Coach - it's what Ron DePaolo's softball teammates, midget football players and even his kids called him.

The Casper native, who still holds wrestling records at Kelly Walsh High School and went to college on a football scholarship, loved sports.

He coached a sixth-grade boys basketball team at Verda James Elementary School, even though he didn't know much about basketball. His lifelong friend, Dan Geldien, said Ron took up golf when "he became too old to run the softball bases."

Jo DePaolo, Ron's wife of 28 years, said she went into labor with the couple's eldest daughter while her husband was coaching a football game.

As a little girl, it frustrated Chelse DePaolo that her dad related everything to sports.

Even the life lessons he taught his daughter and two sons, Camdon and Cale, came back to sports - the most memorable being, "Leave it all on the field."

Ron DePaolo left it all on the field when he died Feb. 23 at the age of 56 with little regret and no looking back.

Leave it all on the field

Chelse explained "leaving it all on the field" as giving 100 percent so you have nothing to regret.

"I asked him at the end if he would do anything differently and he said, 'No'," Chelse said. "He lived his life the best way he knew how."

Even though his wife said Ron missed his calling to be a biology teacher, his brother, Dr. Hugh DePaolo, said his brother never once regretted taking over the family business, Apollo Electric.

During his junior year of college, Ron returned home to become an electrician.

"He unpacked," said Hugh, a Casper obstetrician. "He realized college wasn't for him. I told him on several occasions I was proud of him for this decision."

Hugh remembers a long conversation he had with his younger brother about income.

Ron said he never wanted to work the hours that his brother worked, "24 hours a day, seven days a week."

"He started breaking it down by hourly wage and his income looked very similar to mine," the doctor said. "He had a good life, and he liked what he was doing."

Ron didn't want his children to have regrets either.

Chelse decided to go to Missouri Valley College on a volleyball scholarship, but she had a difficult time leaving home.

"I would call home crying everyday," Chelse said. "Mom would answer and give it to dad. Dad would say, 'You have a volleyball team to take care of and things to get done.'"

Chelse graduated with a bachelor's degree from Missouri Valley College four years later.

After he got sick, the very opinionated Italian man wouldn't stay in the hospital.

Dan Geldien said Ron showed up late to a golf tournament one morning last summer.

His partner had been in the hospital all night getting a blood transfusion and had to beg the nurses to let him play golf.

"We ended up taking second or third place," said Geldien, who has known Ron since the two played football together at St. Anthony. "He wasn't just going to sit in a hospital and wait. He loved competing and was always looking for the next competition."

Take pride in everything you do

During the last practice before its first basketball game, Coach DePaolo asked his team of Verda James sixth graders to find a yellow shirt and a tie.

He wanted them to wear the outfit to school to show everyone they would be playing in a game that weekend.

The boys wore their shirt and tie before every game after that.

"It kind of became a badge of honor," Geldien said.

Ron taught the hundreds of kids he coached over the years to take pride in what they did and to work hard for what they wanted, Hugh said.

He began coaching midget football even before Jo and he got married.

"He really had an impact on those kids," Hugh said. "He instilled a work ethic in them."

His two sons played hockey and even though he couldn't skate, Ron was still "on the bench and in the locker room giving pep talks," Jo DePaolo said.

Rhedda Geldien, Dan's wife, said every time she saw Ron he was talking about his children's latest accomplishments.

"He was the perfect dad for supporting those kids in whatever they wanted to do," Rhedda said.

Ron was diagnosed with myelofibrosis, a serious bone marrow disease, in late 2006 and needed a bone marrow transplant. A son, Brian, from Ron's previous marriage was a match, but Ron developed pneumonia before the transplant leading to his death.

Win or lose, always have fun

Before they were married, bachelors Ron and Geldien played on a softball team together. They were the only two single guys on the team.

Their hotel room was always the "party room."

"There are some stories I won't be telling anyone," Geldien chuckled.

At the memorial service, family members, friends and even the neighborhood kids spoke about Ron.

Chelse said the whole room was laughing, especially when Geldien said he knew Ron's butt better than anyone besides his mother or wife.

"He was the center to my quarterback," Geldien said.

Family and friends processed into his funeral wearing yellow and listening to his favorite song "Mr. Bojangles."

Hugh said Ron made the best omelets mixing anything in the refrigerator with the eggs.

He remembers how his brother always had a smile on his face.

"He truly enjoyed life," Hugh said. "He brought joy and laughter to the room."

Geldien said he used to take skiing trips and travel to University of Wyoming football games with Ron.

He remembers Ron as a good friend.

"I would have something going on in my life and he would call me up and say, 'Let's go get a beer,'" Geldien said.

His daughter said the services were just what her father would have wanted - people laughing and smiling.

"My dad wasn't perfect," Chelse said. "He wouldn't want me to say he was, but he was a good dad."

Contact health reporter Allison Rupp at (307) 266-0534 or allison.rupp@trib.com.