I am going to post the story I wrote on Barrett Heisten and the
recruiting process that ensued this summer. In appeared in today's
Maine Campus.
 
        Ninety minutes. In actual game time, it's midway through the second
overtime in a NCAA college hockey playoff. Or, for you baseball fans,
it's about the fifth inning in a major league game.
        For the University of Maine hockey program, however, it totaled how
much sand remained in the commitment jar of recruitment time before
harnessing one of the sport's more promising prospects.
        Barrett Heisten, who learned how to skate when he was six years old,
is skating for the Black Bears after a recruiting war that
territorially raged across the country.
        Boston University wanted him. The Michigan State Spartans wanted him.
The Michigan Wolverines wanted him   so did the Western Hockey League's
Seattle Thunderbirds. Everybody did.
        But after the smoke settled, the 18-year-old resident of Anchorage,
Ak., reached his ultimate decision.
        "The most frustrating process I've ever gone through," said Grant
Standbrook, Maine's assistant coach and primary recruiter. "I never
knew for certain where I stood. I never knew when he made a decision if
it would be final or not."
        And the recruiting tenacity escalated.
        After an indecisive summer that produced a wave of mixed messages sent
to college hockey coaches, Heisten turned down major junior hockey in
favor of the collegiate route. But it wasn't an easy choice.
        "Every day I was changing," Heisten said on the decision process. "I
really didn't know what to do. It was a hard choice to make. I tried to
do whatever I could to keep my mind off it. There was a lot of people
telling me different things."
        "Major A did a great job recruiting him," Standbrook said. "They did a
great job of marketing the league."
        The Seattle Thunderbirds, one of 18 teams in the WHL, competed
vigorously with U.S. colleges to corral what scouting reports called
the No. 1 sought-after recruit in America.
In events that mirrored more of a tug-of-war game, Maine was forced to
sweat out a summer heat that permeated the program to a new extreme.
        Seattle made its pitch. Maine countered with its own. Heisten made up
his mind. Then he changed it. Until ...
        "Until I phoned him," Standbrook said as Heisten prepared to enter the
Thunderbirds' training camp in late August. "I clearly made my point. I
pointed out the distances he would have to travel by playing in that
league. If you want to travel by bus across western Canada in the
middle of the winter you have to be crazy."
        And how did Seattle respond?
        "Their selling point was that it hardens you," Standbrook added.
        The WHL features teams in Washington, Oregon, Manitoba, Saskatchewan,
Alberta, and British Columbia.
        Had the star forward attended the Thunderbirds' practice, he would've
lost his collegiate eligibility for a year.
        "I was about ready to head to Seattle's practice, and Grant gave me a
call and told me that I was making a bad choice and if he could punch
me in the face he would  that's what he said to me," Heisten laughed in
recollection. "And somehow it sunk into my head."
        "I called him and said, 'Barrett, if I could pull you through the
phone line I would," said Standbrook, who recruited Heisten for nearly
two years. "Of course I said it in tongue in cheek. And he countered
and said, 'Do you have any single rooms?"
        Two days later, Heisten was on a plane to Orono  leaving Seattle   and
the Thunderbirds behind.
        "He was debating what he wanted to do," Seattle General Manager Russ
Farwell said. "He took a long look at coming here and at the last
minute he decided to go to college.
        "We had a number of discussions and we talked quite a bit. We would've
loved to have him."
        "If I don't like it here I can always go [to Seattle]," Heisten said
on the rationale behind the decision. "But if I don't like it there, I
can't go here. It came down to that."
        And if he didn't like it, would he consider leaving?
        "Maybe," Heisten said.
        Playing for former Maine coach Greg Cronin, Heisten competed on the
National Team Development Program after spending a year with the
Anchorage North All-Stars in his home state.
        And the numbers piled up  almost as quickly as his hype.
        "He's an outstanding player," Farwell said. "He's maybe a little
erratic but he can make the tough play."
        Farwell said he was disappointed in losing the recruiting war  in
particular because of what he perceived was a lack of enthusiasm
Heisten expressed in attending a university.
        "His [Heisten's] problem is that he doesn't have an interest in going
to school," Farwell said. "So, watch him quick because he won't be
there long.
        "We're going off what he told us. I think college is a great route for
someone who has an equal interest in school but it can be a scramble to
try to stay eligible."
Heisten, who has yet to score his first collegiate goal, is skating
with Steve Kariya and Cory Larose in the Black Bears' top scoring line
this season.
        "He's a great player to play with," Kariya said. "He has a lot to
learn but he can make some unbelievable plays out there."
        Although his future plans  which a variety of scouting reports project
will culminate in the NHL  are still uncertain, Heisten, if only for
now, is satisfied with calling Maine his home.
"I like it a lot, it's a great place," he said.