”
Growing up in a tight knit community, Hulton learned the value of family and now as a coach he continues to relay the message that family comes first.
“When you grow up in a community that small everybody rallies together; it’s like you have a huge extended family. I’ve got three older brothers and to this day we all remain very close. I have two incredibly supportive parents that looked after us. When I was growing up, everyone looked after each other and that’s a philosophy I believe in.”
Taking a job in Kearney has forced Hulton to part with his family for a short time, as his wife Kristina and two sons Jimmy and Lucas are back in Ontario, but he speaks with them every day and continues to be very involved in their lives from afar.
“I think the underlying thing is that sometimes we get so wrapped up in sports that we think it’s the end all be all but it’s not,” Hulton said. “I think your family and your faith come before everything. But I want our team to act like a family because when you have each other’s backs it can really help you collectively do some great things.”
A former assistant coach with the NHL’s Florida Panthers from 2008-11, Hulton said he never really had a set plan in the hockey world. After completing his sociology degree at York University in Toronto, his brother encouraged him to get into coaching.
“When I graduated I really didn’t have a plan for what I was going to do,” Hulton said. “I kind of bounced around but my oldest brother was heavily involved in minor hockey and strongly encouraged me to give back. I had taken so much out of the game, friendships and great experiences, so I helped coach a bantam travel team my first year.”
Before he knew it, Hulton was moving up the ranks as a junior coach in Ontario.
“My whole career I just kind of stumbled upon things,” Hulton said. “There was never really a set plan. I’d love to be able to say that I sat down one day and set out a trajectory, but it didn’t happen that way. I kind of stumbled and bumbled my way along and I didn’t get married until I was 34 so I was single and only had to worry about supporting myself. I could travel a lot of different places to coach.”
Hulton said one of his favorite places to coach was with the Belleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey League. He said Belleville and Kearney are similar size towns and this is where he’s comfortable.
“I much prefer when it only takes you 7-8 minutes to drive across town as opposed to being stuck in a traffic jam all the time,” Hulton said. “This is very much my type of community and I think it’s the perfect size community for junior hockey.”
The new coach will get his first taste of hockey in Kearney this weekend when the Storm host the Omaha Lancers on Friday and Saturday. Friday night’s game starts at 7:30 p.m., while Saturday night’s puck drops at 7:05.
Friday night Is Free Kids Friday, with kids ages 12-and-under receiving a free admission with the purchase of an adult ticket and Saturday night is the return of the popular Ugly Sweater Night.