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Essex icon Bill O’Neil to retire from coaching

Austin Danforth
Free Press Staff Writer
Above, Essex girls soccer coach Bill O’Neil watches the action on the field during a 2015 game between the Hornets and the Mount Mansfield Cougars in Jericho.

The Lange ice skates Bill O’Neil bought for $72 at Mills & Greer in 1973 have served him well.

He’s worn them ever since.

But 44 seasons and four sets of blades later, the Essex High School boys hockey coach is finally ready to give the venerable skates — and himself — a break.

Bill O’Neil is retiring from coaching.

“I always hoped I’d know if it was time and not have someone come tell me. I just knew it was time. I’m tired,” said O’Neil, 75, on Wednesday. “I’ve been doing it for 52 years. I’m ready to spend some more time with my wife.”

O’Neil, who has led the boys hockey program since 1973 and the girls soccer program since 1979, informed his players of his decision this week.

“It was hard. I was OK until I got in front of them,” he said.

O’Neil said he will continue to teach English at the high school.

“I’ll miss the kids. Going out after school, a lot of the practice time is a reward for me,” said O’Neil, who also coached the Hornets softball team for 22 years before stepping down after the 2012 season. “It’s the everyday stuff that’s a letdown and a withdrawal for me after the season — I miss it now because I’m not coaching right now.”

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The tale of the tape for a career as staggering for its longevity as its success: 24 state championships and an overall record 1,293-592-85 — and that’s just leading the Hornets. He also coached for seven years at the Northwood School in his hometown of Lake Placid, New York, before taking a job at Essex.

Essex celebrates a goal during a boys hockey game against BFA-St. Albans at the Collins Perley Complex in St. Albans.

“If you put his three sports together ... think about the miles he’s put in on a yellow bus,” said Essex athletic director Jeff Goodrich. “I think we’re talking weeks, not hours, if not months.

“My first paid coaching position at Essex was under Bill in the girls soccer program in 1995,” Goodrich said. “He was phenomenal then and remains phenomenal today. No one puts in more love or passion or care. He’s an absolute professional and always has kids best interest in mind.”

O’Neil’s record-setting run includes 636 wins and 14 titles in 44 seasons leading the Hornets hockey program.

“He is Vermont high school hockey,” BFA-St. Albans coach Toby Ducolon said. “Nobody is ever going to do that again, that’s for sure.

“He’s the biggest influence of Vermont high school hockey, the most championships, great guy, great coach. He’s the complete package for the high school experience.”

A star at BFA and the University of Vermont before taking over as the Bobwhites coach in 1990, Ducolon said a mutual respect marked the rivalry between the state’s two premier hockey programs, and that’s due in no small part to O’Neil’s leadership. It wasn’t the case with every opponent.

“It’s a great loss. He’s done it for a long, long time, he doesn’t owe a thing to Vermont hockey, but it's definitely a loss for Vermont hockey,” Ducolon said. “There’s nobody like him.”

A three-sport star and Free Press Mr. Hockey honoree at Essex before diving into coaching himself, Jake Orr said O’Neil was the most influential coach he’s ever had.

“Especially now, as a high school coach, thinking about what I want from my players and what I want from myself, that comes from him. I was really, really lucky to play for him,” said Orr, who has helmed the Hornets’ boys soccer program since 2015.

O’Neil’s passion is just one of the things that sets him apart, Orr said.

”The question everyone asks me is, ‘How does he do it?’” Orr said. “That’s what it is. It’s what he really loves to do. I don’t think there are ever days he’s at a practice or a game and he’d rather be doing something else.”

“The thing I’ve always been most impressed in with Coach O is just his unbelievable selflessness,” Orr said. “It doesn’t surprise me that he's retiring from coaching ... you have a lot of coaches that might take their final season as a farewell tour. He was never somebody that wanted to take the spotlight off the kids.”

Essex head coach Bill O'Neil talks to his team during halftime during the girls soccer game between the Essex Hornets and the Champlain Valley Union Redhawks at CVU High School on Tuesday afternoon October 15, 2013 in Hinesburg, Vermont.

Said Goodrich: “He’s had such a positive impact on the lives of so many individuals ... I’ve been running into grown men that still speak so favorably of Bill, of the lessons they learned that still affect them. These are people my age — and above.

“And the amazing thing about Bill is he still connects like that with young kids today.”

The wins are nice and the championships are sweet — from the first, in 1981, to the last, in 2015 — but O’Neil would be the last to take credit for either. Rather, he rattled off names of those who helped along the way, athletic directors from Paul Henry to Goodrich, and assistant coaches from Paul Hamel to John Maddalena, Jay Parent and Dean Corkum.

“You stick around long enough you should eventually win more than anybody else,” O’Neil said. “I’d like to think we won once in a while, but we had great kids and great people helping me.

“I’ve always had lots of help. I’ve never had to do it all by myself.”

Contact Austin Danforth at 651-4851 or edanforth@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/eadanforth