Adam Foote Loving Life Again in New Career as Junior Hockey Coach

KELOWNA, British Columbia – It wasn’t quite the same final game as his former teammate Ray Bourque had, but Adam Foote’s final shift as a member of the Colorado Avalanche, on April 10, 2011, was seemingly the perfect sendoff to a great, long NHL career. It was pure Footer; First, he whacked the stick out of the hands of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Ladislav Smid, with seeming disgust. Then, he went on to the bodily abuse of Oilers forward Teemu Hartikainen he’d started earlier. He gave Hartikainen a shove into the boards. Then, he body-checked him into the boards. Then, he did it again. And, again. It wasn’t until Hartikainen was down that Foote skated off for a line change, to the roar of the Pepsi Center crowd.

“I hit a guy, then I heard the cheer,” Foote said in recollection to Colorado Hockey Now, on a Monday afternoon at Prospera Arena, the home of the Kelowna Rockets team of the Western Hockey League he now coaches. “When I hit the guy, I was kind of upset at myself, because I was so out of shape that game. My foot was fine (it had previously been keeping him out of the lineup) but I was so out of shape. Any player I know would have played (in their final game). But I was so out of shape, so when I hit the guy, I was so tired. But when I heard the fans cheer, I went, ‘Oh. I like that.’ I didn’t score too many goals, so I had to find a way to get cheers. The fans revved me up. They always did.”

It wasn’t a Stanley Cup sendoff like Bourque had, but it seemed an otherwise perfect capper to a 19-season NHL career with Quebec, Columbus and the Avalanche. Foote had nothing left to accomplish as a player, having won two Stanley Cups with the Avs and an Olympic gold medal with Team Canada. Blessed with two young children at the time – who both would go on to become NHL first-round draft picks – a healthy marriage and lots of money in the bank, Foote seemed a good candidate to endure none of the problems that often befall pro athletes early in retirement.

But they say every pro athlete dies twice – once for real, and once when they’re still alive, when the thing they’d always dreamed about and worked so hard for – their career – does, too. For a guy who appeared to have everything, Foote instead says he felt empty for “two to four years” after it was over.

“I didn’t expect to be as bitter as I was,” Foote says. “It affected a lot of people. It was just missing it. I didn’t want it to be over. I didn’t expect to feel that. But it’s hard to not feel like part of a team anymore. I think a lot of players feel it, but won’t admit it. It is definitely an adjustment of life. I felt empty for a long time. You get a little grouchy, a little overweight, a little out of shape. And then all of a sudden, you’re like, ‘OK, I gotta get something goin’ here.'”

As Avalanche fans know, Foote worked some for the team in player development, traveling to various affiliate cities to check on prospects and occasionally showing up on skates at the practice facility to coach the defense. He also coached with the Colorado Thunderbirds, the youth hockey club program that has produced several top NHL prospects by now, including Foote’s two boys, Cal and Nolan. When changes in management occurred with the team, though, he shifted gears to pursue work with the player agency – KO Sports – headed by Denver’s Kurt Overhardt.

Foote enjoyed the work with Overhardt, learning more of the business side of the sport, when the hockey side came calling again. Longtime Kelowna Rockets general manager Bruce Hamilton was on the line. Would he consider coaching the Rockets, and succeed the coach – Jason Smith – who had coached Foote’s own son, Cal, at Kelowna? Oh, and would Foote come into the job knowing he would have to coach his other son, Nolan?

“It was hard. My kids were playing here and I thought I would never, ever, do something like that,” said Foote, 48. “I had a tough time with it. (Smith) was so good to my guys. He was awesome to them. My two sons really liked him. I said no twice. But then I talked to a lot of friends in the game. I wanted to be around my kids and not miss my kids when I play. Cal was gone by then, but I could still be around my (other) kid and still be involved in his hockey and take the next step in my (coaching career). I can’t believe how much I’m learning. God, I wish I did this years ago.”

Foote was always a guy who kept teammates accountable in the dressing room, especially as he got older. Yet, he also grew up in a culture where players were “better seen and not heard.” Coaches in his era would brook no dissent, and woe to the player who didn’t just nod his head yes to anything a coach said.

But this is 2019, an age where younger people – even hockey players – have more questions for authority. Or, some might say, more need for better communication. Foote is having to learn that, despite having two mostly grown young men (Cal is 20, Nolan is 18. Both were drafted in the first round by the Tampa Bay Lightning).

“The kids today, they’re different. They were raised different than we were,” Foote said. “The old hockey coaches, that would just put the fear in ya… it’s completely different. That just doesn’t work now.”

That doesn’t mean Foote agrees with everything in the modern age. Lots of good, accomplished people came about under old-school coaches/teachers/mentors in his day.

“You learn as much as you can. The problem with it is, I think it creates a fixed mindset. Whereas, some kids have a difficulty problem-solving. There’s other kids who still have to trust the authority, the parents, the coaches, the teacher. But with social media, all you hear about is all the bad things that happen. I understand how parents can lose some trust in certain departments, But I would say that, here in the Western Hockey League, you’re asked to be a man before your time. But they do a great job here. We don’t have major issues here. These kids are committed and we have a lot of fun.”

At the end of Kelowna’s practice Monday, some kind of shootout competition occurred, where the losers (the coaches) would have to skate “down and backs” as the penalty. Players roared and raised their sticks, when Foote and his assistants had to get busy.

“It’s about managing people. We were in an era where you either got the job done or you didn’t get the job done. You win or you lose, there’s no excuses,” Foote said. “I think you look at certain pros in the NHL now,that are getting older and they probably wish…I don’t want to name names but…times flies. If you want to win, you have to be truthful. You have to say the hard things. But here, it’s managing so many different ages, understanding the growth of the mind. I’m no expert but…the difference between a 16-year-old and a 20-year-old, there’s different ways to handle them. They have to trust you. But we’re like, ‘Hey guys, if you’re putting the effort in, we’re good.’ They get it, sooner or later. If they miss a curfew of miss school, that’s where we’re like, ‘OK, that’s their fault.’ But they all get it. They all want to do the right thing. It’s a fine line between putting in too much structure and not letting them play.”

Foote said he leaned on the advice of a lot of former teammates and others he’s gotten to know in the game – guys like Barry Trotz and DJ. Smith, guys like Patrick Roy and Ray Bourque – on whether to jump into the coaching game full-time. His Rockets team is in a Memorial Cup hosting year, meaning there is more pressure than normal for them to be part of the tourney. But Foote was never one to shy away from pressure.

“I love it. It’s so much fun. I had people like Bourque say to me, ‘You should do it, but you gotta understand how much work it is.’ But the work doesn’t bother me. It seems like fun. You’re talkin’ hockey. It’s a blast.”

Here’s that final shift of Foote’s career:

PART II TOMORROW: FOOTE REMEMBERS HIS AVS CAREER