“The ultimate expression of generosity is not in giving of what you have, but in giving of who you are.”

David Cole’s mother said that, and she’s as much a part of this story as David is.

David Cole is an artist. David Cole is a musician. David Cole is the new coach of the Centennial girls’ hockey team, and he is here to be himself. 

The son of pioneering African-American educator Johnnetta Cole, once considered for the position of Secretary of Education by then-President-Elect Bill Clinton, couldn’t be anything else. 

“I’ve been a very international person of sorts,” Cole said of his background, which has included coaching stops with St. Paul United and an assistant role with the Cougars last season. “I’ve lived in a lot of places in this country, and I was born abroad. I’ve seen a lot, and I’m going to bring those experiences to the rink, too.”

Cole breaks a traditional high school coach mold, coming from the professional ranks as the Director of Fan Development for the Atlanta Thrashers (now the Winnipeg Jets) and Tampa Bay Lightning with a knack for building brands. 

“Whether it was a street hockey clinic, ice hockey clinic, (running) their hockey schools, I did their adaptive sports,” Cole explained. 

“There are very few coaching experiences I haven’t touched in some way. I’ve been really lucky.”

After finishing as Class AA State Tournament runner-up to Edina, the Cougars weren’t as fortunate this offseason, losing exceptional talents Anneke Linser and Gabbie Hughes to Minnesota-Duluth. Head coach Kristi King moved on to an assistant coaching position at the University of St. Thomas. 

Although Centennial’s cupboard isn’t bare, that’s still 74 goals and 156 combined points the Cougars will have to replace, along with a young coach who was highly effective at connecting with her players.

“What I’ve learned, and I’ve been a professional coach for 27 years, is that you have to be yourself,” Cole said. 

“I can’t be Kristi, so I need to be myself, so I think it’s going to be a different experience for the kids, as it should be.”

Cole’s coaching acumen, including training the last two Senior Goalie(s) of the Year, Eden Prairie’s Alexa Dobchuk and Maple Grove Breanna Blesi, gels with his experience with brand-building and community outreach. 

“If you don’t pay attention, you’re not going to grow,” Cole explained. “So you’ve gotta keep bringing kids in, and I think that’s an important responsibility as a high school head coach,” Cole continued, adding that the statewide hero-worship of youth to high school athletes resonates at Centennial. 

“Those (youth) girls look at our athletes as…deities if you will,” Cole said. “They are just absolute goddesses on skates in their eyes. If we can excite them and give them an idea of how special this is, we’re going to have a good pipeline.”

Cole can break down the numbers. He knows who his primary offensive threats will be next season (Maija Almich and Allison Pitlick), and he knows that his team’s ultimate strength lies in its goaltending (Mackenna Stoterau). He knows just how many points the Cougars lost to graduation, and that senior goaltender Mackie Torma and her 11 wins, 1.18 goals-against average and three shutouts, opted to try out for the boys’ varsity this season.

Cole’s purpose in coaching reaches beyond the statistics, and he says teaching is his primary objective, just as it was his parents’.

“My classroom is just different (from) my parents’,” Cole said. “They were teaching anthropology and economics, and I’m teaching hockey.”

The fact that Cole ended up on a girls’ bench isn’t by accident, either. 

“(Working with) female athletes, helping them become leaders. I mean, that’s what we’re doing. That’s what every coach is doing, hopefully,” Cole said. 

To Cole, leadership comes with an expectation and effective channeling of emotion, and not necessarily the time-honored hockey traits of “strong and silent” or the unquantifiable “plays the game the right way.” 

“The most important word in our game is love,” Cole said. 

“If you love this, if you love your teammates, and the coaching staff, and the parents, and the fans, and the administrators, if you love it, it’s going to give you so much.”

Cole says this with the authority of someone who’s loved the game, and the authority of someone the game has loved right back.