Rick Trimble- March 5, 1949 to March 9, 2023
One Year Since the Passing of Legendary Coach Rick Trimble
Its been one year since my Dad passed away. Not a day goes by where I neglect to think of him and the amazing impact he had on countless lives in the wonderful Shore community of Manasquan, NJ. He truly was special.
In October of 2023 I wrote a book titled “Lessons from Dad: a son looks back on a lifetime of lessons from Rick Trimble”, and it was released in late November. I desperately wanted his legacy to live on and his story to be shared. It is available for purchase here through Amazon- Lessons from Dad Book
Here is an excerpt from that book titled, Some Things are for Free. Hope you enjoy.
Some Things are for Free
The Manasquan Hockey Club was formed by Rick Trimble upon moving to Manasquan in the early 1970s. Looking to continue his favorite post- football sport, Rick found that there were actually two rinks in nearby Brick, NJ (the Ocean Ice Palace and the Brick Forum) and ice could be had at a reasonable price.
The Ice Palace was new at the time, having been built in 1962 by the Dwulet family. Doctor Leon Dwulet had a figure skating enthusiast for a daughter, and he saw the 13 acre property on Chambersbridge Road in Brick, as a perfect place for his daughter to continue to skate closer to home. The rink had an ideal positioning, located right in the shopping hub of Bricktown, where kids could play hockey, skate, figure skate, and much much more. When Rick Trimble entered the Ice Palace for the first time he was just another hockey player, a mens leaguer, looking for something to do on weekend nights. A lot would change in Brick over the ensuing decades.
My father formed the Manasquan Hockey Club in 1971 and ran it independently until Manasquan High School became a varsity program in 1996. Skates started out as Friday Night pick up games with a combination of current Manasquan High School students and some of his new local friends and colleagues looking to try hockey. The New Jersey Devils were in Kansas City, the Philadelphia Flyers had not won any of their Cups, and the New York Islanders wouldnt appear until a year later. Hockey was very new to the Jersey Shore.
He never took a salary with Manasquan Hockey Club, and he ran the program on a shoestring budget, re-investing all funds back into the program. During that time the program would grow to have 3 levels (Chiefs, Warriors, and Braves) for older players, current high schoolers, and grammar school kids, which allowed hundreds of hockey players to begin and continue to play, and it growed the game in the area exponentially. He created a newsletter, advertised at the rink, purchased discount jerseys, had pen sales, but always had room in the budget for championship jackets when the High School club team would win their league, which now had grown to include many other local “Club” High School teams.
He then was the High School programs first coach after a nearly decade long petition to allow varsity status to the Warriors Hockey program. As varsity coach, he declined his salary so the school could purchase more ice time and away uniforms, as they already had home uniforms due to his pen sales and advertising on the jerseys, opting instead to coach for Free. Wearing gloves that I had gotten for him as a Christmas gift (myself now working at Ocean Hockey Supply, the large catalog retailer at Ocean Ice Palace), and skates that he had received for Free for writing an article for now- defunct Hockey Player Magazine, Rick Trimble coached Manasquan High School varsity hockey to two winning seasons, and their first ever berth in the NJSIAA state playoffs.
The magic, however, of these first varsity teams had been a replica of a Manasquan team decades prior. The 1972 Manasquan High School Club hockey team was born in the era of bell bottom jeans, Watergate, and the Doobie Brothers. No internet for game scheduling, social media for promotion or fuel efficient vehicles to take them to their destination. It was the wild west. It was an era in which these players and their coach took a chance, with no idea what could happen. Ironically, one of the biggest hits of the year was “American Pie” by Don McLean, and this incarnation of the MHS hockey team was sponsored by Dominics Squan House, with the sponsorship ad featured right on the front of the jersey, for the best pizza spot in Manasquan.
With makeshift gear, limited practice time, and most players only having skating experience on the Jersey Shores many local ponds, the MHS team that Rick Trimble placed into the NJ High School Club hockey circuit that year had no chance of winning. But they did. The Mighty Ducks before there were the Mighty Ducks. Captains Al Morton, Bruce McFadden, and Tim Carone captured with their teammates the Central Jersey Hockey league championship playing a schedule that had them traveling all around New Jersey with a 23 year old teacher serving as Coach, Teacher, and Bus Driver. Carpooling in Rick’s Datsun, he took countless players to and from the rink, providing them a magical experience to be part of the first ever organized High School team at Manasquan. A team that won the championship no less! Kim Kamaris was a member of that team and forever took with him the memories and impact that season had. Kim would later become one of Rick's great friends and the Varsity Coach at Manasquan himself, succeeding Rick in 1999. Rick never took a dime to spearhead this group.
Rick Trimble's involvement with hockey at Ocean Ice Palace was not limited to his Manasquan teams. Coaching, teaching and working in Brick provided him the fulfillment and (at times) supplementary income for his family, until his family grew, as Rick would again volunteer his time for Free to coach the Learn to Skate and Level 1 Hockey clinic for over 10 years, so that his son could skate for Free. 10 years. 10 years of Sunday afternoon skates. Or Monday nights depending on the season of the year. Rick coached that basic clinic with a framework and design in mind, tweaking details and drills in a trial and error strategy that saw him improve the concepts year in and year out. To hundreds of kids this was their first hockey experience and the numbers of participants exploded in popularity over the years. New Jersey is now one of the top 7 producers, by state, of NCAA Division One hockey players.
Starting in about 1991, Rick Trimble then ran the summer programming at Ocean Ice Palace, and in particular their summer hockey camp. Lunches in the cafeteria, twice daily skates, overnights in the dormitory, swimming in the pool, and street hockey in the evening on the Ice Palace’s outdoor street hockey rink, Rick developed a curriculum that was truly remarkable for its time, and had coaches coming from all over the United States to work it. Future Stanley Cup champion and Brick native Jim Dowd worked the camp. Rob Abel the assistant coach at Brown University (Dartmouth prior to that), Oktay Armagan (USHL skills coach), Paul Cannata the Head Coach at Milton Academy (UMass Boston prior to that), and future NHL Head Coach Derek LaLonde all worked at my fathers camp in Brick. All this time, I was able to attend the camp for Free as my Dad took a negotiated and friendly salary from Ocean to provide an opportunity for me to do so. Thousands of kids came through the doors of the Ocean Ice Palace and attended their summer camp. Future college and pro players. High School players. Recreational players that are now playing beer league. Kids looking to make their team. Did not matter. My Dad interacted with them all and did everything in his power to provide for them the instruction, tools and teaching to elevate their hockey skills. To improve their game.
My Dad never approached these activities as a side gig, or as something he was doing for Free. My Dad had pride in his performance and a deep understanding that every kid he encountered had a chance to be special and the chance to do great things. All interactions were important. His rigid belief that he needed to set the example and do things the right way was a firm, unflinching belief. What he said and how he said it to kids mattered. The amount of time my Dad devoted to doing things for other people's kids (many of them strangers), or doing things for Free left an incredible legacy on the Jersey Shore.
To me, his son, it taught me the incredibly valuable skill of paying it forward. Money should not be the driving force in all your decisions. You do things for Free now, so that you can learn, improve, understand, and provide for a future generation to improve. The building blocks of success and legacy are mounted one generation at a time.