Ostrom's love of hockey made him a coach to remember
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Brad Ostrom’s passion for hockey was inexhaustible.
“Every conversation we ever had was about the game,” Brian Ostrom, his younger brother, said. “Before he died, he was talking about how much admiration he had for Naz (new Colorado Avalanche centre Nazem Kadri), how he was a tough kid on the ice. One of the things that stood out was how happy he was for (Memorial Cup-winning former Oshawa captain) Josh Brown, a kid that didn’t take the direct route and finally gets the shot to play for Florida.
“My brother’s dying and you can see the joy in his face that this kid made it. That’s what those kids meant to him.”
The long-time London minor hockey coaching legend passed away Monday at age 66. He taught countless kids the game, including hundreds of OHLers and most of the local stars who went on to the NHL ranks.
He is responsible for the most famous position change in the city’s hockey history, shifting future Norris Trophy winner Drew Doughty to defence in his major atom (10-year-old) season.
“Brad called us and asked if we would be OK if he moved Drew to defence,” Connie Doughty, Drew’s mother, recalled. “He had been the top-scoring centreman the year before. I just said, ‘Well, Brad, you’re the coach. We believe in whatever you want to do. We didn’t hesitate one bit. We were a soccer family. What were we going to say?
“I respected him, not just for what he did for my son, but for everybody. He knew the game and he loved it.”
That was evident by Ostrom’s habit of writing annual report cards for each of his players, two pages in length, turned, typed and signed by hand. That was his invitation to kids to get better.
“He said, ‘Here’s what you have to do’,” Brian said. “Every kid who got every ounce of talent out of themselves, he respected them all.”
Originally from Chatham, the accountant by trade spent 45 years behind the bench, first with the Red Circle organization and select teams before joining the AAA ranks with the amalgamation of the Sabres and Jets organizations in the 1980s and following through to the Jr. Knights.
Even after being diagnosed with cancer, he continued to coach, most recently at the pee wee level with the Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs. He had been lined up to assist Greg Benedetti’s minor bantam Jr. Knights this fall.
He loved teaching the skill side of the game and his practices were frequent and well-organized.
“If Brad liked you, you couldn’t have a better coach,” Kevin Gardner, the Jr. Knights vice-president of hockey operations, said. “He kept stats on kids’ passes. That’s the sort of stuff he tracked. Most parents and kids are focused on goals and points. He was talking about passes, which are just as important. He did it his way. His results spoke for itself.
“If he knew he would be getting a team the following year, he would be out scouting them in the playoffs. He put 100 per cent into it.”
Everyone who was part of a Brad Ostrom-coached team learned to be flexible for additional practices and exhibition games that invariably popped up.
“When I helped him those first five years in AAA, we’d circle that one Saturday in November that we had off,” Brian said, “and the Thursday before, Brad would tell you he picked up an hour of ice in the morning and an exhibition game in Lucan. Sitting at home for one day in the winter would drive him nuts.
“There was nowhere he’d rather be than at the arena. He kept saying, ‘This is my last season,’ but I stopped believing that years ago. He liked having good teams and liked the competition.”
A celebration of Ostrom’s life will be held Sept. 22 at 3 p.m. (with visitation starting at 1 p.m.) at Westview Funeral Chapel (709 Wonderland Rd. N.).
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