Mark Mantone has been BG hockey coach Gary Bishop's right hand man on the bench for 27 years. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

TYNGSBOROUGH, Mass. – Nearly three decades ago, word was getting around that Bishop Guertin High School boys hockey coach Gary Bishop wanted to hire Mark Mantone, who was working at the Cardinals home rink, Skate 3 Arena, as his top assistant.

“I hired him, and everyone said ‘You hired a zamboni driver,'” Bishop said. “No, I hired a guy with 15 years coaching experience.”

And for some 27 years, it’s been a marriage made in heaven as the No. 3 Cards prepare to face No. 10 Hanover Wednesday night at Manchester’s JFK Coliseum in the Division I semis at 7:30 p.m. Bishop does the x’s and o’s, while Mantone talks often with a stern voice to the Jimmys and Joes.

“I would hope everybody in life could get a marriage like me and Bishop’s,” Mantone said. “We don’t disagree. He knows what he wants, what he expects. In between periods, if something’s going sour, I’ll look at him…”

Mantone would say a player’s name to either take off the ice or put on. And Bishop would nod. “We know when someone’s playing, not playing, and we have to make a move,” Mantone said.

“I’m the X and O guy and he’s the yeller,” Bishop said. “He’s the disciplinarian. Good cop, bad cop. I’ve been coaching before when I’ve had to be the bad cop.

“I wouldn’t be here without him.”

Indeed, the two go together in all kinds of weather. Obviously just about every day during the hockey season and also make it a point to meet once or twice a week in the off-season. If they’re in a restaurant, Bishop will grab a few napkins and write notes down on the hockey discussion. They talk on the bus about who they lose and have coming back after the season’s last game even if they just won a title.

“He does all the stuff in the summer, organizes all the workouts, the skating, the summer league,”Bishop said.

HOW IT BEGAN

Mantone played at Nashoba Tech in Westford, Mass. Westford Academy didn’t have a team, and his parents ironically said he could go to Bishop Guertin if he wanted. He snarled at the thought.

“I said, ‘I’m not going there,'” he said with a chuckle. “And now here I am I’ve sent both my children here and I’ve been here for 27 years – and there’s no better school. Forget sports, the education they get there is amazing.”

Mantone also played junior hockey, but when he turned 18, a juniors coach named and current New England Stars director George Husson walked up to Mantone and said “I hear you’re not going to go to college. I’ve got a coaching position for you.”

And so it began, and he’s been coaching for 47 years. Not bad for a zamboni driver, huh? He no longer works at Skate 3, working for a construction company in Nashua.

He and a couple of other coaches went on to start the program at Westford Academy – and at the time it had to be self-funded.

Mantone as a younger coach had quite an adjustment to make – from being a player to a coach. Not easy for an 18-year-old.

“I said, ‘I don’t like talking to people,'” he told Husson. Husson told him “You won’t have to, just coach.”

And that’s what he’s done. He’s ended up taking in players for the summer. And those types of relationships are what Mantone loves about coaching.

“Seeing all the kids succeed,” he said, noting that he and Bishop would encourage non-seniors to go to the next level if it fit them rather than stay playing for BG. And Mantone maintains relationships with a ton of players who have come through the program. “These kids just stick around,” he said.

Mantone had the highs and lows of coaching his two sons, James and John. The two of them were teammates on Guertin’s last title team in 2023 when John was a senior. James just missed out on a title last year, coming 30 seconds in regulation and a crossbar shot in the third overtime away.

But it was difficult. Mantone did not coach them in their pre-high school days, by design.

“I told them if you’re in the sport and you end up coming here and playing at Bishop Guertin, you’ll understand what I’m about, and you’ll know what I expect. I think it was harder on my youngest than my oldest.”

That’s because James had played and hung out with his older brother and those seniors. When John graduated it was was difficult to adjust. James Mantone doesn’t play today, perhaps some of the lasting effects from that tough loss, and works with his father.

But boy were the dinners at home an experience.

“I had to calm the dinner table down because there was never a difference from the rink, to home to back to the rink,” Mantone said. “Very high intensity, expect certain things. As a coach with them, I don’t expect the excuses. As a parent, you can comfort them and try to play the double-edge sword. With them, I found it very hard, because they’d start talking about the game, and I’d say ‘Well, you’ve got to do, this, this and that.’ They’d try to make excuses. It would get a little loud. But I loved it. I have a photo with me and my two boys when we won the state championships. All the stuff before and after, you can’t erase that picture. They both were a factor in the game, Johnny had a hat trick, James had a huge hit and made a couple of assists. It was amazing.”

Mantone is the coach who talks to the players the most, for Bishop really.

“I relay his messages,” he said. “If Bish starts talking, he’s either nervous or ready to kick someone’s, well you know (chuckling).”

That’s why Mantone says he loves being the bad cop.

“You have to be a bad cop, but you also have to be the good cop in the end,” he said. “I will not let someone leave my room disappointed, or thinking I’m a bad (guy). Sure, I’ll yell at them after Saturday’s game but by Monday we’re all on the same page. … They respect you.”

Mark Mantone, left, looks out on the ice along with BG head coach Gary Bishop during this past Saturday’s Division I quarterfinal win over Keene. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Does Mantone ever want to be a head coach? He certainly would be Bishop’s preferred choice as his eventual successor.

“I consider myself a head coach,” Mantone said. “That title? If I ever did have that position, I’d make sure I had somebody in the school who would be able to help with (the players and administrative details). You have to have a little game plan.”

“I think he would like to do it,” Bishop said. “He’s done it so long, he loves the game, he loves the kids, he’s in it for all the right reasons.”

“You can’t beat coaching,” he said. “You want kids? I have 25 kids, all year long.”