The 35-year-old called time on his 15-year playing stint with the national team on Monday, and on Sunday he will take charge of the Alpiners as they pursue back-to-back titles in the Premier Hockey League.
The Alpiners men open their campaign against the Tridents in Dunedin.
"I suppose it looks like a rapid change from the outside," Tarrant said.
"But I've been doing a lot of coaching up in Auckland for, oh, 10 years now, so it doesn't feel rapid for me at all, to be honest,"
That said, Sunday will mark his coaching debut at that level.
Tarrant played for the side that beat the Falcons 7-4 to win the title last season.
"My expectations are that we get better every match, and we aim to have our best match at the end," he said.
"I think last year we probably didn't play as well in the final as we would have wanted to.
"We got the job done, which was awesome, but, yeah, our collective target this year is to really put in our best performance come the back end of the competition."
Tarrant grew up in Dunedin and honed his hockey skills at Otago Boys’ High School.
Returning to the city to make his coaching debut feels like a full-circle moment for him.
The Tridents will be well coached with Jude Menezes at the helm.
But the Alpiners have a lot of talent.
The defence crew of Kane Russell, Benji Culhane, Simon Yorston and Charlie Morrison will give the rest of the team plenty of confidence.
Veteran striker Sam Lane is expected to pocket plenty of goals and there is talent in the midfield where Otago brothers Finn and Patrick Ward roam.
The other set of brothers — Malachi and Zeke Buschl — are expected to make an impact as well.
The Alpiners women play in the earlier game. Coach Aaron Ford could not be contacted for comment.
They beat the Mavericks 6-1 in the playoff for third and fourth last season.
The Falcons and the Mavericks men’s and women’s teams will do battle in Napier tomorrow.
The competition will run through until mid-December.
