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AVOCA &mdash; Anthony &ldquo;Cooper&rdquo; Blaskiewicz is a legend in Avoca &mdash; but he should be legendary everywhere.
				It&rsquo;s all about impact and how a person &mdash; a genuine human being &mdash; chooses to live his or her life.
				Cooper Blaskiewicz chose to live his well &mdash; in an exemplary manner.
				I had the pleasure of knowing Cooper for decades &mdash; my only regret is that I didn&rsquo;t spend more time around him to learn more about basketball and, more importantly, about how to live one&rsquo;s life.
				His kids sent me a narrative about their dad and, as you might expect, they buried the lead, to use a newsroom term.
				Cooper was a founding member of the Avoca Jolly Boys, an athletic program that saw thousands of kids pass through on their way to living awesome lives and, in turn, contributing back to their community. This, you see, was the method of Cooper&rsquo;s madness &mdash; he knew that by providing a quality athletic program for kids, they would become better adults just by being around community volunteers who sincerely cared about them and where they were headed in life.
				But back to that buried lead.
				&ldquo;Cooper believed in us, he taught us to prepare, do our best and always give 100 percent. For the hundreds of young men who played basketball in Avoca, we believe he was able to give that gift to them as well.&rdquo;
				So, on the 50 anniversary of the Jolly Boys a couple of years ago, one of Cooper&rsquo;s sons (Tom) arranged to have NBA Hall of Famer Bill Walton speak to the group.
				&ldquo;It was only fitting that one legend was able to meet a true bonafide Hall of Famer,&rdquo; his kids wrote.
				Now I admit that Bill Walton is one of the all-time greats of basketball. He is, arguably, the best college basketball player of all time, having won two national titles at UCLA and three College Player of the Year awards.
				As deserving as Walton was for those awards, Cooper Blaskiewicz, for me, ranks right up there with Walton and all the other well-known national &ldquo;heroes.&rdquo;
				Cooper Blaskiewicz is a true community hero. Guys like him and my dad (see past columns) and so many others dedicated their lives to making their communities better.
				For their effort, we all owe them a debt of thanks and appreciation.
				Cooper&rsquo;s kids headlined the narrative they sent to me:
				Final horn sounds for last of original Avoca Jolly Boys.
				That is a really great headline. It tells the story accurately and succinctly.
				Cooper died Dec. 24, just hours shy of his 88th birthday. Cooper was one of the founders of the Avoca Jolly Boys, a community group that provided recreational activities for the young people of Avoca and surrounding communities.
				Blaskiewicz, and a group of fellow Avoca volunteers with names like McAndrew, Timlin, Joyce, Allardyce, Clifford, Farrell, Gilhooley, Renzi, Berlew, and O&rsquo;Malley formed the youth basketball league in the mid 1960s &mdash; games would be played in the American Legion building on Main Street.
				Cooper and the other Jolly Boys would make teams, schedule games, coach, referee, clean, varnish the court &mdash; whatever they had to do to make the league a success. One member Jerry Allardyce, built the centers first scoreboard, that to a fourth grader, it looked exactly the ones in vaunted NBA arenas.
				Here&rsquo;s a typical Cooper story, as told by his kids:
				&ldquo;As the young talent got better under Cooper and the Jolly Boys, Blaskiewicz, a Scranton native, dreamed of being able to take Jolly Boy teams to compete in various Scranton basketball tournaments at places like Weston Field and Central Boys Club. One year there was a big youth tournament for players 6 foot and under.
				&ldquo;Avoca&rsquo;s star, George Aldrich (Pittston Area, King&rsquo;s College) was going through many of his growth spurts, and he was instructed by Cooper to slouch a little, bend his knees, to be under the 6-foot requirement.
				&ldquo;The kicker was Coach Blaskiewicz had purchased thin white girls knee socks for George to wear as all players were measured prior to the game in their socks.&rdquo;
				Cooper was a coaching genius. And they say you can&rsquo;t teach height?
				Cooper loved to follow his Jolly Boys through high school, and college. Players with names like McMahon, Gibbons, Berlew, McCarthy, Timlin, McAndrew, Aldrich, Blaskiewicz, Gilhooley, Sammon, Waleski, Walsh, and Farrell displayed their skills in high school and beyond.
				From that little gym on Main Street, those humble beginnings at the Avoca Basketball League produced players who learned the game the proper way.
				Many players still remember one of the only signs that hung in the gym: &ldquo;Be good or be gone.&rdquo; This was a constant reminder that goofing around would not be tolerated &mdash; the league was for learning the game, competing, having fun and doing your very best.
				Many of the Jolly Bots went on to do well in life &mdash; politicians, judges, doctors, lawyers, teachers, coaches &mdash; people who lived the life lessons taught by the Jolly Boys.
				He will be forever missed by his wife of 64 years, Mary Brunton Blaskiewicz; and his children, Robert (Melinda), James (Bonnie), Thomas (Liz), Joseph (Mary Ann), and Ann (Bob); and his grandchildren and more.
				For sure, Cooper Blaskiewicz is smiling down from above.
				And we smile for knowing him.

Beyond the Byline: Final horn sounds for last of original Avoca Jolly Boys