Former defenceman Jordon Fuller is the Dorchester Dolphins seventh head coach taking over for the 2025-26 season.
Fuller new Dolphins' head coach
Former defenceman club's seventh behind the bench
April
19, 2025
By Rob J. Ross
DORCHESTER, Ont. - The seventh head coach of the Dorchester Dolphins will be the first former player behind the bench.
Jordan Fuller returns to the Provincial Junior Hockey League (PJHL) team taking the reigns from Chris Willsie, who steps down after two seasons.
"I'm excited to try something different and move on from minor hockey," said Fuller. "It was something I weighed on over the back half of this season."
Fuller is currently the head coach of the London Jr. Knights U15 AAA team, that just won the Alliance League title, March 30. Their season concludes at the Ontario Hockey Federation championship, April 9-15 in Markham.
A former defenceman, Fuller played four seasons with the Dolphins, from 2012-16, winning the PJHL Yeck Division title twice.
"It'll be easy for me to transition and that makes it a lot more comfortable, than if I was to go coach in a different junior centre where I hadn't already played," said Fuller on returning to Dorchester. "It's familiar to me. All the support staff is essentially the same from when I was a player."
The one difference is, instead of 14-15 years olds, Fuller will be coaching older teens to young men (16-22 years).
"It's dealing with those personalities and tendencies that they already have, sometimes older kids are set in their ways," Fuller said. "The players you're getting, are basically who they are as a player, so it's working around that while forming a group."
Fuller has a vision on the type of he wants to develop, a gritty, fast team with players who can skate with the puck.
"We like to be difficult to play against. I want us to play with intensity. We want to build a team with players who want to be there and want to compete," said Fuller. "I like to play a fast style of game. Hate the east - west hockey. I want the puck going north quickly."
Fuller will be developing his style of team with assistant coaches, Kody Tremblay, a former captain of the Thamesford Trojans, currently coaching the Elgin Middlesex U14 team and Lucas Mastroianni, who played for the Dolphins as a 16-year old, before four seasons with the St. Thomas Stars.
Away from the rink, Fuller is a GIS (geographic information systems) analyst with the City of London. The 30-year old has a brother, Matt, sons to Hugh and Arlene Fuller.
Willsie, a co-owner of the Dolphins, steps down to make way for Fuller and his assistants.
"We're excited to have Jordan. He's been somebody that we've been talking to for a few years about joining our coaching staff," Willsie said. "On our end it was a decision of whether I was going to stay on the bench and have him join me for a year or two and then he takes over. After I met with him a few times, I didn't see a need for me to stay on. It would be easier for them if the ex head coach wasn't still on the bench."
The Dolphins wanted to give Fuller the opportunity before another team offered Fuller a position behind the bench.
"He has a lot of energy and he's got the Dolphins past. I believe he was ready to coach jujnior somewhere, so we wanted to make sure it was in Dorchester," Willsie said. "He's prepared and organized. He knows the game. I do like his calm demeanor. He doesn't over react and he'll be ready for any situation. He doesn't fly off of the handle, but can get the players' attention. He's a great communicator. You have to make the player believe and make them understand what you want."
As for his tenure as head coach, Willsie feels the team made forward steps, but two first round exits isn't satisfying.
"It's a result oriented sport and getting swept in the first round is very disappointing," Willsie said. "This year with the new division, it's much tougher competition. It was an uphill battle early on."
The Dolphins finished around the .500 mark this past season and were defeated by Wellesley in four games, in the first round of the Doherty Division playoffs.
"At the end of the year, I thought we were in good shape heading into playoffs. It didn't happen for us in the first round," Willsie said. "All in all, I was proud of the team. What you're hoping as a coach is that you're better at the end of the year than you were at the beginning and we definitely were. Get that four games out of the head and I'll reflect a lot more positively on the season."
Wellesley went on to upend first place Norwich in the next round, taking game seven in OT, before losing the division final to New Hamburg in five games.