How to say goodbye to a mentor and friend

How to say goodbye to a Mentor and Friend?

On Thursday night at 7:45pm Bob Gabruck lost his battle with Cancer.

Bob is the reason I am a coach at University.  Bob is the founder of the Spartan Volleyball club.  It is a small volleyball club in central Alberta.  It was built to improve volleyball within the county of Flagstaff.  It was also built for the daughters of his friends so they had a place to continue to play. 

What was suppose to be a couple years turned into a 25 year passion for Bob.  Over that time he and the Spartans have had tremendous success. During the hay day of the club they had 2 bantam U-14 teams and 2 midget U-16 teams.  Every girl who participated in the club got an elite experience.  Competing in tournaments all over Alberta and Saskatchewan. Bob set high expectations and demanded commitment.  Bob also encouraged and scheduled so players could continue to play other school sports.

When I entered in picture I was a hockey player that became a young rookie teacher in Alliance Alberta.  During that year I was the boys volleyball coach at the middle years school.  I really didn’t know much about the sport.  Other than what I covered in a introductory volleyball course I had taken at U of Alberta.  I was hard working but a bit out of my element.  During a tournament we were hosting in Alliance I met Bob.  Oh by the way Bob coached both guys and girls team at Killam during the school season.  If it was played at Killam public Bob Gabruck coached it.  (Badminton, Cross country, basketball, track and field, plus he was the commissioner for many sports.)

After meeting Bob I found out what was expected to be a Master teacher.  He made me understand that it was possible to work and coach lots of different teams.  Just took multiple coloured pens on a calendar.  So I too started to coach more teams in Alliance. 

During that year Bob asked me to Referee a match between the Spartan Club team from Killam and a club team from Forestburg.  After the match he asked me if I had any interest in coaching with him.  I like to think it was because he saw something in me as a coach, not because I was that bad as a ref.

Bob invited me to go to Rocky Mountain House for an Alberta Summer Games zone tourney.  I went to watch and see what it was about and remember watching the team march in during the opening ceremonies thinking that would be a cool thing to be part of. The next morning at 9 am Bob had convinced me to sit on the bench with him.  That is where it started for the next 6 years I would be sitting on the bench with Bob. Many nights spent in hotel rooms together, sitting in his basement discussing practice and matches.  Working camps together and in the end catching Bob's love and passion for coaching.

Bob organized a summer camp for may years in Killam and he would find some great coaches to come and work the camp. Many of the coaches are still heavily involved in volleyball Rod Durrant U of C men's head coach,  Richard Schick UBC men's head coach, Shawn Sky Mount Royal University head coach, Dale John's U of A long time assistant coach, Nathan Bennet Capilano College Men's head coach, Ian  Kulmatyci Dino's U-18,  Pete Kalis one of the best camp instructors ever was involved in the very first and help set the tone for the rest. Even though Bob never coached College or University he sure had some influence on the coaches of some programs.

One of my greatest memories in sport was with Bob.  We were coaching the Spartan’s and had a decent team.  We had finished fairly high in most tourneys.  When the tier 1 provincial championships came along we were clicking.  This was during the old school scoring where you could only score when you had serve.  We were down in the quarter finals 8-0 when Bob called a time out.  He just settled the team down, asked them to swing at hands a bit more. We won 15-8 and then won the second set.  In the semi finals we played the Calgary Dino’s club team.  They had won a couple of tournaments.  The team played great keeping pressure on them the whole match.  Doni Van Dresar was playing awesome.  She was attacking out of all three positions In the third set Doni collided with some one and had a charlie horse.  So we subbed in Kimmy Berg a smaller defensive player for her to serve and try to get Doni up and going.  By the time she got in the front row we could tell Doni was unable to go.  So Kimmy stayed in the middle and played hard.  The rest of the team picked up their defense and we advanced to the final.

The final was a blurr we played NAVC and won 2 straight. (Sorry Aaron for reminding you of this)  Here was a small town club team and we had beat the best of the big city all star teams.  It was amazing.  We ended up in Alliance restaurant on the way home from Calgary.  We had Queen’s “we are the champions” blaring over and over from a Jukebox.  It was an amazing feeling.  Here and now I was hooked and knew I wanted to be a coach.  Bob and I were so proud of the girls, the parents and the communities involved.  That was the beginning of a tremendous run of club volleyball.  This is still crystal clear in my memory. 

The Spartan club has produced many College and University athletes.  When I moved to Grande Prairie College  The Spartan’s became one of my prime recruiting locations.  One year at Canadian College Nationals we had 4 Spartans on the floor during our win. 

On May 26^th the Spartan’s are having their 25 year reunion.  It was suppose to be a show of Bob influence over the community and  players.  It was a chance for everyone to say thank you for everything he did. Liz Gabruck and her kids Kayla, Devon and Brandon, will still have a chance to see what they already know about the community and players love for Bob.  Liz said to me  yesterday the Spartan reunion needs to rock. 

To all the Spartan’s I am looking so forward to celebrating all the years of success and the personal success of the players.  I am also looking forward to celebrating Bob’s love for sport and his passion for coaching.  With out his role modeling I would never have ended up an University Coach. To the parent’s I want to celebrate all the stories…Just 1 request no throwing anyone in a bath tub!!!