Coach Mosley leaves with a smile
Phil Mosley’s first high school coaching gig ended up being the most influential one of his career.
The 55-year-old Ridgeway resident, who recently retired from coaching and teaching at Centennial, started off at Westlane in 1989 as an assistant to senior football coach George Lalicich.
“I got a really great knowledge base through coaching football and that cemented a foundation that allowed me to be a successful high school coach in both football and basketball,” said the Oklahoma native, who grew up in Fonthill.
Lalicich imparted many lessons on Mosley.
“He taught me discipline,” he said. “He demanded discipline from your top athletes all the way down to your bottom athletes.
“And demanding discipline from yourself to be there and on time every single day. You modelled discipline as much as you demanded it.”
Lalicich’s approach was done with more of an iron fist than Mosley’s.
“I modified that a bit in terms of what my personality was, but I still believed in a system of asking more of players and expecting them to give it to me,” he said. “I always felt that if I gave it to them in terms of consistency and work ethic that I could ask the same from them.”
Mosley’s motivation to coach was internal.
“It is something that is in my DNA,” he said. “I love coaching, I love teaching and when I was an athlete, I was a student of the game and it’s something that has come very natural to me.”
Coaching has given plenty back to Mosley.
“I have built a lot of friendships and relationships around coaching with fellow coaches and I have built incredible relationships with my athletes,” he said.“You want a job where you go in every day and it doesn’t feel like a lot of work.”
His coaching career required help.
“I had a supportive wife (Sylvia) and family and it just worked for me.”
Mosley’s efforts on the football field and basketball court also paid off in the classroom and hallways of wherever he taught.
“It helps, for sure,” he said. “Seeing your players mature and helping them through school and problems was all part of the coaching, It wasn’t just Xs and Os and things on the court.”
It was a labour of love.
“I had a phenomenal teaching career. I enjoyed coming to school every day and I did to the very last day of my teaching career,” he said. “I loved being in phys-ed departments with great people.”
When he left Centennial for the final time, it was with a smile on his face,
“I left with a really, really good feeling of contentment and being happy,” he said. “I felt so blessed that I had the opportunity to have such a great career that suited my personality and interests for 30 years.”
Mosley is doubly blessed because he gets to continue his coaching career at Niagara College.
“I feel incredibly fortunate that I have this opportunity because not every one has that opportunity to segue into retirement and continue to do what you love to do the most, which is coaching basketball.”
Mosley is optimistic about the future of high school athletics.
“I would like to think that there are enough quality people in education who would like to coach and will sustain our system,” he said. “It may not be as strong as it was in the past but the 2000s were not as strong as the 1990s in terms of fan support and so on.
“It is all relative to the time and where we are in society right now, but I do believe we will maintain sports in the high school system.”
He feels high school sports is important.
“They play a major role in creating a positive environment throughout the school,” Mosley said. “The great thing about schools are the things kids do out of the class; the arts, the plays; the basketball, volleyball, football and all the other sports.
“That’s what makes a great school and to think of a school without that, in my eyes, would be a sad moment.”
After starting his teaching and football coaching career at Westlane in 1989, he moved over to basketball and ended up coaching midget junior and senior boys basketball.
“We had a great senior team and we ended up beating Governor Simcoe in the SOSSA (Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association) semifinal. Woody (Pat Woodburn) had a great team with (Brett) Longpre and a bunch of other good guys.”
He moved over to Thorold Secondary School in 2000 and helped launch a highly successful football program with the aid of Carey Spiece.
“I thought I was out of football and was going to really immerse myself in basketball but (then Thorold principal) John Stainsby called myself and a couple of other guys into his office and asked if I could help start football.
“You don’t say no to a principal,” Mosley said, with a laugh.
Under Mosley and Spiece, the team won back-to-back championships and it set the stage for Thorold to become a perennial contender in its division.
“It does me proud to see how well it still is going under Duane Kemp and his assistants,” he said. “Duane and I still talk daily about coaching and football.”
He coached a little bit of junior basketball at Thorold but was limited because he spent two years coaching basketball at Niagara College’s during the same time period.
In 2009, Mosley arrived at Centennial where he coached football and basketball. He spent a couple years coaching football before turning his attention to the senior boys and girls basketball teams. Mosley coached both squads until he became the men’s basketball coach at Niagara College in the fall of 2018.
Editor’s note: This is third in a series on long-time Niagara high school coaches who have retired from teaching. If we have missed anyone, please email Bernie Puchalski at bpuchalski@cogeco.ca.
