Staff

Steve Smith is entering his fifth season as a general manager in the BCEHL. Smith currently serves as the Director of Hockey Operations of Okanagan Mainline Amateur Hockey Association. Prior to this, he was the executive director of Kelowna Minor Hockey Association from 2017-2025, division director from 2010-2017, and a coach in the association from 2008-2017. 

The Kelowna native has compiled over 20 years of experience working in minor hockey in Kelowna.

After serving as an assistant coach within the U15 and U17 Okanagan Rocket squads for three seasons, Tyler Parfeniuk assumes the head coaching role with the U18 AAA Okanagan Rockets program for the 2026-27 season, his second year in the role. 

A former player with the Rockets’ program from 2007-2009, he continued his playing career in the junior ranks, spending three seasons with the Nelson Leafs of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League. Originally from Kelowna, Parfeniuk is a graduate of Okanagan College, where he earned a Bachelors of Business Administration. Away from the rink, Parfeniuk works as a litigated insurance adjuster.

The 2026-27 season marks Nikita Poliakov’s second with the BCEHL as he returns the Okanagan Rockets’ bench staff as head coach of the U17 team. 

Prior to joining the Rockets, he served as the head coach of Kelowna Minor Hockey Association’s U18 Tier 2 squad during the 2024-25 season. Prior to that, the Chelyabinsk, Russia, product was the head coach of the Aurora Tigers of the Ontario Junior Hockey League during the 2016-17 season, and was an assistant coach with Okanagan Mainline Amateur Hockey Association’s Central Zone Rockets’ U15 Tier 1 squad during the 2021-22 season.

Poliakov’s playing career includes four seasons in the OJHL between 2006-2010 with the North York Rangers, Upper Canada Hockey Club, and the Upper Canada Patriots, before finishing his junior career with the Thorold Blackhawks of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. He then played one season of professional hockey with the 1000 Islands Privateers of the Federal Hockey League in the 2010-11 season.

Elgin Pearce enters his first season as head coach of the U15 Okanagan Rockets and his first season in the BCEHL. Pearce has three years of coaching experience, including roles with Vernon Minor Hockey Association’s U15 Tier 2 team in 2024 and RINK Hockey Academy’s U15 varsity team in 2025.

The Kelowna, B.C., resident played minor hockey with Burnaby Winter Club and a season with the Vancouver North East Chiefs in the U18 AAA league. He competed over four seasons with the Kootenay Ice and Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League. Pearce continued his playing career while he attended the University of Calgary where he played four seasons for the Dinos. Professionally, he played parts of six seasons in the American Hockey League, ECHL and the Elite Ice Hockey League in the United Kingdom. Pearce works as an athlete development coach.