BUNNLEVEL – They came this day to remember the old football coach who always inspired them to do their best, be their best and give their best.
John Daskal taught his young athletes not just under the Friday night lights of the football stadium, but in every step of their lives.
“His passion was being with and inspiring young people,” Gerald Stone, the old Reid Ross High School quarterback of 1971, told those Tuesday who gathered at Flat Branch Covenant Presbyterian Church to remember Daskal. “And he did it exceptionally well. He has left an indelible mark on people.
“He taught us to respect each other and to love each other. Coach Daskal wanted to help you to be successful. He was a model coach. He wanted you to do your best, be your best and give your best.
“I played two years for Coach Daskal,” Stone said, “but he is in my heart for a lifetime.”
Daskal spent 31 years coaching football at Pine Forest, Reid Ross and Terry Sanford high schools.
Throughout the sanctuary on Tuesday, you saw athletes and coaches from George Page, who left Reid Ross to play for Duke; Bill Yeager and Billy Starks, who were part of John Daskal’s teams at Reid Ross and later became Cougar coaches. Yeager would replace Coach Daskal as head coach at Terry Sanford in 1991, when the coach retired with a 211-100-4 career record, including Reid Ross’ 1981 N.C. High School Athletic Association Division II 4-A title and a 1985 runner-up finish with Terry Sanford in the 1985 NCHSAA 4-A finals.
John Daskal served as head coach of the Shrine Bowl and East-West All-Star games, as well as an assistant coach. He also served as president of the North Carolina Coaches Association.
From front to back, the sanctuary was filled with old coaches to include Jack McGinley, Wayne Byrd, Dean Saffos, Fred McDaniel, Reggie Pinkney, Gary Weller and Mike Paroli, as well as longtime church members, where Daskal was a 40-year member singing in the choir, teaching Sunday school and serving as deacon and elder emeritus.
“Thank God for his life and love and laughter,” the Rev. Bill Altman said. “Thank God for his life and his legacy.”
Thank God for what, the Rev. Thomas Cox would remind us, John Daskal gave on the athletic fields and beyond.
“John was a Christian man,” the preacher said. “John was an educator, a coach and a teacher. He taught us to love our family and to love God. The church is the body of Christ on Earth, and John believed in the church. Lord, we thank you for John’s strong example. Help us to emulate John’s example of his faith.”
Not far from the tall pine
John Harry Daskal died April 25 at his home.
He was 89.
There was a serenity as John Daskal’s U.S. flag-draped coffin awaited final benediction down the sloping terrain of the church cemetery not far from the tall pine.
The trumpet’s taps, the lights-out bugle call, offered honor to an old soldier’s farewell.
Billy Starks, the old Reid Ross athlete who would become an assistant coach at the school, felt the moment.
“He was like a second father to me,” Starks, 69, who played for John Daskal in 1970-71, said. “He gave me life lessons. He was a mentor who took care of me.”
Nor did the moment escape Bill Yeager, the old Reid Ross tight end out of the class of 1972 and who would in 1991 succeed John Daskal at Terry Sanford High as head coach.
“He meant so much to so many people,” Yeager said, “and I was just fortunate to be one of them.”
Epilogue
A daughter’s words would resonate on this day of farewell.
“As special as he was to you, you were to him,” Kristina Magyar said. “He would be very honored today to know you are here.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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