Dayton Demonz Assistant Coach Jack Collins

(A True Professional)

Robert Kirchner

They say when one door closes in life another door opens.  A promising Junior hockey career came to an early ending for Demonz assistant coach Jack Collins. A rash of injuries after two years in the rough and tumble Canadian Hockey League for the City of Red Deer, Alberta caused this door shut.  His style of hockey was conducive to the physical style of the late 1960s.  This league known for developing tough hockey players, like the Sutter brothers, the Hextall’s and Philadelphia Flyers Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke of the Broad Street Bullies, just to mention a few.

With his competitive playing days over, Jack returned home to Dayton, Ohio, where he was a graduate of Northridge High School, and did what many other high school graduates did at a time when the car industry in Dayton was flourishing.  He began a career at the General Motors plant in Vandalia, got married and raised a family.

Jack began playing hockey in the early 1960’s, the love of  the game came as a birthday gift with his father taking him to his first professional hockey game at Hara Arena during the Dayton Gems first season.  Like his father, Jack got his oldest son involved in the game, and coached his teams through youth hockey.  This eventually led to coaching positions at the high school level at three area high schools in the Dayton area.  One of his highlight’s while coaching high school hockey was at Alter high school in their initial season as a varsity hockey team.  In their first year they not only qualified for the play-offs, but won their first play-off game, with all odds stacked against them, this would be a theme for team’s Jack was associated with, and  later coaching professional hockey.

In 1999 Jack was able to take combined knowledge and experience to professional hockey.  The Dayton Bombers of the ECHL.  His first job with the team was working as the team statistician or “eye-in-the-sky” for the team’s head coach.  The Bomber’s head coach at the time realized Jack brought more to the table than first realized.  One being his professionalism, and work ethic, the following season Jack was given  added responsibilities, working video for the team, scouting other teams in the ECHL, and eventually the team’s assistant hockey coach.

In 2009, the Dayton Bombers hockey organization closed at the end of the season.  For the second time in three decades, Jack would leave home to further his career in hockey.  This time to Evansville, Indiana as the head coach of the Evansville Icemen a member of the All-American Hockey League (AAHL). 

Leaving Dayton was especially difficult as he and his wife Kathleen would be geographically separated.  She remained in Dayton to hold down the house, and work full time. “Leaving Kathleen and my family was the hardest part of the move” Jack said of his year in Evansville.  “Kathleen is my best friend and biggest supporter. Like others who choose coach as a profession, time away from the family is the most difficult part of the job.”

The sacrifice paid off in the end, with Jack leading the Icemen to the AAHL championship winning the Davidson Championship Cup and leaving his mark on Evansville ice hockey.  The following year the City of Evansville was awarded an ECHL franchise, and kept the name the Icemen.  However, Evansville was not able to keep Jack, as he decided to return to his wife and his home, Dayton, Ohio.

For the 2011-2012 hockey season Jack decided to take a year off from hockey, and for the first time in six decades, he was out of hockey.  The sabbatical would only last a year, the following summer it was announced that Dayton was awarded a Federal Hockey League (FHL) franchise, playing their home games at Hara Arena.  The same arena decades earlier, Jack had watched his first professional hockey game, and the rink where he played his youth hockey. 

With the assistance of lifelong friend, and former Dayton Gem great Guy Trottier, Jack was given the opportunity to be an off-ice coach under head coach Marc Lefebvre during the Demonz first season in 2012-2013.  The Demonz finished in first place, however lost to Danbury in the finals.  What looked to be a championship season, as the Demonz had clinched first place by early February, with over a month to spare in regular season play.  The party would have to wait another year.

Coming into the 2013-2014 season, the Demonz hired former Demon and league leading scorer Trevor Karasiewicz to replace Marc Lefebvre as the head coach.  One of Coach Karasiewicz’s first moves was to utilize Jack as an on-ice assistant coach.  “Jack is simply the face of hockey around here in Dayton, he has coached in the ECHL and has been successful at every level, I look up to Jack and respect what he says, he teaches me and the players a lot, we all learn on and off the ice from what Jack brings to Demonz and the game of hockey” said the Demonz head coach.

During the Demonz championship season last year, where the Demonz came back in dramatic fashion to win the Commissioner’s Cup from their nemeses the Danbury Whalers and Jack returning to the ice to assist Coach Karasiewicz may not be coincidental.  “Coach Jackie adds tons of experience in our locker room, everybody respects him and listens to anything he has to say, he is the guy we turn to , when everyone is flustered, he remains calm and says the right things to get our heads back in the game” said the Deomnz and the FHL leading scorer Ahmed Mahfouz.  “Jackie is a huge piece to our puzzle.”

Last year’s team captain Brian Marks added, “He’s been around the game for a long time showing a definite knowledge,  and he can even throw in a one liner, giving humor to the boys he coaches”, referring to his assistant coach. 

Second year forward and former Lake Superior Laker standout Bret Wall referred to both Coach Karasiewicz and Coach Collins on their responsibilities with the team.  “Jackie runs our back end (referring to the defensemen and goaltenders), while working alongside of Coach Karasiewicz on the power-play, and penalty-kill units.  The guys picked right up on Jackie’s aura of leadership during training camp last year, when he speaks, the players listen.  He is extremely respected in the room and rightfully so, his coaching resume.  Not only is he a great coach, he is a great individual.”

The definition of wisdom is the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment, the quality of being wise.  Coach Collins brings wisdom through the door.