U Sports wins leader brought dry humour,
honesty
Dave Adolph, centre, makes adjustments from the Huskies bench. |
Following a playoff
win by the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team this past
season, Adolph, who is Huskies head coach, was asked in a post-game media scrum
about left-winger Collin Shirley leaving the contest early after favouring one
of his legs.
The bench boss said
his standout player was fine. Adolph proceeded to pull up one of his pant legs
to point out the area of the leg Shirley sustained a big bruise to reinforce
the skilled forward would be fine from that minor ding.
At times, you almost
never knew when the dry humour from Adolph was going to surface. Often, the
right situation presented itself to bring it out.
During a Thursday
practice this past February, the Huskies were having one of their energetic
practices to music, which is a weekly tradition on that day. Adolph is always
excited and energetic in a fun way during those sessions.
He would blow his whistle
to begin the next drills in that session, and he allowed the players to take
control of what was happening on the ice.
Adolph looked like he was going to jump into one of the drills but never did.
Dave Adolph behind the Huskies bench at the Rutherford Rink. |
I mentioned to Adolph that if the Tigers were having a high energy practice like the one the Huskies were having, Desjardins would be trying to score to prove he still had it.
I asked Adolph why he
wasn’t trying to score?
“I scored a hat trick
once, and I am good,” said Adolph. “There is no need to over-extend it.”
On another occasion
back in 2017, the Huskies advanced to the U Sports title of the University Cup
national championship tournament to face the host University of New Brunswick
Varsity Reds in Fredericton, N.B.
A reporter asked
Adolph, who had already been named the U Sports coach of the year for men’s
hockey that season, what it would mean if the Huskies could win that title
game.
Adolph responded in a
matter of fact tone that it would allow him come back and coach next season.
He often would give jabs to long time Saskatoon StarPhoenix sportswriter Darren Zary, and Zary could dish it right back and those exchanges never became personal. Of course, the two have seemingly known each other forever and those exchanges were always seen as fun at the end of the day and created a memory.
Dave Adolph eyes up the on ice action. |
On Monday, the Huskies announced Adolph would be retiring from his position effective May 1, 2021. Due to the fact all U Sports hockey action has been cancelled for the 2020-21 campaign due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world, the 61-year-old veteran bench boss has already coached his final game with the team.
“After a lot of
self-discussion, I’ve decided that now is the right time to step back as the
men’s hockey coach,” said Adolph in a release. “Over the last 28 years, the
team has accomplished more than I could have imagined, and my family and I are
all proud to be members of the Huskie men’s hockey program.”
Overall, Adolph has put in 37 complete seasons with the Huskies men’s hockey team.
He patrolled the blue-line for five seasons. Adolph skated in the 1977-78 campaign, took a season off and returned for four straight campaigns from 1979 to 1983. In total, Adolph appeared in 117 regular season games collecting 10 goals and 34 assists.
The defenceman’s
playing days were capped in 1983 by the Huskies winning the U Sports – then known
as the CIAU - title game 6-2 over the Concordia University Stingers at the
University Cup tournament held in Moncton, N.B.
Following his playing
days, Adolph became a teacher at Saskatoon’s Aden Bowman Collegiate and
rejoined the Huskies as an assistant coach for five seasons from 1984 to 1989.
The Swift Current,
Sask., product then left “The Bridge City” to become the head coach of the
University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s hockey team for four seasons from
1989 to 1993.
Adolph returned to his
alma mater becoming the Huskies head coach before the start of the 1993-94
campaign.
Between his time with
the Pronghorns and Huskies, Adolph coached in 1,016 games including action in
the U Sports regular season, Canada West Conference playoffs and University Cup
tournament collecting 568 wins, 402 losses including extra time setbacks and 46
ties.
The Huskies team picture from their 2016 Canada West title win. |
With just the Huskies, Adolph has coached in 904 games including action in the U Sports regular season, Canada West Conference playoffs, and University Cup tournament collecting 536 wins, 330 losses including extra time setbacks and 38 ties. He was named the Canada West coach of the year for men’s hockey on four occasions.
In U Sports regular season action as Huskies head coach, Adolph has been behind the bench for 756 games posting 456 wins, 262 losses including extra time setbacks and 38 ties.
All those wins were piled up with the Huskies calling the ancient Rutherford Rink and then Merlis Belsher Place home.
After the Huskies
missed the post-season in the first two seasons under Adolph’s watch, he has
guided the Huskies to their current active streak of making the playoffs for 25
campaigns in a row. Adolph has coached the Huskies to seven Canada West titles
and 16 appearances in the U Sports championship tournament - the University
Cup.
A quote on Twitter
from one of Adolph’s former captains in star offensive-defenceman Jesse
Forsberg gives a glimpse into why Adolph was successful.
What a legend! Not an easy gig coaching guys with big egos out of junior. Won’t find a more passionate or loyal guy. Believed in me to grow from an average junior player with a hot temper to an All-Canadian..with a hot temper. Going to be tough to replace. What a career! #3types
— Jesse Forsberg (@jbforsberg) December 7, 2020
Forsberg wrote, “What a legend! Not an easy gig coaching guys with big egos out of junior. Won’t find a more passionate or loyal guy. Believed in me to grow from an average junior player with a hot temper to an All-Canadian with a hot temper. Going to be tough to replace. What a career! #3types.”
Dave Adolph, back row right, focuses on the play on ice. |
The players that came
to Adolph out of the junior ranks were guided by a wide variety of coaches like
Desjardins, Peter Anholt, Michael Dyck, Marc Habscheid, Don Hay, Lorne Molleken
and Brent Sutter.
Players that arrive to
a new team after being under the tutelage of those bench bosses have a
programmed set idea of what things are supposed to look like when they are
going right. Each of those visions will be slightly different from each other.
Adolph was able to
mold the commonalities to get everyone to bond and jell together, while dealing with regular university politics too.
All of sudden, mottos
like “no one outworks the Dogs” or “we all play the Cody Smuk way” became part
of who the players were.
The “we all play the Cody Smuk way” motto came in tribute to hard-working, team-first, glue guy forward Cody Smuk, who passed away from cancer at age 26 in June of 2015. The players aspired to continue to hold those qualities high.
The players also learned pretty quickly that Adolph knows the game of hockey real well too.
Dave Adolph, back row left, keeps cool during a timeout. |
Upon arrival, players
learned they had become part of a new family in Huskies hockey that dated back
to 1910. For players who had a strong identification with their junior teams
like Brennan Bosch and Ryan Holfeld did with the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers and
Derek Hulak did with the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades, they learned they could have
that same strong identification with the Huskies.
Adolph will always be proud to note the players took care of their school work in the classroom too, which set them up for life after hockey.
Of course, the
toughest pill to swallow on the wins and losses front was the fact the Huskies
made the U Sports title game three times with Adolph as head coach and fell in
all three appearances.
The most heartbreaking
was arguably in 2005. The Huskies held a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes and ended up
in a 4-3 overtime loss to the host University of Alberta Golden Bears, who are
the Huskies “forever rivals,” at the rink once known as the Northlands Coliseum
in Edmonton, Alta.
Adolph deserved to win
at least one U Sports national title as Huskies head coach. The fact that didn’t
happen leans more to the lesson that life and sports isn’t fair sometimes.
You can a major number
of things right, but the big team goal might still be never achieved.
Molleken as Blades
head coach and general manager and Jack Brodsky as Blades owner went through a
similar fate in the major junior ranks never being able to win a WHL title or a
Memorial Cup title as CHL champions. They both did a large amount of things
right and deserved to achieve those big accomplishments in WHL and Memorial Cup
titles at least once.
The Huskies team photo from the 2020 Canada West title win. |
If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
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