I Call Him Coach

It brings sadness to my heart to say goodbye to a great friend and a person who has changed the lives of so many. I am proud to be on that list and I shall never forget the lessons learned or the teacher who taught them.

It was 2004 only five years ago that I first met “ Coach” just a speck of time in the universe compared to so many others who knew him. When I met David I was at a point in my life where I felt like I had done it all, and I was thinking about what’s next. Like so many others I needed to be told the words that will live on forever in my mind,  ” It’s not how you start but how you finish”, and it was David who said to me one day, your work is not close to be finished, there is so much more to do. Those words have rung true every day since and given me a renewed feeling to get back in the game.

David had a way of making us all look at ourselves, and our lives, and see what was truly possible. There are few people that I have ever met that have had that kind of impact on so many. He handled diversity with determination and strength and remained steady through it all. His focus was always on the game, the game called life. His accomplishments will live on long after we are all gone, because what he created was opportunity for many who have not yet been born into the game of golf or life.

In 1980 David Adamonis founded The U.S. Challenge Cup. Junior Golf Foundation, which is one of the most successful junior golf programs in the country. In 2000 he developed the golf program at Johnson & Wales University in Miami Florida. As Coach and Director of Golf at the University he lead his team to 8 straight NAIA Championships. He founded golf publications in New England, was a teacher, a writer, an athlete but most all David was a coach. Like Lombardi, Rockne,Wooden and Belichick he had a plan and a special wisdom that only the best have.

David had a unique ability to allow us all to see who we were and who we could be. As a father, a husband a son and a friend he lived and celebrated life with a passion for each and every day. He was a competitor with fire in his eyes and a smile that could light a room. His words and his laughter will live on inside us all each and every day ahead. I will miss David, I will miss our talks, our golf, but most of all like so many I will miss his guidance as a friend and mentor.

I will always call him “Coach” one that instructs and leads, a teacher of fundamentals and techniques. He was a believer in what is possible that had the vision to see why.

For all of you who think his game is over, think again, he has only played through and will be waiting at the turn.

Student Timothy R. Branco

Editor/ Publisher

New England Golf Monthly

tbranco@newenglandgolfmonthly.com