BOBWHITES RECOGNIZE DUCOLON BEFORE REGULAR-SEASON FINALE
By ANTHONY LABOR JR.
ST. ALBANS — Everything seemed normal leading up to the BFA-St. Albans boys hockey game Wednesday night against South Burlington in the regular season finale at Collins Perley Sports Center.
After the BFA girls finished up their game, the ice was cleaned and the boys hockey team headed out to the ice to warm up. As they usually do, the BFA coaches stuck behind in the locker room to allow the team to go out and warm themselves up before the game. That’s where things changed up a little bit.
As soon as the players got to the bench, they changed out of their game jerseys into custom warmup jerseys with “Ducolon” in the nameplate and the No. 32 worn by all players. The jerseys were to honor head coach Toby Ducolon, who was coaching his final regular season game after 32 years in charge of the Bobwhite program. Fans around the rink also held up signs with the No. 32 on them and also photos of Ducolon during a recent ceremony he had at the University of Vermont.
“It was different, I’ll say that,” said Ducolon, whose team came away with a 4-2 win over South Burlington on Wednesday. “It was all good and I appreciate it. It’s a great way to finish, but I am not really done.”
After the game, Ducolon still wasn’t sure who organized the pregame ceremonies.
“They did surprise me because I didn’t know it was coming,” he said. “I blamed it on (BFA manager) William Magnum; he took the fall for it.”
In reality, the pregame ceremony was organized by BFA athletic director Dan Marlow and Ducolon’s wife Kerry.
“I thought they did a great job organizing everything,” said BFA coach Ben Roberts, who will be taking over as head coach of the Bobwhites next season. “Toby isn’t one for surprises, so the rest of us coaches joked that he would somehow find out. He is always on top of things, and nothing gets by him.”
With Marlow and a number of other people patiently waiting for Ducolon to first walk out in the rink, he walked out to check the time, saw the jerseys and realized what was happening and walked back to the coach’s room with a little shake to his head.
“When he came back to the coach’s room, he didn’t say much but we all knew he was surprised and grateful,” said Roberts. “We can’t do enough to thank Toby for what he has done for the community and BFA hockey. Tonight’s ‘surprise’ was a nice touch and a good way to honor his final regular season game as head coach. He doesn’t do things for the accolades or acknowledgement, but we all know he was appreciative for what BFA and Kerry put on tonight.”
There have been a number of players to come through the ranks of BFA throughout Ducolon’s 32 years leading the program and has left an impression on them all throughout the years.
“Toby is a great guy and a great coach and I feel like he has had a big impact on everyone that has come through this organization,” said current BFA captain Matt Merrill. “We just wish him the best and want him to know we all thank him for everything he has done.”
It’s not only the boys hockey program that Ducolon has had a big impression on, but he was also a big help for BFA girls hockey coaches Luke Cioffi and Jeff Rouleau when they were starting the girls hockey program.
“While we were starting the girls program, we couldn’t have asked for a better person to help us out,” said Cioffi. “From day one he was asking ‘What do you need?’ and was more than willing to help get girls hockey in the same footing as the boys. To share a locker room, talking hockey, talking people, talking about what we can do to better our community has been fun.
“He’s been a real supporter of me even before the girls hockey program when I was coaching Bantams,” he added. “He would always talk about what we all needed to do and it never seemed like we worked at it. We have 10 coaches in there between the girls hockey program and boys hockey program and Toby has been that guiding light in terms of what’s the right thing to do if you needed advice and he would never overstep any boundaries. The girls program at BFA would definitely be different if we didn’t have Toby here.”
While Ducolon has not only had a lasting impact on the hockey community around St. Albans, but all around the state as a whole.
“I grew up watching Toby play high school hockey over at Coote Field at the old rink,” said South Burlington coach Sean Jones after Wednesday’s game. “He is everything you want in high school hockey the way he approaches the game, he’s super respectful of everybody. The way he deals with kids is super fair and always right on. You know what you are getting with Toby and it’s always excellence. He is everything we want out of this league in Vermont high school hockey.”
Wednesday was a good way for the hockey community to show Ducolon a small token of appreciation for everything he has done and how he has helped a lot of people over the years as coach. While he is stepping down as head coach of the program, he will stick around as an assistant coach for Roberts starting next season, so won’t be completely away.
“I appreciate the gesture tonight,” said Ducolon. “It has been a great run and I can’t say anything bad about it. I think it would be tougher if I was going to be done-done or go cold turkey away from hockey, but I’m not going to and I will be here next year still. It would be tough to stop and next year won’t be like this. It will be nice to have somebody else run the program and I just be part of it rather than do both.”
Ducolon’s teams have made it to the championship game 14 times over his career with nine titles to their names, including the most recent two championships to go with over 400 wins in that time.
However, over the years, it hasn’t been the impressive numbers and championships that has stuck with Ducolon.
“I always say we love to win on Wednesday’s and Saturday’s, but it is about hundreds of guys that have played BFA hockey,” he said. “BFA hockey is bigger than all of us and when you can influence a guy that’s 16, 17 or 18 or whatever the case may be, they have memories forever. It is great to win a hockey game, but I cannot remember some hockey games, but it is the other memories you can remember. The people, the laughs or the big thing that a kid did or a bad decision a kid did as well. That is what it is about; the high school experience is about good and bad decisions and the memories.”
*** Information provided by John Bonnette was included in this story***
