He was studious in college and he covered his long hair with a San Francisco Giants cap that he wore backward. He loved hockey and he frequently attended games at the nearby NHL arena when his friends from Canada came into town to play the local team. He even played on his university’s club hockey team.

After college, he went to law school in Michigan. Soon after, he began coaching hockey at Catholic Central High School in Grand Rapids as a favor to a judge whose son played on the team. The team won a regional title and the lawyer turned coach was hooked.

The coach continued to rise within the amateur hockey ranks. Then he moved on to the professional minor leagues. For the last few years, Jon Cooper has been coaching a very successful NHL team – the Tampa Bay Lighting.

This young fellow (he’s only 49) already has accomplished a lot. All of it just seemed to happen. Actually, Jon made it happen. He is bright, charismatic and has this certain smile. People want to be around him.

When he fields questions about his coaching profession, Jon regularly responds that he’s a people manager. He also feels that he brings the philosophy of life to coaching. Early on, he considered himself more of a life coach than a tactical coach.

Jon’s athletic roots travel back to his teenage years as an indoor lacrosse star in British Columbia. The rest started to fall into place when he attended Hofstra University and played lacrosse for Harry Royle.

A love for hockey, an education and lacrosse career at Hofstra, law school and now Jon is coaching in the best hockey league in the world. There are many reasons to applaud Jon’s success. Glad to know that lacrosse and Hofstra made significant contributions.

Two innovative coaches left us this year. Each leaves behind a wonderful legacy and valuable life lessons for all of us.

Forbes Carlile was from Australia. His innovative ideas about sports physiology made him one of the world’s best-known swimming coaches. Dating back to the 1940s, his career is credited with producing many Australian Olympians. He coaching methods, believing that swimmers should start high-level competition at a young age, sent shock waves through swimming traditionalists.

Carlile decided that two leg kicks for two arm strokes (verses the conventional six kicks) saved energy. He also believed, again unconventional, that hot baths or showers before a race improved finish times by 1.5 percent, shaving almost a second in a 100-meter race (the difference between first and second place). He introduced interval training (alternating between activities that required different rates of speed and various levels of exertion) and advocated for year-round training that emphasized long-distance workouts.

Carlile originally planned to become a doctor. He changed his mind when he became ill while watching a film about an operation. He then studied human physiology and became dedicated to the science of swimming.

Closer to home, Ed Temple produced 40 Olympians for women’s track and field at Tennessee State. His athletes won 13 gold medals, six silver medals and four bronze medals. His teams won 34 national titles.

In his first year as coach, with a budget of $300, Temple’s team participated in one meet. A few years later, to get his runners to a competition in New York, the coach piled the team into his old DeSoto station wagon.

Temple was the team coach, trainer, counselor and parent. “I was everything,” he said a few years ago, “but you had to be, because there was no other person there.”

Temple’s teams were composed of more than just athletes. He always told the girls that they were young ladies and should carry themselves properly. He always reminded them that they were ladies first and runners second.

Temple also told the ladies on each of his teams that they should use track as an exchange for an education. Track, according to the coach, was the means to walk across the stage to receive a degree.

“Athletics opens up doors for you,” said the coach, “but education keeps them open.”