End Of An Era

Salute To A Mentor

Peter Gardner of Brunswick, Maine Retired Last Week

Career HS Record 463-128-49; 6 State Class A Championships/4 Runners-up

It's a funny thing, how a bunch of folks (mainly in Central NY) will read this about a person they've never met, never even heard of, from Maine.  But those who support this blog I hope to have influenced in some positive way by my efforts as a coach, and today I have the gently bittersweet opportunity to note the retirement of a fellow I have admired for a long while from coaching.

Peter Gardner lives in Richmond, Maine, and drives probably 30 or more minutes to get to work at Brunswick High School where he has served as a math teacher, assistant principal and for 39 seasons, the boys varsity soccer coach.  My connection to Coach Gardner is simple; I played against his teams for three years (he creamed us, most times...though we lost a one-goal match at their place one time when my buddy Matt broke a  tied score by clearing a ball out of our six yard box, into our teammate's face, and into our own goal...) and went to Europe twice with an organization he worked with leading soccer tours of Italy, France and England.  We got creamed there too...

Summers in college I played on a team Peter's sons had pulled together in a summer men's league.  It was a hard-drinking and hard-working group of 20-somethings, with the odd older guy with kids, and a couple of college guys like myself.  All blue collar fellows, working in the shipyard in my hometown of Bath, construction and the like.  In some ways, it may be the best team I ever played for.  Peter coached that group of miscreants, and we did very well each year.  Looking back, I have to marvel at his patience with us, and that he'd put in even more hours in the summer coaching adults (sometimes only technically) who really didn't need a coach.  But I learned a lot from him those summers, and much of my management style is based on his easy-going and blunt, yet friendly, rapport with the players.

When I left my first job post-college in Iowa, I returned home to crash for a couple months while my position at Clarkson here in NY got sorted out, and to keep out of trouble I did some substitute teaching around my hometown.  I worked at Brunswick High a couple times, and caught up with Coach Gardner, and in doing so, got to know him a little better.  What was most remarkable was that he recalled not just that I had played for Brunswick's general rival, Morse High, but that he had specifics in mind when we were talking.  Incredible powers of recall, and sincerity to boot.

Anyway, this is a guy who was a class act in all circumstances, was widely admired by everyone who came into contact with him...and as folks who conduct themselves in this way tend to do, he was a winner on the field.  Happily for me, I have had the good fortune to know, even slightly, and play for and against a guy who will be remembered for who he was, not just that he won a few games in his career.  The game is diminished for losing him, but I hope I am not the only person reflecting today on my efforts, and my approach to coaching, and that those of us who are taking note of Coach Gardner's retirement will ultimately continue his legacy (even way out here in CNY!) and even, if we're lucky, improve upon it.