Rob Zanatta is living proof that just because one becomes immersed with alpine skiing, things need not be all downhill from there.

With sincere apologies to the 57 year old recently retired high-school teacher for the obvious attempt at really bad "dad joke" humour, it is worth noting that the man who is far more well-known for his St Charles College connections with both football and hockey does owe it all to the slopes - at least initially.

The youngest of three children in the New Sudbury raised family, frolicking about not all that far around the corner from the Adanac Ski Hill, as luck would have it, Zanatta was a typical sports-minded youngster at a time when athletic outlets for kids were the stuff thriving neighbourhoods were made of.

"We had so many neighbourhood games; there were games to be had everywhere," he said. That can easily happen when you live just down the street from the residences of Randy and Sandy Stevens and Joe MacDonald, with Peter and Todd Hellstrom and a multitude of others just a stone's throw away.

"There were three big field behind Colonel David Younger School and the principal would allow us to put up the mesh basketball nets," Zanatta rcalled. "If I was home from camp (in the summer), there was a baseball game going on, a football game going on."

Likely due to simple proximity, Zanatta would learn to ski, sharing his knowledge with others as he made his way through high-school (St Charles College) and university (Laurentian).

"I started to catch the coaching bug when I was teaching skiing, especially as a head instructor," said Zanatta, who credits former athletic administrator Jim Dickson with providing the guidance one needs to tackle these responsibilities at a fairly young age.

"I was enjoying the ski instructing and decided I would apply to Teachers College."

With limited options close to home, Zanatta found himself among a group of 33 young adults from Ontario, eight from Sudbury alone who descended upon the University of South Florida in Tampa Bay, fast-tracked through a five month program that culminated with placement opportunities back home in the nickel city.

Full-time jobs in teaching often take a year or two to materialize and the mid-nineties were no different. Supply teaching with the public board would see Zanatta spending time at both Markstay Public and Jessie Hamilton Public School.

Yet even as a student-teacher, the lifelong Sudburian who suggested that golf and travel will top his activity list in retirement had begun the coaching process at the high-school level, intially returning to lend a hand with Chris Bartolucci and his beloved Cardinals football team.

For as much as Zanatta will be forever linked with SCC, he was also central to the founding of the football program at St Benedict Catholic Secondary School, his place of employment for his first few years within the SCDSB (Sudbury Catholic District School Board) system.

Teaming up with footballers Dave Lewis and brothers Bruno and Franco Rocca, Zanatta helped launch a program that would capture the city championship in 2006 & 2007 - by which time he was now on the rival sideline at the home of the "Hoikety Choik" chant - at least in these parts*.

(*St Michael's College in Toronto, which has long enjoyed ties with St Charles College, initially via the Basilian Fathers of Ontario, will lay claim as the starting point of the cheer that remains prevalent in Sudbury to this day)

In November of 2000, Zanatta made the move to SCC - and never looked back. His coaching legacy at the SDSSAA level spans 31 years and while it is largely centered around hockey and football, the truth is that golf and skiing and more recently baseball formed a large part of this voyage, with light sprinklings of volleyball and basketball and slo-pitch.

By his count, he has been part of 33 city championship banners as a coach and 15 of the NOSSA variety. Interestingly enough, the only three OFSAA medals of his career at St Charles all came in the past two years: bronze at OFSAA hockey in 2025; silver in OFSAA baseball in 2025; bronze in OFSAA baseball in 2026.

In terms of the football - hockey comparison, Zanatta offered the following: "I was a better player as a football player - and I knew the game better. But the success of hockey and what we built was special. It what also what we walked into. I learned how to coach hockey from them (Brian Ceppetelli, Mike Fox and others).

Truth be told, the people are most certainly what Zanatta will miss the most. Much of the past two decades were spent with the likes of Darren Michelutti, Casey Thompson and Ryan Liinamaa on a hockey bench and with Mike Fabiilli, Jordan Cecchetto and others along the football sidelines.

"It will be weird not to come here in September," he said. "But I think that on that first Tuesday when school is starting, I will go to the golf course that day and play a round of golf with Mike Fox, Pete Stankiewicz and Brian Thompson - and I will get over it."