After every goal, big hit, crisp pass, win and loss for the Howell Rebels, there is a man with a black overcoat, clipboard tucked under his arm, and a straight-forward concentrated expression on his face at all times.
The man is Bill Daley, the head coach for the Rebels, and a state champion at Toms River North as a player.
In this, his second season as the Howell Rebels coach, Daley has complied a career record of 29-6-5, something that is unheard of in New Jersey high school hockey, especially in the programs first two years.
Although Daley has had the opportunity to coach future college/juniors players, such as Dave Ramos (97 points last season) and Eddie Pyskaty, he has implemented a no-nonsense type of policy that separates Howell from most of the Shore Conference.
On game days, despite Daley teaching at Marlboro, players wear shirt and ties and arrive at the school dressed the same, a policy that few schools use--especially in the first years of their existence.
However, it's not just off the ice that Daley enforces this policy. Throughout his two years, in games and practices, the former state champion has stressed that hard-work will always help you achieve success, and never taking penalties helps just a bit.
Because of Daley's stressing of this topic, and excluding Nick Peras, the Rebels are one of the least penalized teams in the conference, a big reason why they will be playing playoff hockey for the second straight season.
Still, Daley isn't exactly your typical hard-nosed, no-fun hockey coach. He is a favorite among the usually-large student section at Howell, and slowly is starting to understand why these fans show up over an hour prior to the game starting.
He may never show the emotion that you would like to see, but the occasional little smirk that he showed after Howell won the Dowd Cup in early 2009 is enough to understand the modest, yet great mind that leads the Howell Rebels.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment