The San Diego Gulls announced earlier this month that they have hired Jason Clarke and Kris Sparre as assistant coaches on newly-hired head coach Roy Sommer’s coaching staff.

Clarke was previously the head coach of Canadian Hockey League’s (CHL) Acadie-Bathurst Titan, and before that, managed and owned the Central Canada Hockey League’s (CCHL) Carleton Place Canadians where he was a three-time coach of the year, one-time general manager of the year and led them to four straight CCHL championships from 2014-17.

Sparre was a professional ice hockey player in Germany for seven seasons before turning to coaching after the 2015-16 German season concluded. Since then, he has coached for Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) Niagara IceDogs (2016-18), Austria’s EC Red Bull Salzburg (2018-20) and OHL’s Flint Firebirds (2021-22).

Clarke, Sparre and Sommer replace assistant coaches Daniel Jacob, Max Talbot and head coach Joel Bouchard, each only lasting one year in San Diego.