by CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
WHITEWATER REGION (Cobden) — Years ago, San Keon retired after teaching for 33 years in the classroom.
Now, he’s decided to give up on-ice teaching.
For the past 37 years, the Cobden resident has been operating Stan Keon’s Astrolabe Hockey School. Two years prior to that he started teaching with the Huron Hockey School. He has travelled the world teaching hockey players how to improve their skills, including skating, checking and puck handling.
An avid hockey player, Keon said teaching hockey was a natural fit.
“I love hockey,” he said. “I love working with kids. It was a good fit for me.”
However, while he enjoys teaching hockey, the administrative end of the business is “just too much,” he said, adding, “I don’t enjoy that part.”
Keon said a few years ago, a person told him when he was ready to sell, he would be interested in buying. Unfortunately, “one of my staff members, he pirated my whole program. A program which I had paid for and he was moonlighting on the side, which I didn’t even know until about a year later.
“He was running programs using all my material,” Keon said.
Keon recalls when this person said to him, “I’m learning from the best.”
However, Keon adds, “He didn’t finish it off by saying, ‘I’m learning from the best, but I’m screwing him in the end.’ He never said that to me.”
Keon said, “That’s the only thing in all of my 37 years that I can say was negative, the only thing, because everything else has gone so well.”
Keon admits he doesn’t have a monopoly on hockey school, but the other people who worked for him, did not pirate his program or go behind his back. If they were asked to teach anything to do with hockey, they would first check with Keon, who usually said go for it.
When Keon contacted the person who showed interest in purchasing the Astrolabe Hockey School, the interest wasn’t there since someone else was running the same program.
“I’ll go to my accountant and get my accounting done and that will be it,” Keon said.
Looking back at his career, Keon would spend three-quarters of the year teaching students in class, and then the summer teaching students on-ice. When working with the Huron Hockey School, he had a circuit. He would teach in arenas in Cornwall, Brockville, Centralia and Syracuse. Between each arena he would spend a weekend at home.
For a few years, he even taught in Scotland, where he and a friend of his owned C & C Hockey School.
At the Astrolabe Hockey School, Terry Burwell has been a long-time coach and John Simard for about the past four years.
“Terry is a busy guy,” Keon said. “He’s a principal at a school.
“He’s been a key person. He’s been doing all the video work and setting it up. He does all the technical stuff that I’m hopeless at. He works on the ice too.”
Simard is a teacher in Pembroke and has a young son.
“They both have busy schedules,” and neither want to take on a business, Keon said. However, they did say, if the business was taken over by someone else, they would have stayed on as coaches.
Other coaches over the years have included Jack Bennett, Allan Bell and Robert Bell. He usually takes on young hockey players as coaches as well.
Keon has a few memories of very young skaters who were intimidated by the idea of playing hockey, even including this year. However, when he finds out a young person wants to play but is afraid, he takes the one-on-one approach, and usually by week’s end, the youngster is happy he, or she, did not give up.
Balance is important for skaters, and the first 15 minutes of most classes is spent on that, such as gliding on one skate and jumping lines, he said.
Keon used to have a hockey school in Cobden until the Ontario District Hockey Association changed regulations and try-outs would happen before the ice would even be in the Cobden arena.
His school is most popular with skaters aged six to 10 years old.
While he hasn’t kept track of exactly how many youngsters have gone through his many classes, he said, “There over 10,000 kids for sure.” He noted for six weeks he would teach about 108 kids each week, and while some of them were repeaters, many were not.
Keon noted when he started, the classes would be male or female, but they are now all co-ed.
He doesn’t know all the skaters who have gone on to be well-known players, but he recalls two very quickly. Dale McTavish played for the Calgary Flames and is the current owner of the Whitewater Kings and Pembroke Lumber Kings. Shawn Heins, who grew up in Eganville, played on 14 hockey teams, including San Jose Sharks, Pittsburgh Penguins, Atlanta Thrashers, Peterborough Petes and Windsor Spitfires.
Keon said while he won’t officially be teaching anymore, if he was asked to give some lessons, he would consider it.
However, it’s now time for he and wife Donna to enjoy some time without the interference of hockey. Keon said, “Donna has been very supportive over the years.” He added with a laugh, “I never had a cranky wife.”
With Keon deciding to hang up the skates, he said, “I won’t have any commitments. We want to do some travelling. We’re going to the Yukon for our first trip,” – which is in mid-September.
