Brad Schaack hanging up the whistle, going to miss the kids

Nov. 29—JAMESTOWN — For the first time in more than 40 years there will not been a Jamestown hockey team under the direction of Brad Schaack.

"I've been dwelling on retiring from coaching the last five or six years but when September rolled around the coaching bug hit and back on the ice I went," said Schaack, a longtime hockey coach for Jamestown. "Now that I did hang it up I forgot how much freedom I was missing. Now I can watch the kids I've coached play high school puck and go to games for the players I coached play college hockey or juniors — not to mention going to UND and Wild games."

Schaack has been a longtime figurehead in Jamestown hockey, having coached with the Jamestown Prowl and Jamestown High School programs since 1979.

"After I graduated from high school in '79 I had a chance to go to Bemidji State but unfortunately my dad passed away that August," Schaack recalled. "I obviously didn't go (to Bemidji) but still wanted to be involved with the game. Naturally, coaching the game would do that."

Schaack's first team that he coached was an in-house Peewee team in the 1979-80 season.

"I fell in love with it," Schaack said.

The rest is quite simply history.

"I coached with a handful of guys I use to coach and then coached their kids," Schaack said. "Had I stuck around any longer I may have ended up coaching their grandkids too.

Schaack has coached at every level of youth hockey offered in Jamestown — from Mites to Squirts to Peewees to Bantams to the Jamestown High School girl's team.

"Coaching did make me be more of a social guy," Schaack said. "I was somewhat shy in school. My first years of coaching I was pretty quiet but ask any player who had me later on and I definitely wasn't quiet anymore. I was very vocal on the bench. Sometimes too vocal as it got me a few bench penalties over the years. "

Schaack's own kids, Amber and Nick, got used to hearing their father's voice across the ice.

"Amber had me (as a coach) from the first day she laced 'em up to the day she graduated from high school," Schaack said. "I got to coach her and Nick together for a couple years."

Amber graduated from Jamestown High School in 2013 — the same year her dad turned over the reins of the Blue Jay girls program to current head coach Andy Fitzgerald. The Jays made the state tournament all four years Schaack coached.

"The four years I coached the Blue Jay girl's team were something I won't forget," Schaack said. "They overachieved and worked their butts off."

While he won't be formally coaching any athletes this season, Schaack has been involved in the hockey world for too long to let go completely.

"I still have my shooting area in our backyard and kids can come over whenever they want to work on their shots and stick handling," Schaack said. "I still may coach a spring or summer team but I'm having both knees replaced this spring so that will be put on hold for a year."

Now that Schaack has moved into retirement, he had some words of wisdom for the people stepping up to take his place.

"For coaches nowadays the one thing I would stress is to treat your best player the same as your lesser player," Schaack said. "Treat everyone the same as best you can. You will know which players you can get on a little more and which players you need to take a different approach.

"... I'll miss the kids the most," he said. "I truly was fortunate to have so many great kids over the years and have lifelong friendships with so many of them and their parents as well. Our annual Blue Jay alumni game is a great time to reminisce with so many players I coached over the years."

Schaack's coaching career wouldn't be what it is without the support he's received both at the rink and at home.

"I was fortunate to have great parents and can count on one hand any run-ins I had with a parent," he said. "... I need to give a bunch of credit to my wife, Anita. When we met 38 years ago, she thought the game was dumb. (But) when Amber started playing then Nick, she absolutely fell in love with it. She encouraged me to keep coaching — probably because it got me out her hair. Truthfully she enjoyed watching the teams I coached over the years.

"Since my first team I had no idea I'd coach this long. It gets in your blood and it stays there," he said. "Even now since I hung up the whistle I still get the itch to get back out there but I truly think I made the right decision. Could I pull a Brett Favre? You never know."