This story is from April 19, 1998, on former coach John Torchetti. Enjoy it, though I think I'm a much better writer now. At least, I hope so. I'll be back from vacation Aug. 10. Remember to check www.journalgazette.net for news from the present.
Komets coach John Torchetti isn't hoping his team makes it to the Turner Cup finals. He expects it to.
Yes, that is a lot to ask of his players, who will have to go through the likes of Cleveland, Orlando and Detroit to get there, but Torchetti has earned the right to be a little arrogant.
When he studied with the masters on nightly bus rides in the country, he was earning it.
When he paid his dues as a player with teams like the Virginia Lancers and the Winston-Salem Thunderbirds, he was earning it.
And when he was a gun-toting taxicab
driver, he was certainly earning it.
But, through it all, Torchetti made it to nine finals in 13 years as a player and as a coach. He's batting .692, so to speak.
``It doesn't matter what league you're in, when you win the championship, it's instilled in you,'' Torchetti said.
``I was 19 and 20 and I won cups. That's all I ever knew. We only knew to go to the finals every year. And that's how I feel.''
The finals weren't even an option last season when the Komets finished with a league-worst 63 points.
Torchetti, 33, had never missed the postseason before. He had been taught to detest missing the playoffs, particularly by his mentor, Rick Dudley.
Dudley, a former NHL coach and current general manager of the Detroit Vipers, was Torchetti's coach with Carolina of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League. While playing for Dudley, the 20-year-old Torchetti realized he wanted to be a coach himself.
``(Dudley) was driving the bus and I was sitting next to him driving to Erie, Pennsylvania,'' Torchetti said. ``And we just talked hockey all the time.''
During that 1984-85 season, Torchetti was credited with 86 points in 64 games.
Dudley called Torchetti a bump-and-grind player, a decent scorer and an extremely hard worker.
By 1992-93, Torchetti retired as a player and took on a part-time assistant coach's job with Greensboro, N.C., of the East Coast Hockey League. He drove a taxicab on the side.
``When I was an assistant coach, that was my income,'' he recalled. ``I wasn't a full-time coach, so it wasn't like I was in the office all day. I had to find other things to do.''
And he carried a 9 mm pistol.
``Well, that's part of the business,'' he said. ``You never know what kind of customer you're gonna have.
``When you work, you gotta go where they send you. The projects or wherever it is. That's what I had to do to coach.''
Of course, there was also a little humiliation in going from stickwork to gunwork.
``It was funny because some of the kids I used to pick up in my cab, I used to go to their schools when I was a hockey player in that city,'' he said. ``They'd say, `Weren't you a hockey player?'
``I'd say, `Yeah.'
``They'd say, `What are you doing driving a cab?'
``It's well worth it now. If I had to do it again, I'd do it again.''
In 1994, Torchetti got his first head coaching job, with San Antonio of the Colonial Hockey League. He was named CHL Coach of the Year after guiding the Iguanas to a 32-18-6 record, and, as you might have guessed, his team visited the finals.
``He's got a tremendous thirst for knowledge,'' Dudley said. ``He used to call me three or four times a week with hockey questions. Some of it was a pain in the (butt). But, then I started to look forward to it.''
In Torchetti's second season, the Iguanas were 39-17-8 in the regular season and earned another trip to the finals.
Then, Torchetti had a 26-game stint as assistant coach with the San Antonio Dragons of the IHL, before taking over as head coach of the Komets.
Those who played for Torchetti last season admit it wasn't always easy trying to meet his expectations.
``It was his first year in the league and he had a lot of older guys who had their minds set in a certain way and it was hard for (Torchetti) to change,'' right wing Robin Bawa said. ``It's a lot different when you're coaching guys in the IHL who have solid contracts than when you're coaching guys in (lower leagues) that you can ship out any day you want to.''
As a result, Torchetti had confrontations with players.
Despite the team's failure in 1996-97, Komets general manager David Franke said there was never a question that Torchetti would be the coach this season. In fact, Franke was anxious to see what Torchetti would do in the offseason, where former coach Dave Farrish, said Franke, preferred to relax rather than work.
``(Torchetti) works as hard at the job in the summer as he does in the winter,'' Franke said. ``We knew all this ahead of time, that he had winning teams before and that he had been in finals and won.
``He knew what it was gonna take in the regular season and the playoffs to be a winner.''
This season, Torchetti says, has been a big learning experience, especially in relating with players.
``Sometimes, maybe I go overboard,'' he said. ``But I'm learning to know the players more.''
And Torchetti listens to them a lot more, too.
``I've always been brought up that the coach is always right and you never talk back to him,'' Torchetti said. ``But today's players always have a question: `Why?' They want an answer.
``So, now I've adapted. `Hey, guy, if I'm in the heat of the battle, let me be, and then we can talk about it.' ''
Bawa, who has served as an intermediary between the players and Torchetti, says his coach has matured a lot.
``I think he's learned the hard way that he has to break it down step by step and teach the guys instead of just telling the guys once and expecting them to learn it, and if they don't learn it, yelling at them,'' Bawa said.
The older and wiser Torchetti wishes he had last season to do over. He wishes he could take back some of the confrontations that might have hurt the 1996-97 Komets.
Most of all, he wishes he could go back in time with the leaders he has discovered this season.
Franke said that Torchetti deserves equal credit in the personnel decisions that brought in those leaders -- players like Racine, Viacheslav Butsayev and Ian Boyce, who have made the Komets a contender for the Turner Cup.
``He wants to be involved in every decision that's made on players, and he was,'' Franke said. ``I think we're reaping the benefits of that now.''
Not only have the Komets place in the standings improved, but Torchetti's stock has too. Dudley rates him as one of the top 20 coaches in professional hockey and believes Torchetti will be in the NHL soon.
That's no small compliment, considering what Dudley has done for the sport.
All four of the division-winning IHL coaches were assistants to Dudley at some point.
Torchetti was humble last week. Between the grueling drills and the constant reminders to his troops that Cleveland is a dangerous team, Torchetti spoke in a fatherly tone about how proud he was of his team.
By tonight, that humbleness will be washed away, in favor of the demands of excellence.
The solemn stares, yelling and constant preaching of the importance of special teams will undoubtedly return.
The stern individual who brought the Komets from worst to first will resurface.
And the likes of Jock Callander and Tom Draper will see to that.
``I know I'm a difficult person to deal with, on and off the ice,'' Torchetti said. ``I've still got a long way to go. You become humble after a while, I think. We're gifted here with good players that are great leaders in the lockerroom.
``The biggest thing for me coaching this year has been watching the team grow up together. It's been pretty cool.''
All content herein is © 2007 The Journal Gazette and may not be republished without permission.
-- By Justin A. Cohn, The Journal Gazette
