When youth soccer coach Dean (Deano) Lumbar scrimmaged with his players, typically the sun had set, and chauffeuring parents gathered on the sidelines.
They knew Lumbar would play and teach long past the scheduled practice. But the parents didn't complain and the coach just kept on going.
"He loved kids and loved coaching," said his wife, Annie of Edina, recalling the parents who ribbed her husband. "Practice ends at 8 o'clock. We'll see you at 10:30."
Lumbar, who played high school soccer and college hockey, died Jan. 7 at home of complications from colon cancer. He was 46.
For about 15 years, he coached youth soccer and hockey, off and on, said his wife.
In 1979, Lumbar graduated from Washburn High School, where he played hockey, ran track and was a forward on the soccer team.
He played hockey at Minneapolis' Augsburg College and the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. In 1989, he finished college at the University of Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in business.
He played some hockey after college, too.
During the 1980s, he owned a succession of businesses, such as True Brew coffee and bagel shop near 50th Street and Hwy. 100 in Edina. He sold True Brew in the late 1990s, becoming a mortgage lender.
In Edina soccer, he led traveling teams, those with the top players.
An example for adults, too
Collin Brinkman, president of the Edina Soccer Club, said Lumbar was also an example to adults involved in youth soccer.
"It's rare to find that kind of passion and ability," Brinkman said.
Greg Berling, 18, of Edina played varsity soccer for Edina High School. He was one of Lumbar's players a half-dozen years ago, when Lumbar led a team to second place in the state.
"He was a really straight-up guy," said Berling. "He liked to joke around a lot, too, and he had an easygoing personality."
Berling said Lumbar was a "really good coach," and "he definitely could play, too."
Cliff Anderson of Edina coached with Lumbar.
"He loved to see the boys get better. He didn't criticize them," he said. "He was Deano to them, not Mr. Lumbar."
"He instilled a love of the game, and the winning came secondary to it. By instilling a love of the game, they played great soccer," Anderson said.
After his cancer was diagnosed in 2005, Lumbar was coaching youth hockey in Edina, his wife said.
He wasn't feeling well and told the boys that he thought they should get another coach.
'They gave back to him'
The boys said, "We don't want you to leave," reported his wife, saying Lumbar's lessons about not giving up really stuck with the boys.
"They gave back to him what he had taught them," she said.
And Lumbar stuck out the season. He last coached youth soccer this fall.
In 2007, one of his infant twin sons, Phillip, died.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Todd (TC), Matt, Luke and Peter, the surviving twin; his former wife, Deborah Byhre Lumbar of Edina, mother of TC, Matt and Luke; parents Fred and Marcia Lumbar of Bloomington; brother Dan Lumbar of Eagan and sister Jill Loff of Ham Lake.
Services will be at 1 p.m. today at Christ Presbyterian Church, 6901 Normandale Rd., Edina.
