This was a few years ago now, back when he had bypass surgery, five veins sewed into his heart. Tubes sticking out of him as if he'd just undergone acupuncture. Uncertain future. Not exactly the moment for "so a priest and a Rabbi walk into a bar … "

But that was Rob Von Achen. He always left them laughing.

"Beats (ticking) them off," Von Achen would say.

Sure does. And did for the 64 years Von Achen, the former 20-year girls' basketball coach at Waterford High, was with us. The comedic king of the court died recently, adding to the sadness the town has endured in the last 10 months. The 06385 lost teacher Josh Eudy last December, Von Achen in late September and former athletic director Bob Reagan last week.

Von Achen was a joy to cover. Because he was such a living dichotomy. There's nothing he loved doing more than coaching his girls. And yet it never felt all that much about basketball.

Among my favorite stories came on perhaps the worst day of his coaching life. The Lancers came within an eyelash of winning the state championship. They lost to Hillhouse by three, shooting 19 percent in the second half. And yet it to spoke to the man's character that his true sadness was tethered to the impending farewell and not the lost opportunity.

The ultimate compliment of any high school athletic program: leaving is tougher than losing.

"I remember when I drove my daughter, Morgan, to Worcester State," Von Achen was saying that day, "and I got this feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was that feeling of expected loneliness. That's what I feel like right now thinking about losing these kids."

He was talking about Jodie Plikus, Karli Spera, Anna Levesque and Kerrianne Dugan. Some of them have gone into coaching. You may recall Dugan's wizardry last winter at New London, now the defending state Class M champ. On the day Von Achen retired, Dugan called her days at Waterford "my best memories of basketball: my friends and coach."

His legacy, aside from perpetual humor, was his steadfast demeanor. Sports often misguidedly link success with character. Von Achen's character was the same in win or loss. Just know there was plenty of winning: state championship appearances in 2005 and 2007 and five 20-win seasons.

"I can't tell you the number of kids who have said nice things about him to me. They've been some of our most substantial athletes," former Waterford athletic director Jim O'Neill said of him once. "He's become someone the kids count on. It's far from just being on the court. It's a constant effort. Need help with a college application? He's there. College recruitment? He's there. With choosing a basketball camp? He's there. And he does it with humor, unfailingly."

My favorite memory of him came one night at the beginning of the season. Waterford had just beaten East Lyme. Von Achen had already survived a heart attack at 46, quintuple bypass at 50 and an ulcer. But they were comparative hangnails compared to the angst of 52 fouls called in the game that night.

Rob turned to us several times at the table and said, "I've survived heart problems, ulcers, diabetes all to get here tonight so these people with the whistles can kill me."

Later that night after we finished talking, Rob headed home. He looked outside and saw it was raining as it did for Noah.

"What a bad night to be bald," he said.

That's how I'll remember him. The guy who cared and laughed. The guy who would get to the podium and command utter silence because you always wanted to know what he'd say next. The guy who wasn't with us long enough. But the guy who was exactly where he was supposed to be, doing exactly what he should have been doing: serving young people.

"He's a good guy to be coaching your kid," O'Neill said. "He never takes himself too seriously. In a world where anyone who coaches can get that 'coach' affectation, Rob is cracking one-liners."

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.

Twitter: @BCgenius?