Elliott: R. I. P. John Broll, Mississauga North coach
By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
John Broll touched a lot of lives coaching at Mississauga North, whether it was the Mississauga North Tigers or the Mississauga North Bengals.
One such player at the peewee and minor bantam level was OF Dalton Pompey. Pompey moved up from Mississauga North Tigers, to the Oakville Royals and eventually brought the Rogers Centre crowds to their feet stealing bases and hitting line drives for the Toronto Blue Jays.
As a peewee and minor bantam Dwain Ervin was Pompey’s coach, while John Broll was an assistant and David Broll was a teammate.
Broll was laid to rest on Friday. A lot of baseball people showed at a funeral home in Mississauga to express their sympathies to John Broll’s sons: David and John, Jr.
The Mississauga North Tigers 2005 peewee champs coached by Dwain Ervin, assistant John Broll and future major leaguer Dalton Pompey.
“John wasn’t my head coach but Dave and I played together,” Pompey said. “John was always positive. That’s one thing I’ll never forget about him. Whether you took a bad swing or made a bad play he never made it feel like it was the end of the world. That the next play would be better.”
Erwin coached David Broll, the older brother, from 2000 to 2005. In 2005, John joined Erwin’s staff as an assistant. That year the Tigers won the COBAs and triple-Major Peewee provincials for a fifth straight year. Prior to that, John helped coach John Jr. from 1997 to 2002 on the Bengals and the Tigers.
“Looking back,” said Pompey, “I appreciated (John’s approach) more because for kids that are 10 or 11 years old positive reinforcement is really important to any kids development ... especially mentally.”
David was an underager, so he and his father joined coach George Spezza’s peewee Tigers in 2006 which flew to BC for the Nationals and finished with a silver medal. Broll helped Spezza until David hit bantam.
After bantam, David focused on hockey and was selected in the OHL draft by the Erie Otters. David also played for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. From there, David moved on to the AHL and the Toronto Marlies. He was promoted to the Toronto Maple Leafs for five games in the 2013-14 season. Next came AHL stops with the Syracuse Crunch, St. John’s IceCaps, Laval Rocket and Providence Bruins, as well as the Orlando Solar Bears and the Jacksonville Icemen in the East Coast League.
This season David is skating for the Coventry Blaze of the British Elite Ice Hockey League. He flew across the pond for the services.
When his sons moved on, John continued to coach showing his love of the game and he was not strictly a parent coach. He was an assistant to coach Mike McFadyen, from 2010 to roughly 2018, winning a minor midget AAA title in 2012 and a few COBA championships. John Jr. just retired after many years with the dominant Mississauga Southwest Twins, who regularly showed at the nationals.