There are more than a few people breathing a collective sigh of relief with Jim Stephens decision to stay on as head coach of the Midget Mustangs for the upcoming hockey season.

After helping out with the bantams last year, Stephens was initially planning on taking a break from the world of coaching for the 2008-09 season.

However, Stephens graciously took on the responsibility of leading the team during the annual rep tryout period, which he plans on continuing, if need be, for the duration of the season.

"I guess I am like Cliff Fletcher with the Leafs, who was the interim general manager and he is still the general manager," Stephens joked.

"I'll be there and if somebody really wants to come in and take it over or come in and work with me to take it over for next year (they can), especially if we could find somebody that's interested in doing it for another two to three years, but I guess I am the permanent interim coach at this point."

Mustangs tryouts began in early September and just concluded Thursday with player selections.

The different age levels of Mustang rep hockey teams in Whitehorse include atom, peewee, bantam and midget players. Atom players are between the ages of nine and 10, while PeeWee hockey members can be either 11 or 12 years old. Bantam players are 13 to 14 years old and midgets can be anywhere between 15 to 18 in age.

Stephens was still in the process of making final selections on Thursday, but he expects to name a team of 19 to 20 players. A total of 22 tried out to make the midget squad this season.

He said icing a larger team helps deal with problems with injuries, illness or other player commitments, such as school. The team had 10 tryout sessions, which began on Sept. 7.

Stephens said the team focused a lot of the attention towards the basics, such as passing, shooting and skating. The team has also tried to incorporate some of the skating conditioning into the drills during the tryouts.

He said once they get their roster finalized, they'll begin working on some positional play, which will devote a lot of attention towards the the team's own end of the ice.

Stephens added the team will also have to work on its fore-check and power play and penalty kill, which he plans to do over the the next two months before the midgets first tournament.

The team concluded its tryout session Thursday night at the Canada Games Centre with its final scrimmage. All of scrimmages were officiated and used a combination of rep rules as well as a more physical style of play, which the team will have to deal with during tournament action this season.

Stephens said he is pleased with how the team is progressing.

"I think it has been pretty good," he said. "It's going to be a rebuilding year, so we may have a bit of a slower start than the team did last year, but I think by Christmas they should be a pretty good team if they all commit and work hard at their games."

This year's team will have four returning players on it, which includes second year midget Chris Whynot, who has been out of action for more than a month with a chest infection.

Stephens said he is reserving a spot on the team for Whynot and he can join the team when he is healthy enough to play.

"Hopefully he will be able to play fairly soon," he said. "He is a tremendous defenseman and he would really help us on the blue line."

Stephens said it was important for him to stay on as coach for the midget Mustangs this year.

"Coaching is funny," he said. "Once you start coaching, you kind of catch the bug, so to speak. After you have played hockey and you have been passionate about hockey as a player, coaching can be even more rewarding, especially when you see kids develop over a season. I have coached most of these kids since they were little, so I don't want the midget program to not have a coach. That is really not fair for these kids and these kids really want to play hockey."

Stephens is no stranger to coaching at the midget level. Just two years ago, he helped lead to an incredible second place finish at the season ending B.C. provincials.

The 2006-07 midgets played incredible in that game, nearly out shooting their opponents three-to-one, but unfortunately ran into a hot goalie.

Stephens said he is looking forward to the start of the season.

"We've had some success in the past, so hopefully we can try to keep that going this year, but we will have to work at it and the kids will have to work at it."

John Grant, president of the Whitehorse Minor Hockey Association, said it was a relief that Stephens agreed to remain on as coach.

"We are still looking for somebody to come in and take over, we will continue to look, but Jim is committed to staying with that program as long as he has to, which is kind of nice," he said. "It's good to have people like that that step up and volunteer and he is a very astute hockey mind too, so that makes a difference as well."

He said the midget program is very important in the hockey community.

"You get kids that are 16, 17,18 years of age and, given our location, it's tough to find competition," Grant said. "This year we are probably the victims of our own success because we have so many midget aged players that are out of the territory playing. That's a good indicator that your program is actually working."

Grant is also one of the coaches on this year's atom Mustangs team, which will include 17 players this season. The 2007-08 atom squad was made up entirely of first year players to the program, however this year's group will include eight returning kids.

Grant said he is looking forward to the start of the season.

"Our second year kids look really good," he said. "We spent a lot of time with them last year and it certainly showed that they took some things to heart. I mean we have some work to do in areas, but that is half the fun, watching them develop."

He said making the cuts on Wednesday was the toughest part about being a coach.

"I think that has to be the worst part of coaching without a doubt," he said. "The kids, all 34 were great, they were very well behaved and we have some that just one more year in house will be beneficial to them and they should be ready next year when they come back to try again."