MIKE KONICKI fought until the end. Cancer ravaged his body, but not his spirit. It sapped his energy, but couldn't touch his soul.

Maybe that was his final lesson for the hundreds of students and friends he touched through the years.

He loved his job in a way that only another high school football coach might really understand. He loved the kids and the games and the other coaches.

He loved his schools, too, most recently Klein Collins, where he was head football coach and athletics director. He loved those Friday nights when the lights were on and the grass trimmed and the fields lined just so, when the band was playing and there was a sense of expectation.

There was no place on earth he would rather have been.

Mike Konicki died Friday after a 17-month fight against colon cancer. He was just 44 and leaves behind a wife, two teenage sons and a legacy of courage and caring.

During those awful final months, he would sometimes leave his hospital bed to show up on the sideline for a Klein Collins game.

He'd have a chemotherapy pump attached and would have to excuse himself to go vomit. He was weakening by the day.

"He wanted the kids to know he cared," said Tim Schumacher, the head basketball coach at Klein Collins.

Never give up

When Klein Collins principal Randy Kirk visited Mike for the last time a few weeks ago, he was told to take a message back to school.

"I'm not giving up," Mike told him. "I'm not going to stop taking treatment. I'm going to fight this thing until the end."

He loved teaching, too. One of his former biology students, Christopher Welch, remembered: "He inspired me to work hard and apply myself in a time when I was uninterested in school and having problems in my home life."

That's the thing about these people we entrust with our kids. They work hard and care deeply, and sometimes it's only when we have to say goodbye to one of them do we realize how lucky we are to have people like this.

On Saturday, I heard from parents and co-workers and kids who had played for him through the years. They painted a picture of a man loyal to his players and his family, an educator in every sense of the word.

He was head coach and athletics director at Stafford before moving to Klein Collins. Before that, he was an assistant coach at Cy Falls for a season and at Klein High School for nine before that.

At Cy Falls, he ran the offseason program. Among his players were a bunch of freshmen who would be the core group of a team that would one day play for a state championship.

"I come in one Friday and he has all these CDs out, all this '70s music," Cy Falls coach Dave Raffield said. "He's got it blaring, and the kids are really into it. He said, 'Coach, it's Funky Friday.' "

Raffield's voice cracked Saturday afternoon when he told that story.

What's best for kids

"It was stupid and fun and the kids loved him for it," Raffield said. "He could get on a kid, but the kid knew he wanted what was best for him."

Mike was also a volunteer fireman. A former neighbor, Ryan Thomas, remembers Mike and his sons spending their evenings restoring and shining vintage firetrucks before a parade in Old Town Spring one year.

"They then rode in the parade," Thomas wrote in an e-mail. "His youngest son, Taylor, couldn't stop talking to me about it. I literally started crying when I logged on last night and saw the story of his passing.

"He was a caring person who was a great role model for the kids he coached. He was the kind of neighbor who gave me the code to his garage so I could borrow any of his tools when he wasn't home. A guy couldn't ask for a better neighbor and his two boys and wife couldn't ask for a better dad or husband."

A former player remembered that he would have players laughing one minute, pushing them to the limit the next.

"I especially remember him telling us a story about some movie about a tribal leader in the jungles somewhere who, when at war, fought by the motto 'never leave an enemy behind,' " wrote Keith Dzygun, a linebacker when Mike coached that position at Klein in the 1990s. "The point coach would make with this story was that you have to attack the other team on every play and every down with all of the intensity you have — if you ever let up you give the other team an edge.

"I haven't spoken with coach or seen him since graduation. But I'm positive you'll find out from others that he attacked the cancer just like an army of enemy warriors each and every day with the same intensity he brought to coaching, and the same intensity he tried to instill in his football teams."

An everlasting bond

That's how it is between our kids and these men and women who coach them. They're in one another's lives for a short time, but they leave lessons of caring and commitment that are carried through life. There's a bond that lasts forever.

Mike Konicki left extraordinary lessons in courage and grace because of the terrible disease that finally took his life.

He was lucky to be able to do the thing he loved, and hundreds of kids were even luckier to have known him.

If you see one of your kids' high school coaches this week, take a moment to thank them for all they do. Tell them you're doing it for Mike.

richard.justice@chron.com

The Texas baseball coaching profession finds itself down by one as it mourns the loss of former Clear Lake High mentor Bob Cobb.

Cobb had been in ill health and died January 28, 2008 from heart and kidney failure. He was 70.

But he left a legacy, not only in the sport, but life in general, that is second to none. Cobb made a lasting impression not only with the players he coached, other coaches, teachers and administrators but with the students in his classes.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 9 at University Baptist Church in Clear Lake. He will be laid to rest in his home state of Alabama.

Cobb was a unique individual who loved America’s pastime sport. If there was anything he loved above that, aside from his family, it was the kids on the field and in the classroom.

He coached baseball at Lake for 18 years, not counting a couple of years on his own time before taking over the head spot in 1981. Due to heart problems and the onset of diabetes, Cobb retired from coaching after the 1999 season but remained on the Clear Lake staff as campus athletic coordinator and English teacher until the 2001-02 school year, when health forced full retirement on him.

Those who knew him, and there are many, have fond recollections.

A true Southern gentleman

If there is one catch phrase that symbolizes the thoughts of his peers and friends, it’s that Bob Cobb was “A true Southern gentleman.” More than one echoed those words.

To many, it was as though Cobb was on a mission. Coaching, yes, but far more than that.

Mike Watson, Cobb’s assistant coach at Lake moved on to get the head job at Clear Brook. At present he is the athletic director for Pearland ISD.

“He was like a father to me,” Watson said. “My parents were divorced and I was raised by my grandparents.”

Cobb made an impression on Watson from day one.

“He was cool and calm and never said a bad word about anyone,” Watson said.

One incident that stands out occurred when Watson was an assistant principal at Lake and another coach was brought in for a disciplinary hearing or worse.

“We had discussed firing the coach,” Watson recalled, “and after (the coach) left the room Bob said ‘The decision is in your hands but (the coach) has a wife and kids and he needs to put food on the table.’” The coach was not fired.

“He would always throw a different perspective on things. In short, he would make you think,” Watson added about Cobb.

Watson also taught English and he and Cobb enjoyed being rare breeds: coaches/English teachers in the baseball world.

One tale Watson enjoys re-telling happened when the Falcons were preparing for the playoffs. He didn’t want to miss the pep talk that Cobb was going to give the players.

“I was running late and came in and here was Bob firing up the kids with the story of Beowulf slays the dragon. It was both funny and great and it was Bob,” Watson said, smiling the whole time.
Beowulf is a thousand-year-old tale of a fearless and brave Scandinavian warrior of the 6^th century.

Kids on his mind

“He was unorthodox in a lot of ways but he cared a lot about the kids,” Watson added. “You can tell a lot about a coach when you get him away from the game and Bob’s conversation always revolved around kids.”

Houston Community Newspapers staff photographer Kar Hlava recalled on the last day of school in May 1989 when Cobb had a pizza party for his English class. He had pizza delivered and signed the students napkins. Hlava has kept that signed napkin all these years. How’s that for a teacher leaving a lasting impression?

One of Cobb’s more recent players, Paul Porfirio, recalls Cobb’s, knowledge and love of the game.

“He instilled a lot of memories,” Porfirio, who works in oilfield product manufacturing,” said. “One that always stands out is that he had you set goals not only in baseball but in life.”

Another Porfirio brother, A. J., remembers one piece of advice from Cobb.

“I’ll never forget this: He told me, ‘Son, if you would just stop swinging at balls in the dirt you would hit .750’ — I never found out if he was right or not — everything the pitcher threw looked good to me.”

Another memory was at the start of the 1997 playoff series against Clear Creek.

“Coach Cobb came over for a visit before I led off the game,” Porfirio recalls. “He went over a few signs and asked me what each of them meant. Of course I knew the answers, and he knew that, but he also knew that it would get my mind off the pressure of leading off the game and setting the tone for our team.

“Boy did it work! I led off the game with a first pitch home run. The following day’s newspaper recaps stated that he was alerting me to look for a certain pitch, but that simply was not correct. That was not coach’s style. He always prepared us and relaxed us, but he left the playing to us. We went on to win the game 14-1.”

After playing for Cobb and then graduating from Clear Lake in 1987, Big League Dreams manager Scott Sheldon played for University of Houston and then went into Major League Baseball. He was with the Texas Rangers, Oakland and saw action in Japan.

“He was always positive and upbeat,” Sheldon said. “That doesn’t mean that he was a pushover or anything like that. He was stern but fair.

“You could tell that he genuinely cared for his players. He would always do whatever he could for his players.”

Good neighbor policy

For over 30 years, Bob Cobb and his wife Judy lived next door to Mike and Sherrie Matula in Clear Lake. They would watch each other’s homes and mow the yards when the other family was gone.

“Bob was very family oriented,” Mike Matula said. “He loved kids. He was always available to help.”

Matula recalled one particular problem.

“Our daughter had some problems at school on her team and Bob came over and talked with her for a while.”

Sherrie Matula, an educator, noted Cobb’s concern with everyone but himself.

“He always wanted to make sure that teachers were treated with respect at school. He never thought about himself,” she said.

“He had true Christian values.”

Rival coaches were treated as friends, just like his assistants.

Coaches were like friends

“First and foremost, he was a friend,” said long-time Clear Creek coach Jim Mallory. “As a coach you create different types of friendships with coaches — a competitive friendship or a true friendship. With Bob you couldn’t help from creating a true friendship.”

“He was such a positive influence on me…and that helped ease the tensions between Clear Creek and Clear Lake players regarding the natural rivalry. Bob always had a complimentary interest in the success of his competition.

“His players always played the game with respect and dignity. He will be truly missed as a true friend, an ambassador of the game of baseball, a mentor and a person that really cared about kids, his family and the people he worked with.”

Sean Wood, who took over for Cobb in 2000 and is now Clear Lake’s golf coach, recalls his playing days for Cobb and the influence he had.

“There are very few who are as passionate as he was about the game. Winning was important but it was bigger than that. For him it was true love of the game.”

Wood learned one meaning when he became head coach.

“As a player, it is hard to see what is really being taught, because of your immaturities as a young kid. It is when you grow up and see that what he was teaching you was about life.

“When I came back to coach here is when I really understood how much he loved his players. You would be hard pressed to show me a man finer than Coach Cobb,” Wood added.

Current Clear Lake baseball coach Rupert Jaso recalled when Cobb added him to the Falcon staff 16 years ago.

A man of integrity

“I have tremendous admiration and respect for the man that I was privileged to be around from 1992 to 2002,” Jaso said. “I think everyone looked at coach as a father figure and would not hesitate to do anything for him. He was a man of integrity.

“He was always calm and thinking ahead of all situations and scenarios. Coach Cobb was our secret weapon. It was tough for him to make many games because of his health, but if he was in the dugout with us, the other team did not have a chance.”

Jaso recalled one particular playoff game where Cobb came into the dugout and the opposing coach saw him there. It was as though the knight had come to help them win.

“Even the players who did not have the opportunity to play for Coach Cobb respected the man and wanted to please him,” Jaso said. Lake won the game.

“I will never forget watching him walk out to third base after the game to shake each player’s hand,” Jaso added. “They all waited their turn and listened to his words of advice. He replayed the game for each one of them with a reminder of a game situation that had happened earlier. I think they were all amazed at how he could remember so many specific situations. He was always sharp when it came to baseball situations.

“He was a good coach and a good friend, but most important, he was a good man,” Jaso said.

Clear Brook head coach Russell Ferrell said, “I will always be indebted to Coach Cobb.

I came into CCISD as a young kid fresh out of college and Coach Cobb always treated me as a peer. This was a man with 30 years experience.

“I feel lucky that I knew Coach Cobb from across the diamond.”

For those who did not know him from across the diamond or across the street, Cobb was born near Sycamore, Alabama. He married his high school sweetheart, Judy. They were married for nearly 50 years. Cobb graduated from the University of Alabama in 1965. A very erudite individual, Cobb dabbled in writing while he worked for several publications and NASA.

Winning seasons

In his 18-year head coaching career at Clear Lake High, he never had a losing season. His overall record is 339-178. That includes district championships, numerous playoff appearances and region finals and a state finals appearance. Honors followed him. In 1995 he was inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame. In 1999 he was inducted into the Houston Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Also in 1999, the Clear Lake High baseball field became Bob Cobb Field.

One of Cobb’s joys was having his two sons, Robert and Bart, play for him at Clear Lake. Both are pursuing careers in education and are in administrative positions.

Perhaps Ferrell put everyone’s feeling into one sentence:

“You will be hard pressed to show me a man finer than Coach Cobb.”