摄影:Christopher Huang
Don’t look for the big hockey championship trophies in Coach Jerry 纽约’s Conte Forum office. He might be the first to tell you that the collection of gleaming hardware is not the most important part of his hockey program.
纽约, who announced his retirement this month after a highly successful 28-season run at 电子游戏软件—and 50 years overall as a Division I head coach—always zeroed in on winning his sport’s biggest prizes, but he never treated those championship trophies as the only focus of his program.
When his teams won the NCAA Championship on four different occasions, he would bring the coveted prize back to University offices for display. The trophy would be loaned to the Office of Undergraduate 电子游戏软件, where prospective students could see the accomplishment, 或到BC餐饮服务公司, 不列颠哥伦比亚省警察局, 住宿生活处, Learning 资源 for Student-Athletes (now Student-Athlete Academic Services), 或者其他学术部门.
“To him, it wasn’t his trophy,” noted John Hagerty, the hockey team’s director of operations. “这也不是球员的奖杯. 它属于电子游戏软件.
“There were some years when we had to remember where we had put it,哈格蒂笑着说, who has served on 纽约’s staff since the 76-year-old Watertown native returned to his alma mater in 1994 to resurrect the school’s slipping hockey program.
The Eagles’ four 纽约-era NCAA Championship trophies now reside in the hallway display case outside the hockey suite, 仍然可以让所有人看到.
“他很真诚. He has a passion for the sport of hockey and for playing it the right way. 他很喜欢电子游戏软件...He loves his staff—all the assistant coaches, the support people. 我们都是他家庭的一员.”
纽约’s success over the last 28 years has been unmatched: His teams qualified for the NCAA tournament 18 times; advanced to 12 “Frozen Four” championship series; and won national titles in 2001, 2008, 2010, 和2012年. 一路走来, he also led the ice Eagles to multiple Hockey East and Beanpot Tournament championships. 约克以1分的成绩结束了他辉煌的职业生涯,123 victories—the most of anyone who has ever coached this college game.
The keys to this success were rooted in 纽约’s personal integrity and people skills as much as his hockey acuity. 他是真诚的. He has a passion for the sport of hockey and for playing it the right way,” Hagerty said. “他对电子游戏软件充满热情.
“Coach 纽约’s greatest strength may have been his ability to draw people into the program,哈格蒂接着说. “He loves his staff—all the assistant coaches, the support people. 我们都是他家庭的一员.
哈格蒂说:“每个人都在投资. “在我自己的工作中，我从未想过让他失望. 我绝不会让事情发展到那个地步.”
当一名球员被招募到这个项目时, 纽约 would go to great lengths to ensure that the young man would be a good fit, 无论是作为球员还是作为一个人. “He did his homework on every single person we recruited to play for 电子游戏软件,” Hagerty said. “He was selling something that he strongly believed in.”
“The kids thought he was using life to teach them about hockey, but what he really was doing was using hockey to teach them about life.”
给他的球员, 纽约 was constantly teaching life skills and values along with winning hockey techniques. 每个季节, 他请来了客座演讲者向团队发表演讲, among them New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, 前红袜队经理特里·弗兰科纳, and University Trustee and Apple Fellow Phil Schiller ’82—all of whom pointed out the need for leadership and teamwork to generate success.
Also, each year he would invite Conte Forum’s custodial workers into a team meeting. “These are the folks who have to clean up after you, so let’s leave our locker room in good shape for them,他对球员们说. Those who demonstrated lax locker room habits would likely find themselves on “Dyson Duty”—assigned to vacuum the locker room carpet each day for a week.
类似的, he brought his team over to meet the Kelley Rink’s Zamboni crew before each season, introducing the players to the people who work the long hours to keep the ice surface and rink facility in pristine shape, 并提前感谢他们的努力.
When the team made a meal stop during road trips to distant rinks, 约克总是问公共汽车司机, “你想要什么?? 我们会给你送饭的.” He never failed to say “thank you” to ushers and security staff members who assisted the team.
2006年NCAA决赛, 纽约’s team lost a 2-1 heartbreaker to the University of Wisconsin in a game played in Milwaukee. 垂头丧气的BC队滑下了冰面, 纽约 called them back out to go across the rink to salute a small contingent of maroon-and-gold-clad 电子游戏软件 alumni and fans who had faithfully cheered the team amid some 17,000名沙哑的獾队球迷.
“That’s what he instilled in his teams,” said Hagerty. “The kids thought he was using life to teach them about hockey, but what he really was doing was using hockey to teach them about life.”
最近, COVID协议生效, 哈格蒂带来了他11岁的女儿, 布丽姬特, into the BC hockey office where they had plans to link up to her virtual classroom computer connection. 纽约, 两个孩子的祖父, insisted that the youngster place her computer on a table in his personal office, 哪里可以安静地上她的虚拟课.
There they sat: College hockey’s winningest coach, 制定他的招聘评估, 实践计划, and game plans; 布丽姬特 engaging in virtual reading and math exercises with her teachers and sixth-grade classmates at St. 弥尔顿的阿加莎学校.
As usual, there were no big trophies in the room to get in the way of such important work.
里德Oslin, former sports information director for 电子游戏软件 体育运动 and associate director of BC's Office of News & 公共事务| 2022年5月