shari writes:
> One question... is Walsh really a whiner/egomaniac/jerk?
 
I suppose this isn't a particularly unfair question.  As I was a student
at Maine when Walsh first started, I thought I could offer some perspective
on this question.
 
It should come as no surprise that Shawn Walsh *lives* for hockey.
He was by no means a superstar himself, so he seems to live vicariously
through the successes of his teams.  As a rule, his teams and his players
tend to overachieve.  This is to say that, given a certain group of kids,
he will probably bring them further than most any coach in the country.
He and his staff are very good at "balancing" the recruiting classes;
the net effect being that you don't get "down" years, but it's also
tough to get that really *big* year.
 
The down side of this is that he is a very intense individual on the
ice.  If you've ever seen an interview with him, you will note that
he is typically very calm once he gets off the ice (there are exceptions
to this rule ;-).  I, personally, believe there is nothing wrong with
pulling the illegal stick call; I think it's just an example of squeezing
every last advantage (like last line changes at the HE championship) and
I do *not* believe in the accusation that they tamper with people's
sticks.
 
A story from school might help to shed some light on Shawn Walsh's
involvement at Maine.  When Eric Weinrich was looking around at colleges,
he came for a visit at Maine.  Before he arrived, Walsh went around to
all the dorms, called meetings and asked people to make signs to hang
up for the game Eric would be attending.  Walsh knew that there were
two big advantages to getting Eric; the first was that he was a great
defenseman and the second was that he was home grown (Gardiner, ME) and
that was very rare and very valuable from a PR standpoint.  When the
game started the arena was papered with signs like "We want you, Eric"
and such.  Can you imagine the effect this would have on a high schooler
from Maine?  At Maine, Shawn Walsh is a bit of a cult hero just for
this reason.  He does public service announcements and is a genuine
celebrity.  Every now and again he makes believe he's thinking about
going somewhere else so he can get more money for the program.
 
So, in short, I can see where it would be easy for people who mainly get
to see his antics on the ice to think he is an egomaniac/jerk/whatever.
But the fact is, now that they rearranged the baseball regions he seems
to be our only hope of that elusive first national championship (I can't
believe Harvard beat us to it in 1989...).  I'm glad he's on our side.
 
-dug