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When Hockey Canada needed a coach for its womens hockey team less than two months before the Sochi Olympics, Kevin Dineen stepped up. Not long after he won gold, the phone rang again for a job leading the under-18 mens team. "One call to him at the under-18 level, he just said yes right away," Hockey Canadas Scott Salmond said. On Monday, Dineen began the next chapter of his coaching career as he was named as an assistant on Joel Quennevilles staff with the Chicago Blackhawks. "He doesnt care if hes coaching women or men or kids or what it is. Hes a coach, and thats what he loves to do," Salmond said in a phone interview. "To me, great coaches like challenges and they want to coach, they want to be busy, they want to work and Kevins a great example of that. It wasnt a surprise to me that someone in an organization like Chicago would recognize that and his value and what hell bring there." The Toronto native will return to the NHL less than a year after being fired as head coach of the Florida Panthers, armed with plenty of international experience. Salmond, Hockey Canadas senior director of hockey operations and national teams, enjoyed how much energy and passion Dineen put into his work with the national womens and under-18 mens teams, even though he had no previous connection to either. "I think that the players realized right away that he cares," Salmond said. "He really cares about them. And one thing he talked about with the under-18s the whole time was just trying to make them better and trying to have them leave with something. And yeah we wanted to have team success, but if they could gain something from the experience, then that was great." From those experiences, Salmond expects Dineen to be an even stronger coach as he returns to dealing with professionals with the Blackhawks. "I know he spent a lot of time one-on-one both with the women and the men and communicating with them and sharing ideas and having them buy in and share their ideas as well," Salmond said. "The communication side, I think, is huge. Good coaches have that, and certainly its a strength for him." Dineen conceded in Sochi that he was learning on the fly how to communicate differently with women than he did men in previous jobs, joking that he wasnt using the F-word nearly as much. He was not made available by the Blackhawks, who have a policy of not allowing assistant coaches to speak to reporters. Dineen wrote on Twitter that he was "excited about the opportunity to work with this group of people. World class players and organization." The 50-year-old replaces Jamie Kompon, who became general manager and coach of the WHLs Portland Winterhawks, filling the void left by Mike Johnston when he took the head-coaching job in Pittsburgh. "I am thrilled to join Joel Quenneville, a future hall of fame coach, and (assistant) Mike Kitchen, as we strive to reach the ultimate goal in professional hockey," Dineen said in a statement released by the Blackhawks. "The measure of success is very high in Chicago. I look forward to supporting the coaching staff and working with some of the best players in the National Hockey League." During his playing days, Dineen spent time as a linemate of Quennevilles with the Hartford Whalers. In total he played 1,188 NHL games, finishing with 355 goals and 405 assists. "Kevin brings proven leadership qualities, having served as an alternate captain and captain for several of his teams during his 19-year NHL career," Chicago general manager Stan Bowman said in a statement. "He will bring another well respected voice to our coaching staff and we look forward to his contributions to our team." Dineen represented Canada in international competition six times as a player, including the 1984 Olympics and 1987 Canada Cup. He only added to his international resume with his most recent international coaching jobs, and Salmond called Dineen "a great friend to Hockey Canada." Salmond credited Dineen for changing "a bit of the culture" with the womens team after taking over for Dan Church, who resigned in December, and capturing the nations attention with the gold-medal run. With the under-18 mens team, which won a bronze medal, Salmond said Dineen did a fantastic job by helping Canada play to a level it hadnt reached in recent years. "I think we are very grateful for what he was able to bring," Salmond said. "Hes obviously a professional, a former professional player and I think he brings that kind of mentality to coaching. He was great for our program, kind of gave us another perspective and helped us with some things both on the womens side and on the mens side that hell leave behind." Dineen coached the AHLs Portland Pirates for six years before taking over the Panthers. Florida made the playoffs in one of his two full seasons behind the bench, and Dineen was fired 16 games into 2013-14. Mike Wagner Womens Jersey . An unconventional night for Texas-El Paso nearly led to the Miners getting a huge upset. Down by 14 with 2:21 left, the Miners went on a frantic closing spurt that fell just short, and UTEP was beaten by No. Jack Ham Youth Jersey . He was attracted by the punishing defence, the strong running game and a coaching staff he trusted. 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Hines Ward Jersey .The Williams siblings, with 25 Grand Slam titles between them, will have a couple of Madisons joining them, too.Madison Keys had a 6-4, 7-5 upset win over two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova on Saturday night, and Madison Brengle beat Coco Vandeweghe 6-3, 6-2 in an all-U.Christine Ohuruogu has said she is not ready to hang up her spikes just yet - as she plots a tilt at next years World Championships in London instead. The former Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion had said she was going to retire after the Rio Olympics but she has elected to carry on - albeit with a less hectic training regime, for the sake of her sanity. Sky Sports Black Friday sale Upgrade to Sky Sports now and get 12 months half price! She told Sky Sports News HQ: Once I got home after Rio, it took a while to settle down, but once youre out of the bubble and youre back to reality, you can really look at the situation properly. I thought I know why it went wrong and if I can just tweak a couple of things, it could work.Ohuruogu won the bronze medal at the 4x400m relay in the 2016 Rio Olympics, running the final leg, and she has yet to decide whether she will run the individual 400m in 2017. It might not work, but Id rather go when Im happy to go and I dont think I was happy to walk away just yet, she said. Ohuruogu is targeting the World Championships in London in 2017 At first I thought I could just hang around and just train, but I thought If Im going to train, Im not going to put myself through all that pain jusst for a giggle, so let me give it another try.ddddddddddddve changed a couple of things. One of the problems I had last season was over-training, so Ive slashed my training week in half! Hopefully it will work, I dont know if it will but I spent a lot of time putting my sport first and now Id like to put myself and my sanity first.Ohuruogo was speaking at the launch of the Sporting Equals Leaderboard Academy which aim to aid sporting organisations to engage with - and recruit - a diverse range of ethnic talent onto their boards. Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson calls for greater diversity in sports boardrooms Recent figures suggest less than three per cent of such positions are taken up by people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.Paralympic legend Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, who also spoke at the event, said: How much longer do we need to be sitting around talking about this and not giving people opportunities?If you dont see people who look like you sitting around the boardroom table you think that you dont have the option of doing it. I know in the past I have sat on boards to tick boxes of being a woman, being Welsh or being disabled, or whatever it is, but actually that is not good enough anymore. Also See: Funding cut for Ohuruogu Team GB take bronze Ones to Watch Athletics Video ' ' '