After taking a few days to acclimate myself in my new position of Assistant Equipment Manager I finally got the guts to talk to "Coach". He was a living legend to me and one of the underlying reasons why I chose that college. Of course he attacked me with one of his quick one liners, but I stood my ground and fired one right back. He laughed so hard that I knew I had made a great friend already. In our future conversations we talked about his philosophies and the why behind everything that he did. He asked me one afternoon what I wanted to do for a job after school, and I shocked him by saying I wanted his job. He laughed and said, "you can have my job right now". He handed me his whistle and walked out of the rink for the night (I still have the whistle).
There are so many stories that I could tell about that glorious season. Record wise for the team it was terrible, but I learned so much from Coach I wouldn't have traded anything for that time that I spent with him. That season ended up being his last coaching at the college...
Here are a few of my favorite stories from that season:
-Having to escort (more like tackle and shove) Coach off the bench, into the locker room, and later on the bus while in Omaha. This was a road trip from hell! First off we took a bus to Omaha. The skate sharpener was broken and I was sharpening all of the skates blindly, and the floor in their locker room dulled them as fast as I could sharpen them.
-Being on National television while fixing the goaltenders glove. The puck had been lodged in the webbing and I had to reweave it in a few short minutes. Coach muttered to me to take a few extra minutes (probably because we were getting shelled) but I quickly fixed it up and sent him back to the net. Coach walked over and asked if I was a Boy Scout as a kid. I laughed and told him yes. A few minutes passed before he came back over and asked what kind of knot I had used. Calmly I told him it was the best one I could come up with. "Well what was it", he asked. With a big grin I whispered in his ear, "a Jewish one". Coach laughed so hard he almost pissed himself.
-Watching him try to open his room at the hotel in Grand Forks. We had given him the wrong room number and he about lost it. Couldn't figure out why the key (card) wouldn't open his dam door. He got a good chuckle after he realized I had just pulled of a great prank and was laughing hysterically.
-Coach rode one of the equipment trunks around on the luggage carousel at the airport in Denver after he won the pot for what would be the first thing down to the carousel. Nothing like watching a full grown man riding luggage around in circles giving people high fives while showing off his pot of money in the other hand.
-Getting to watch a game on television with him, and being the last two people out of the rink that night.
-After learning I was Russian and was taking it as my language in college only spoke to me in Russian for a week. My nickname then stuck... Mirko (Michael slang in Russian).
-Him telling me that he was going to resign at the end of the year. Several years later he said I was the first person, other than his wife and family, that he told.
After graduation I was lucky enough to run into him throughout the years. While I was in Graduate school in Denver I stopped by the rink on campus to see him. He was coaching at a different college at the time. We were catching up and talking about the program I was in and realized that we were the only ones in the rink still. He had missed the bus back to the hotel. That's right... they left Coach at the rink. We had a good laugh about it over dinner on the way back to his hotel. I went to the National Hockey Coached Convention in Naples, Florida later that year to see him receive an award after he retired on his own terms. In the middle of his speech he saw me in the crowd, stopped in the middle of the speech and gave me a wink and big grin. He was surrounded by several of the top coaches in the country, but he didn't care. He went out of his way to walk through the crowd and give me a big hug. A few years later I was coaching for my current association and ran into him at a restaurant. "I'm pretty sure everyone here is looking at you and not me for the first time while I ate." It was probably because our jackets look exactly like a rival of the local college. And now I run into him at of all places, the hockey rink for a youth hockey tournament.
"That coffee should be on the house". His booming voice through the crowd made me laugh as I paid the lady for my coffee. Coach came over and gave me a huge hug asked how I was. He told me how the other coach and his wife "tricked" him into coaching. I guess his wife knew that he still had the passion to teach the game. Coach always said he was a teacher and not really a coach. I took that philosophy and still use it with my teams.
Coach made sure that all of his players parents, as well as mine that I was his "heir apparent". He asked if I learned anything from him over our year while at the college or through our conversations. I thought that he was going to die when I pulled out a writing pad out of my jacket (of course with a red cover like he insisted on having). Our stories spilled out and were covered with anyone who would listen before the game. On the way to the benches he asked how I can deal with parents? I told him I didn't let them bother me, but of course they all thought think that the power play needed worked on. He just laughed and went to his respective bench.
We ended up losing to his team 4-2. After the game at center ice I got a huge hug as he wispered in my ear, "need to work on that power play!" Both of our goals happended to come on the power play...
Come Sunday my team was in the Consolation Championship game. With about four minutes left we were trailing 3-1. I called timeout and told the boys that we only needed one to win. I pulled the goaltender and we scored. The opposing team then called timeout and I told the boys they were going to win. With less then a minute left we scored to send it into overtime. During the intermission I told the boys that we were going to finish it within the first two shifts. I gave the boys the first two lines that I wanted out. On the second shift there was a turnover at our blueline and our player picked the puck up and raced down the boards. After crossing over the blueline he pulled a slapshot out of nowhere to beat the goalie and win! The guy in the penalty box went out of his way to shake my hand and tell me that was some of the best youth coaching he had ever seen. He was listening throughout the whole game what I was saying to the boys and just shook his head in amazement.
Coach was up in the stand with my players' parents the whole third period. He was telling them what he thought I was going to do, and my boys did exactly like he was telling the parents. The parents afterward said they thought he was more proud than they were about the win. Coach had seen what I do best... teach the game of hockey!
The tournament was the weekend before Christmas, and a ritual that I have is wear my "Christams Outfit". It consists of a black blazer, green shirt, red plad tie, and of course green plad pants (straight out of Caddyshack). With the trophy in hand I walked to our locker room but was stopped with another huge hug from Coach. He had tears in his eyes and told me how unbelieveable it all was. And then asked me if I got a bowl of soup with my outfit (another Caddyshack line). We laughed and he proclaimed the "Heir Apparent" had learned everything he had tried to teach me.
The whole trip home all I could think about was the smile on his face as I walked out of the rink with that trophy, and one of the greatest friendships I could ask for!
The man. The myth. The Legend.
My Mentor.
Mike Sertich
