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Trail Smoke Eaters: New opportunity for Trail assistant coach

Assistant coach and GM Ryan Donald will be leaving the team after accepting an offer to coach at Yale University.

The Trail Smoke Eaters suffered a tough loss this week without hitting the ice.

Assistant coach and GM Ryan Donald will be leaving the team after accepting an offer to coach at Yale University.

“Being a Yale Alum, it has always been my goal to someday return there in a coaching capacity, and I am excited to get back to New Haven and begin working with the student-athletes at Yale,” Donald said in a release. “I look forward to following the Smokies in the future and watching these athletes grow into young men.”

Donald, who is in his first season with the Trail Smoke Eaters and the BCHL, played for the Yale University Bulldogs from 2006-10 as a defenceman. In 123 games he amassed five goals and 19 assists, including 131 penalty minutes.

Donald will continue with the Smoke Eaters as they prepare for the BCHL Showcase in Chilliwack this weekend and complete his duties with the club at the end of September.

“I am very thankful for the opportunity the Trail Smoke Eaters gave me during this phase of my coaching journey,” Donald said. “Everyone from the Operations department through the game day staff treated my wife Carly and I like family from day one and we are both going to miss what lay in front of us here in Trail.”

The Smoke Eaters play the Prince George Spruce Kings and the Wenatchee Wild this weekend in Chilliwack.

The Smoke Eater organization wish Donald all the best with his alma mater, Yale University.