Legendary Tech Hockey Club head coach Greg Stathis passed away last Monday at Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, GA. He was 48 and resided in Woodstock, Ga. He passed away from complications with his second kidney transplant.
Stathis was the hockey coach at Tech for 17 years where he accumulated 348 career victories in 17 seasons. He was the only coach to lead his team to all 10 Memorial Health Hockey Classics in Savannah, Ga. He coached his last game against Georgia at the Classic where his team beat UGA, 3-2, completing a three game sweep of the Bulldogs over the entire season. In his last game against Vanderbilt, his Jackets took to the ice and beat the Commodores 3-2. While at Tech, he coached the team to a second place finish in the Division III Hockey Tournament and two teams to a third place finish. He was also the only coach in the American Collegiate Hockey Association to average 20 wins a season. He also had a remarkable record in that every one of his players graduated in his 17 year tenure as head coach.
“Greg was a small man in stature, but he had a giant heart and was the kindest gentleman I had ever known,” said Sarge Day, assistant coach and business manager of the Georgia Tech Hockey Club. “Greg was a man of honesty and integrity, traits taught to him by his parents, John Stathis and the late Cleo Stathis.”
“Greg was also the bravest man I have ever known, who fought…with tremendous courage without ever complaining,” Day said. “Greg was famous for seeing the good in everybody and his positive attitude…was an inspiration to everyone who knew him. To know Greg Stathis was to love him.”
According to Day, Stathis insisted his teams play with “class and honor.” He strongly believed in the traits of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage, traits his teams displayed faithfully. Stathis and the team were followed by a significant part of the Tech community, with the team and Stathis being featured on Tech Topics this past February.
Funeral services are going to be held in New York in Stathis’s hometown of New Dorp. A memorial service for Coach Greg Stathis will be held in Georgia at 2 p.m. on March 30 at location yet to be determined. For more information about the service will be available on www.GTHockey.com.
Information provided by Paul Gattung