Bob Davis retires from coaching hockey, part two

Bob Davis, pictured in the middle, coaches with his sons Michael and Andrew Davis during the 2024-2025 season.

By Spencer Seymour

After more than 30 years coaching minor hockey teams in St. Marys, Bob Davis announced the 2024-2025 season would be his last, with Davis retiring from coaching.

Davis described his sons Michael and Andrew’s playing days as some of his most cherished memories from his time in coaching.

“Coaching both my sons was a treat,” Davis told the Independent. “My oldest son, Michael, was very talented and very coachable. He could read the play on ice as well as anyone. My younger son, Andrew, always gave 100 per cent in practice and games. Andrew’s team won two all-Ontario championships, but the second one with Kenny (Schiedel), Ernie (Little) and Rick (O’Donnell) was so much fun and something I will always remember.”

Davis, recognized as one of the best minor hockey coaches in St. Marys of the last three decades, explained how he had three key influences in becoming the coach he was; Ferris Stewart, Ernie Little and Kenny Schiedel.

Stewart, a legend of the St. Marys sports community, was Davis’ first mentor.

“Ferris (Stewart) was a real gentleman,” said Davis. “He always said, ‘You’ve got to be professional.’ Ferris never swore. Ferris knew the game. He knew when to be strict and he knew when not to be. He was old-fashioned in that you skated, you worked and if you did the job, you got rewarded for it. He was approachable and I looked up to him when I played for him. There is a reason he won multiple championships.”

Davis described Little as being “like an older brother” to him.

“Ernie told me two important things among many. He told me that any coach can win with talent. Only a really good coach can take his players, regardless of their skill level, and make them into a team. He also said, ‘Don’t coach like a doctor; coach like a coach.’ As a doctor, you’re listening to what the patient wants, you’re coming up with answers and you have to find the pieces to the puzzle. You’re being the nice guy.

“As a coach, you have to be the one to say, ‘This is how we’re going to do it.’ You can’t be mean about it, but you have to be the leader. You have to have a presence that the kids can respect. You have to make sure everyone buys in. Ernie definitely helped me through a couple of tough times over the years.”

Davis further stated he and Little could talk about hockey for hours.

“I’d pick Ernie up for a game or a practice, and afterwards, we’d sit in the car for an hour and talk about what went on,” Davis said. “One day, (my son) Andrew finally called his mom to come pick him up because Ernie and I were talking and talking, and I wasn’t coming home fast enough for him. One year, we were in tryouts and trying to decide on our goalie. We sat inside my back door for an hour and a half trying to make our decision.

“He taught me a lot about confidence and taught me how to handle kids. He just had this way of building a kid’s confidence or straightening them out when they needed it, but in a way that was really positive.”

Davis also told the story of how a chance encounter with Little led to their long coaching partnership.

“I just got my first rep team and I met Ernie on the front lawn at Kingsway Lodge. He was around 60 years old by that point and I stopped him and asked him if he’d come help because I didn’t know anything about goaltending. He said, ‘You don’t want me, I’m in my 60s. My coaching career is long over.’ But I made it clear that I wanted him and he agreed to do just that, and then he and I worked together for 20 years. Standing on the lawn at Kingsway in the middle of summer, it’s 85 degrees, I did the best thing I ever did in coaching, convincing Ernie to join me.”

While he is now known for being a top-notch coach, Davis admitted he had to go through some growing pains, which Little helped him through.

“The first practice I ran with Ernie was awful. I didn’t have my strategy for the practice. I had all these things I wanted to do, I didn’t take the time to explain anything and it was just too much all at once. No drill went the way it was supposed to go at all. I came off the ice and I said to Ernie, ‘That didn’t go very well, did it?’ And he said, ‘That was frigging awful, but it will get better.’ That’s what made me sit down and write out my practices and understand that fewer drills with better explanations is the better option.”

When discussing Schiedel’s influence on him, Davis described a mastermind tactician.

“Kenny was a real strategist,” Davis said. “Kenny could read the game. When I coached with him, I basically did his practices. He would tell me what he wanted and he would watch, and then in a game, Rick (O’Donnell) would run the bench at the back and I would run the bench at the front, and Kenny would come down and tell us what he wanted us to adjust. And it was always coming from him watching what we did and what the other team did, and how to adjust.”

Away from the ice, Schiedel also introduced Davis to an annual coaching instructional event they would continue to attend until the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You can never know all about the game. You have to have a bag of tricks you can dip into to teach the kids a strategy, along with the basics, to be competitive. Kenny (Schiedel) actually got me to go to Roger Nielsen’s coaches’ clinics, and from 2000, he and I went every year until the pandemic when they stopped. It was absolutely fascinating and you would always find something you never knew or you wanted to implement, and you would go home and wish the season started tomorrow.”

When reflecting on the Roger Nielsen coaching clinics, Davis explained one of the biggest lessons he learned.

“One of the things I learned was that, at the end of a game where the team played really lousy, you always find something positive to say, or you don’t say anything. You should never leave the kids in the dressing room after a game with a negative. You can never patronize a player because they aren’t stupid; they know if they aren’t as skilled as another player, but they still want to be out there playing just as much.”

Davis’ final season behind the bench was a perfect full-circle conclusion to his coaching tenure as he served as the bench boss for the U16 A Boys St. Marys Rock, with his sons Michael and Andrew working as his assistants.

“It was fabulous coaching with them,” Davis said. “Obviously, I know them well and I know how they are good coaches. They interact with kids well. They like coaching kids. They could both run practices well. It was really fun working with them. They both have a very good knowledge about the game, how to play the game and how to teach.”

Davis also described the experience of his final game of the season, knowing it would be his last.

“I tried not to think about it because I knew it was going to be the last one,” said Davis. “I just had this feeling that they would play well, and if they won, they would win the league. So, I just sat back and enjoyed being there with my two sons because that was the highlight, coaching with both of them. I stood back and let them coach and just enjoyed it. And at the end, I shared a laugh with them because I said, ‘This is weird, this is the last time I’m going to walk across the ice like this.’ ”

However, the last game of the season was not the final note in Davis’ coaching timeline as, at the St. Marys Minor Hockey Association’s year-end awards banquet, Davis received the Ferris Stewart Coaching Award, an honour Davis acknowledged as being a poetic and sentimental finale of his coaching career.

“It was huge. I very much appreciated that. I don’t hope for accolades at all, but for somebody to recognize that you put all this effort in was really special, and I thanked (St. Marys Minor Hockey) profoundly for that. The only sad part was that I wasn’t able to be there to receive it in person, but Andrew and Michael got it for me and Scotty (Graham) gave a speech, which my sons said was phenomenal. It’s all the more special because it’s named after Ferris (Stewart). Ferris is the reason I started coaching. I would have gone through the boards for him, and I got to know him on a personal level when I came back to town to work. So, to receive the award named after him in my final year was really special.”