How Vermont's winningest hockey coach ended up with his chief rival

ST. ALBANS - Why, yes, that really was Bill O'Neil standing behind the BFA-St. Albans bench on Monday night.

Against Essex.

Let that sink in.

The state's winningest boys hockey coach, who over 44 years combined to lead three Essex High School programs in nearly 2,000 varsity contests, lined up opposite the Hornets for the first time — with their fiercest rival, no less — as an assistant coach for the Bobwhites' Toby Ducolon.

Attempts to come up with an equally unlikely combination fall flat. The best hypothetical might be if former North Carolina men's basketball coach Dean Smith had, a year after retiring, decided to hop onto the Duke staff as an assistant under Mike Krzyzewski. But, no. That would never happen.

More:Three thoughts: Early advantage springs Essex past BFA in boys hockey

More:Longtime Essex coach Bill O'Neil tabbed for national hall of fame

So how, exactly, did O'Neil wind up with the Bobwhites? 

As current Essex coach Chris Line put it: "Why not help a longtime friend out when they call? I think we all would do that."

Going green and gold

The first thing to understand is that, regardless what had been projected onto the Essex-BFA hockey rivalry over the decades, mutual respect came to define the relationship between the state's two most successful programs.

More:Essex icon Bill O’Neil to retire from coaching

"We've always gotten along great," said Ducolon, the former BFA star and coach since 1990. "We've never had any issues. We've had some great games The reason I haven't had any issues is (O'Neil). ... He wants to win the game and he does it correctly."

O'Neil didn't have any designs on joining the Bobwhites when he stepped down as the Hornets' coach after the 2017 season.

But going a winter without hockey nearly every day proved harder than he expected.

"That was never the plan," said O'Neil, who lives in Franklin County, 10 minutes from BFA's home ice. "When I was done at Essex I was ready to be done and that year off was very hard, stepping away from hockey, because I'd been involved in hockey since I was like 4 years old."

And as O'Neil approached the final days of his teaching career — he retired last year — Ducolon came calling, curious what the Essex fixture had been up to. 

"I said, 'If you're looking to coach hockey you're talking to the right person — meaning me,'" Ducolon said. "He kind of laughed and didn't really say much."

Weeks passed. When Ducolon appeared at O'Neil's retirement party in July, O'Neil asked if he was serious. The BFA coach meant every word. 

"I said I'd love to," O'Neil recalled. "He said come whenever you can, you don't have to go to any away trips you don't want to, you don't have to come to practice when you don't want to. We'd love for you to give us whatever you have.

"I was very flattered by that."

More:Essex blanks Spaulding 5-0 to capture 15th boys hockey championship

Before O'Neil officially signed on, though, he brought the idea to Essex principal Rob Reardon, athletic director Jeff Goodrich and Line, his successor with the Hornets hockey program. The last thing he wanted to do was rock the boat at the school where he'd spent the better part of five decades.

With their blessing, the Hornet turned Bobwhite.

"We'll take any good help but it's exceptional help. It's not going to get any better. I don't know who you're going to get better in the state of Vermont besides Bill O'Neil," Ducolon said.

"I don't stick my two cents in unless I think it's going to help. Toby runs the show," O'Neil said.

The awkward first time

O'Neil's new commute to practice has fewer mile markers but produced its share of milestones.

One: Swapping out his blue Essex hockey gloves for a set of green BFA ones. 

"I wear more green than blue now," O'Neil said. "But it was a long time wearing blue and gold. There's a lot of blue and gold stuff I don't wear anymore."

Another: The night of Feb. 4. The 76-year-old was a ball of nerves.

"He wasn't sure in the beginning he was going to do the Essex game," Ducolon said. 

"I didn't really know how everybody felt. I really was stressing about it," O'Neil said. "It was hard watching both teams because I know those kids and I'm fully vested in this program but there's a part of me that's still a little bit (Essex)."

Before the game in St. Albans, O'Neil approached the Essex coaches. He wanted to confirm it would be OK that he stood with the Bobwhites. They assured him it was. Some of his former Essex players even emerged from the locker room to shake his hand and say hi. That put O'Neil at ease more than anything, he said.

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The game went ahead as scheduled. Essex, the defending state champ, hung on for a 2-1 win. After, the rivals queued at center ice for the postgame handshake — some of the Hornets saving a hug for O'Neil near the end of the line. 

"Giving him a handshake and hug after the game, it's almost like a rite of passage," Line said. "He's not only meant a tremendous amount to me and our program, but to the high school game in Vermont. I'm glad he's able to do those things because he's a guy kids should be around."

The chance to stick with the game he's been around for 70-plus years isn't lost on the recent retiree. 

"I feel very fortunate that I've had this opportunity. I'm very grateful," O'Neil said. "Plus I won't drive my wife as crazy if I'm not hanging around the house so much."

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