Around 20 people celebrated Bob Coyne and his contributions to local youth sports during the County of Brant Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday, October 11, 2025.
The County of Brant Sports Hall of Fame was created not only to recognize the individuals and teams who over the years have represented the County in the area of sport, but also to recognize those that have played an integral part in not only building, but ensuring the longevity of sport in the community.
Coyne was officially recognized by his hometown community as he was inducted into the local Sports Hall as a builder.
A lifelong advocate for inclusive sport and youth development, Coyne was recognized by his hometown community for four decades of work as a coach and leader in ice hockey, track and field, and inline hockey.
Throughout the ceremony, several dignitaries bestowed their congratulations to Coyne, awarding him with several certificates of recognition not only from the County, but the provincial and federal governments as well.
County Councillor David Miller later said that it takes hard work and dedication to create the kind of long-lasting impact Coyne has made in the lives of countless children.
“Most sports players and their parents take it for granted that a certain sports league or facility exists, but we know that things don’t just happen,” he said. “It takes a lot of background work and organization from hard working individuals such as Bob Coyne. And at the end of the day, it creates wonderful opportunities for our youth to get out and compete, to learn new skills such as team building and how to work together, and to make lifelong friendships and memories. Just as importantly, it helps create a much better community in which to live in and so for that, we thank you.”
Brian Coyne, Bob’s son and nominator, also had the chance to speak about a few of his father’s early accomplishments.
“From the humble beginnings of a coach for the house league team of seven-year-olds whose players knew nothing about hockey and could barely skate, many people laughed at his team. They told him, ‘this team won’t win any games, you’re going to finish dead last,’” said Brian. “He instilled in that team a positive belief that anything was possible and that ‘you can, if you think you can.’ With lots of skating practice and more skating practice, against seemingly impossible odds, the team went undefeated and we won the championship that year.”
Brian said that his father went on to lead several teams to compete in international tournaments in Sweden, Finland and Russia, helped shape the future of minor hockey Burford as both vice-president and president, and that he even worked alongside the OHL’s Brantford Alexanders.
“It did not matter if you were a house league player, a professional hockey player, a board member, or anywhere in between, if you were part of his team, success was going to happen because of that one simple children’s book phrase – ‘you can, if you think you can,’” said Brian. “His journey in hockey and sports has been taken far beyond the rink here in Burford, from across Canada to Europe, even the OHL; but today we’re back here where it all started from, humble beginnings in Burford.”
Bob later addressed those in attendance, noting that after all of those years of coaching, he never anticipated that he would be inducted to the County of Brant Sports Hall of Fame because he was simply doing what he loved.
“I would go to the rink every day from day one, and to many rinks in the end, and the whole reason for being there was the kids, whether there were little, tiny guys or the big guys,” he said. “The common denominator though, was the fact that they loved the game, and I loved watching them develop. There were many kids that we coached along the way who really had no intention of staying with it or getting better, but we gave him a reason.”
“And Brian sort of alluded to it when he said, ‘you can, if you think you can’ – I stole that from Norman Vincent Peale,” Bob said with a smile. “It’s one thing to say it, but you have to live it. These poor kids that I wound up coaching, they didn’t know what I was talking about, but I said it so often that I gave it meaning. …And that was the whole reason I went to the rink – to impart that message and to make them believe they could, and then make them determine that they really could. I really felt, looking over the years, that that contributed to the success that we had in all the games that we played.”
Bob said that he once tried to figure out how many youth he coached throughout the years, and eventually determined it was somewhere around 8,000.
He later told the Brant Beacon that his favourite part of the job was seeing all those faces light up from achievement.
“If you could go on the ice and give a person a reason to get better and they did, it just felt good and it gave you a reason to come back the next day,” he said. “That’s what it was all about, looking back on any given person after a few months, and saying, ‘wow, what an improvement you’ve made and you don’t even know it. Seeing them there with a big smile, happy to be there and excited for the next time? That made it all worth it.
Overall, Bob said he was grateful to be recognized by his community and that he was at loss of words.
“I never, ever imagined this would happen but I had a fun ride,” he said. “It was 40 years of coaching, having fun, and watching kids grow and develop, and I’m just so grateful for all of it.”
To read a list of Bob Coyne’s achievements, visit: https://www.brant.ca/en/recreation-and-parks/sports-hall-of-fame.aspx#About-Bob
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
