Q&A with Lewis Page, the first head coach in Halifax Tides history

Lewis Page spent 25 seasons with the UPEI Panthers. Now, after time as both the men's and women's coach, he's beginning a new chapter with the Northern Super League (NSL) as the head coach for the Halifax Tides.

Born in Montréal but raised in Chester, N.S., Page's appointment is both a return to his roots as well as an opportunity to establish and build a club from the ground up. His experience, be it at the university or national level, will be crucial as the Tides look to make waves in their inaugural NSL campaign. With kickoff set for April, 2025, Page and the Tides are only months away from their first match.

Josh Healey of The Wanderers Notebook recently connected with Page to discuss his new position, what he hopes to bring to the club and his footballing philosophies.

JH: Hi Lewis. How are you on this fine Nova Scotian day?

LP: I'm doing alright. You guys missed all the rain, right, down in Bridgewater?

JH: That is correct. We're our own little Utopia down in the South Shore. We get the best weather, it seems to me.

LP: Yup, I know, I know. I grew up in Chester so I know the area well.

JH: Fantastic. Well, if you're ready for it, we can get into a bit of a chat. Obviously, you were recently announced as the new and first head coach for the Halifax Tides. How did the position come about and how are you feeling now that you're in the thick of it?

LP: Yeah, my initial contact with the club was really informal. When the ownership group were considering making the bid, getting the team, they reached out to a number of people across Atlantic Canada. People like myself, Stephen Hart, anyone who had had some experience at an elite level coaching just to kind of pick our brain, not to make offers or anything like that.

I kind of got to know (the ownership group) that way and when Amit Batra got hired on, part of his job was to seek out coaching candidates. I know Amit really well from his coaching development, I delivered some courses when he was going through the coaching program and all his time at Acadia. He reached out to myself and a number of other coaches and we kind of went from there. Formally and informally, it was kind of a three or four month process.

JH: Have you always wanted to make the jump to the professional coaching ranks? Is this something that had been a goal of yours? You were obviously very engaged with university sports and spent a long time at UPEI.

LP: I've always had it on the horizon or thought about it and looked into it at different times in my career. P.E.I. is such a great place to live and raise a family so that it was never really the right time to pack up and make a move. When I've had other opportunities, whether it be with another pro club or in another province or a national team, I've always hesitated. But my kids are older now, they're out of the house, and the timing is good and the people at the club are great. It's a good fit.

JH: That's fantastic. And now, the real work begins.

For people who maybe aren't as familiar with your coaching work, can you kind of describe your footballing philosophies? Are your teams playing on the front-foot? Are they really pressy? Describe your style and what your looking to implement with your recruitment for the Halifax Tides.

LP: First and foremost, I think people would say I've been pretty adaptable as a coach. We're always kind of set up defensively in a way that we think is going to give us the best success depending on the opposition, the context of the game and all that. I've had teams that have been more of a high press team but also teams that have been sort of a low block, counterattack team. In an ideal world, you get your perfect players, and the perfect mix on the team, mine would probably be a high press team that likes to keep possession of the ball.

The reality is, too, that you need to go out and win games and you have to adapt and change what you want to do. When it comes to selecting players, we want to be on the front foot no matter what. If we're sort of a team sitting in a lower block, well when it comes time to press, we're going to go; we're going to go hard, we're going to go together, we're going to make the opposition uncomfortable.

And we will want to do the same thing in possession. We want to use our ability to move the ball and attack spaces and get behind teams and create goal scoring chances. We always want them to think we've got one more player on the field, in possession or out of possession.

JH: If you have your way with recruitment, it sounds like the Tides are going to be a treat to watch when it comes to your style of football. This is a unique situation where you're starting a program, you're starting a squad. How do you go about recruiting players?

LP: Well, the first thing is Amit Batra, who is director of soccer operations, he's really driving that along with myself. We're working very closely together. He's a fantastic recruiter. If he recruits for the Tides as well as he did for Acadia University, we're going to have plenty of quality players to choose from. What you kind of do is put together the profiles you want for each of the positions and then it's a combination of us reaching out to people we know and people reaching out to us.

It's about seeing who's available, who's out of contract, who's out there — younger players, older players. It's like fantasy football; you've got your budget and you're trying to fill out roles. Sometimes, you get out and go see players, sometimes it's on video. We've both done it so long for universities but it's at another level for players that you're looking at.

JH: And that was going to be my next question. You have 20 plus years at UPEI. Your knowledge of Atlantic Canadian players, how much is that going to come into play for recruitment?

LP: Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. One of the advantages of myself and Amit being involved in this project is we have a good understanding of the local players and who the local players are. You know, even if they haven't played in AUS, there would have been players we recruited along the way who decided to go to an NCAA school or are now playing overseas. We've got a really good handle on who the players are and the quality of those players.

There's definitely players, Nova Scotian and Atlantic Canadian players, out there who can play in this league. We're going to do our best to go get them.

JH: My next question is have you had some of your former players or players you've had the last couple years reach out? What kind of conversations are you having in your circle now that you've been announced as head coach?

LP: Nothing formal. Players have asked about the process and how it's going to work and will there be opportunities. I defer most of them to Amit, as part of our internal process. We're going to have some different layers as to how we're identifying players and that's kind of what I tell them. I give them an idea as to where they might fit in those layers.

JH: Well, you've still got many months to have those conversations and identify players.

I wanted to guide things towards the coaching staff. There's yourself and Kennedi Herrmann. I just wanted to ask if you're going to have the opportunity to bring in more coaches over the next few weeks and how will it will once you have your team assembled?

LP: We certainly don't have a timeline for those positions to be filled but there's going to be more coaches to fill out the staff. We'll be looking for another assistant coach, a goalkeeper coach and then, you know, the support staff that goes along with that.

JH: Lead physio, roles like that.

LP: Exactly. Team operations, all those things. We'll be looking to fill out a full complement of technical staff, for sure.

JH: What have the last couple of weeks looked like workwise for you but also in your personal life, with a move back to Nova Scotia?

LP: It's been a bit of a whirlwind, in terms of communicating with people and touching base again with people. I won't make a physical move until the end of the AUS season; I'm going to finish the university season then look to make the move. Until then, I'm a bit of a road warrior. I'll buzz into Halifax for a couple days, head back to the island to do some UPEI work and go back and forth. I'll keep that pattern up until the permanent move.

JH: Speaking of the university, I wanted to talk about your time with UPEI. You've put in hours and hours over the years. What strengths or lessons can you take from your time there and apply to the professional women's game?

LP: First and foremost it would be the ability to build a team, build a culture. When you bring players into university, it's as much about helping them grow as a person as it's about becoming a better soccer player. That's a philosophy I've taken into whatever level I've been coaching — when I've coached Canada Games teams or national team programming, that's been the overriding philosophy. We're in this to help you be the best person you can be. That focus has been first and foremost at what we've done at the university level.

It's been an opportunity, also, to try different playing styles, to try different tactics, to try different things in training. I mean, there's been hundreds of games and thousands of hours of training over the last 20-years. All of that has helped me become the coach I am today.

And the relationships. You're talking about young adults, learning to build relationships with them and communicate with them. Over my time at UPEI, the world has changed. Social media is there now and there weren't the same kind of outside pressures that a lot of players have now. Being able to build relationships with players is a big part of what I've learnt over the years.

JH: And that's going to come in handy. It's the same game but it's just up a level in terms of recruiting pro players, maybe national team players, but also young players who will be looking to get their shot in the NSL.

LP: And I think the professional team is going to be structured in a lot of the same ways a university team is but the timeframe is going to be a little longer. At a university, you have players for five years but you have a core group. And then you have new players coming in every year who are new and raw. The ability of the older players to pass on their lessons and to help guide the young players is going to be the same at the pro level. Your seasoned pros are going to come in, with tons of experiences, and you're going to have players who being a professional is all new to them. You need that bit of enthusiasm in your team that you get from young players and you need that experience and knowledge. That balance is the same.

The difference at the pro level is you might be able to keep that team together for five or six years. At the university level, you might be lucky to get a couple years.

JH: 100 per cent. Just look towards the other pro club in Halifax; the Wanderers have had Andre Rampersad since the beginning. He's got almost 130 matches for them already.

LP: Exactly, and you can see in that league, if the team gets the balance wrong — either too young or too old — they struggle.

JH: Is that something you're trying to keep top of mind as you have conversations with players across the country?

LP: As we're building the squad, it's something we're looking at.

JH: I'm sure there's only so much you can say but when can we expect the first player announcements to come out?

LP: That would be a better for Amit. There's restrictions and deadlines around the windows and timing.

JH: Fair enough. No worries there. That's all the questions I prepared ahead of time. Is there anything you'd like to add that I didn't ask or you think is important to highlight?

LP: Just that I'm really excited by the opportunity to come home and build something from the ground up. It'll last well beyond all of us.

JH: And that's it. You're laying the groundwork everyday.

LP: And I appreciate the coverage you've given the CPL and that level of football. It's been great. It's exciting times.

JH: Thank you. We just saw what happened at Copa América, we've got the World Cup coming, CPL clubs upsetting MLS clubs. And then with got the Olympics for the women's team, stuff with the NSL. It's just so exciting.

LP: It's an exciting time to be in the game. Thank you again.

JH: Thanks for your time, Lewis. This won't be the last time we talk.

LP: I look forward to it. Bye now.

Editor's Note: This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Cover Photo Credit: UPEI