HARTFORD — Some people have no business coaching youth sports. Then there are those like Joseph Shattie who seemed to have been born for the role.
A standout athlete at Rice Memorial High School in Burlington and a Division I baseball player in college, Shattie certainly knew the game of baseball. He would later learn to ice skate and coach hockey, while also officiating youth and high school games.
But coaching impressionable youths takes more than an understanding of the fundamentals and game strategies.
“He just had a way of connecting with kids,” said Bob Gaudet, a close friend and former longtime head coach of the Dartmouth men’s hockey team. “He was really respected. Joe was a big guy, but a Teddy Bear with a big smile. He had a way of communicating with the kids. He spoke to them at their level and made them feel comfortable.”
Shattie, who died June 23, at the age of 73 after a decades-long battle with heart disease, emphasized to his players what some might consider old school attributes such as doing the right thing, discipline and character.
“Joe was all about that stuff,” said Gaudet, who first met Shattie when their children played youth sports together in the 1990s. They stayed close over the years.
Sports were a thread that went through much of Shattie’s life.
He was born in Winooski, Vt. When he was just 3, his father died from an injury he had suffered during World War II and his mother moved him and his brother, Sam, to Florida to live with their aunt. He later returned to Vermont to finish high school at Rice and went on to play baseball at the University of Missouri.
His first career was in the bar and restaurant business in Burlington which led him and a friend to open Than Wheeler’s in White River Junction, which has since closed. It was there he met his future wife, who was playing in a women’s softball league at the time.
“It was my first summer playing and a friend on the team was celebrating her birthday so we went over there,” Cheryl Shattie recalled.
The couple were married almost 47 years before Shattie’s death. Together, they raised three sons, Jason, Kellen and Bryce.
“I would watch them interact together and they had this special bond,” said Todd Bebeau, the Hartford High School boys hockey coach who worked with Shattie at the Quechee Golf Course for a couple of years. “I had so much respect for the love they shared.”
All three of the Shattie sons played sports and their dad often coached them.
“He was a firm believer in hard work and having fun,” said Bryce, who lives in East Hampton, Mass. “He thought you could be both competitive and a good sport. It was what we often talked about.”
Growing up in Florida, Shattie never learned how to skate, but when his children took an interest in skating and hockey, he decided to learn, which is not an easy task as an adult.
“It took a lot of courage to learn how to skate and learn the game of hockey,” Bebeau said. “But Joe did it because he wanted to be involved with his kids and the hockey community. Joe did things for all the right reasons. It is the type of father Joe was. If his kids were involved in something, he wanted to be fully engrossed in it.”
Shattie learned how to coach and referee hockey games, often traveling long distances after working his day job in Richmond, Vt., where he was a sales manager for Caterpillar equipment. Shattie joined Caterpillar after selling Than Wheelers. Despite the long drives every day to Richmond, Shattie maintained his commitment to his family and his children’s sports.
“He would drive 50 miles one way to work, drive 50 miles home and then hop in the car and drive us to where our sporting event was,” recalled his son, Kellen, who lives in White River Junction.
Even after his children had aged out of the recreation and high school sports scene, Shattie didn’t want to give up what he loved doing for the kids and his community.
“I said, ‘Why are we going all over the state of New Hampshire when we don’t even have a kid in any of this?’ ” Cheryl Shattie once asked her husband. “I just know how much he loved doing it.”
Shattie also was known for his easy-going temperament. Stephen DeFelice, Shattie’s neighbor whose son, Brad, played baseball with Shattie’s son, Bryce, remembers those qualities on display when Shattie was a hockey referee.
Some parents, who think their child is destined for the NHL, can get a little overzealous watching a game, DeFelice said.
“It was not uncommon for your neighbor to be hollering at you if you made a bad call,” DeFelice said. “It may not have been a bad call, but they thought it was. And Joe would just have this big grin on his face when people would holler at him.”
In addition to coaching, Shattie served on the Hartford Zoning Board of Adjustment and his work with the Rotary Club earned him the Paul Harris Fellow Award, the service organization’s highest award. Shattie also served on the Friends of Dartmouth Hockey, helping to raise money through events such as the annual golf tournament.
After retiring, Shattie, around the age of 70, took a job working at the driving range at the Quechee Golf Course and was soon known as the “Mayor of the Driving Range,” Cheryl Shattie said.
Bebeau, the Hartford hockey coach, has fond memories of his time with Shattie at the Quechee Golf Course, listening to his stories about his time on the road with Caterpillar.
“He didn’t need to work, but he just loved being around people,” Bebeau said. “He always had a big smile on his face and was a great storyteller. He was one of the most positive people I have known. People you talk to will tell you they were drawn to Joe because Joe was a quality human being.”
Health problems plagued Shattie beginning at age 40 when he suffered a heart attack that required stents. Ten years later, after another heart attack, Shattie had quadruple bypass surgery and finally, he had a third heart attack at age 66. Shattie’s many heart problems were hereditary and he worked hard, with an exercise routine and nutritious meals, to improve his health.
“Family was first for him and that was a big motivator,” Cheryl Shattie said.
Shattie, who was an avid birdwatcher who enjoyed their peaceful vacations in Upstate New York, knew he was lucky to survive his health scares and never took a day for granted, his son Kellen said.
“He really wanted to enjoy the time he had,” Kellen said.
Shattie used his own experience to help his neighbors, the DeFelices, when Dawn DeFelice had open heart surgery at the onset of COVID in 2020.
“Anytime my wife had a question, ‘Is this normal?’ or ‘Should this be happening?’ Joe had an answer,” Stephen DeFelice said. “He knew what she was going through and would call to check on her to be sure she was OK because we were isolated. Joe was a real godsend for us during that time.”
Gaudet began his remarks at a memorial service for Shattie by referring to a video of the Shatties filmed for Dartmouth Health. The couple talked about Shattie’s heart attacks and the care he received, hoping it would encourage others to pay closer attention to their health and not let the busy lives they lead prevent them from taking care of themselves.
Gaudet noted that Shattie began the video by saying, “Life is precious.”
It was a credo Shattie lived each day, Gaudet said at the memorial.
“All of us who knew Joe remember how uplifted we were in any encounter with him,” Gaudet said. “We miss him so much.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.