Dave O’Hearn didn’t let a battle with most cancers outline who he was behind the bench.
The favored Methuen/Tewksbury women hockey head coach was an inspiration to all this previous winter, as he stayed at his teaching put up for the whole thing of the season regardless of receiving remedy for pancreatic most cancers.
O’Hearn’s brave battle got here to an finish this week. He was 48.
The beloved coach left an enduring influence on each nook of the native hockey world.
“I admire his courage,” mentioned Tewksbury Excessive athletic director Ron Drouin. “I admire his resolve. He obviously was in a lot of pain all season and did the best he could to put our student-athletes first. I think the girls were able to kind of draw off of his resolve and his toughness and his strength.”
O’Hearn, a longtime assistant coach in this system, was tabbed the interim head coach for the 2022-23 season earlier than shedding that tag two years in the past. In what’s extensively thought of top-of-the-line leagues within the state, O’Hearn’s groups at all times remained extraordinarily aggressive within the MVC/DCL.
Final season, the Purple Rangers claimed their first league crown since 2019 en path to a 19-2-3 file, only one win away from advancing to the TD Backyard.
Together with his season because the interim head coach, O’Hearn amassed a powerful 47-13-7 file. He was additionally a part of the workers for this system’s back-to-back journeys to the state finals in 2018 and 2019, culminating in a championship in 2019. He was not too long ago named The Solar’s Coach of The Yr.
“I’ll have fond memories of coach O’Hearn and what he’s done for our student-athletes and what he’s done for girls hockey in this area,” Drouin mentioned. “He’s been one of the more well-thought-of ice hockey coaches in the area.”
O’Hearn, a steering counselor at Methuen Excessive, leaves behind three daughters, Maddie, Riley and Kendall. A 1995 graduate of MHS, O’Hearn was a star blueliner for the Rangers and is within the Methuen Excessive Faculty Corridor of Fame.
His zeal for the sport of hockey was contagious. However it was his calming nature and steadiness on the bench that made him such an efficient coach.
“In between any period, if I walked over and talked to coach O’Hearn, I wouldn’t know if we were up two goals or down two goals,” Drouin mentioned. “He had that steady hand that not a lot of coaches have. And his players were able to draw off of that, which is why they had so much success in the tournament.”
The Purple Rangers discovered themselves deadlocked in numerous shut video games final winter, together with 14 one-goal video games between the common season and the state event. Six of these video games required additional time. But O’Hearn was at all times the calming presence perched atop the bench.
“He had these little things that were funny that he would say that calmed our nerves,” mentioned defender Lyla Chapman, a star participant on the Purple Rangers. “He would do a pre-game dance before every game. Stuff like that, if we were really nervous, it just let us enjoy the game instead of constantly worrying.”
Kelly Golini, a 2018 graduate of Tewksbury Excessive and former participant in this system, spent her first season on the workers with O’Hearn final winter as an assistant. Earlier than taking part in collegiately at Saint Anselm Faculty, she performed for O’Hearn beneath former head coach Sarah Oteri Doucette.
Golini mentioned O’Hearn was the strongest particular person she’s ever seen. She’s perpetually grateful that he reached out to her to assist coach the workforce.
“He was not to himself the guy with cancer or the coach who is coaching with cancer. He never wanted the publicity,” Golini mentioned. “He showed up to the rink, and he was there for the girls. He was there for the Red Rangers — he was there for Tewksbury and Methuen.”
Golini had a front-row seat to O’Hearn’s dedication. It was at all times concerning the workforce. And his mentorship and legacy will final a lifetime.
“I think these girls have something now that they’re going to take with them forever in a positive way that there’s more to life than hockey and he really showed that to them,” Golini mentioned. “You don’t give up. You keep fighting. Life is going to throw some crazy stuff at you, but you got to keep working. Put your head down and get to work, as he would say.”
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