>Re. Schafer scores again!
 
>On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Billy Lustgarten wrote:
>         At Cornell during the last home weekend, Coach Mike Schafer
>... took hold of a microphone and basically took the student section to
>stop using obscene chants ...
 
I'd like to add my name to the list of hockey-lers who have commended
Mike Schafer for asking the student fans to tone their chants down.
Nevertheless Schafer's request will appear hypocritical unless he
starts controlling his own actions and those of his players and
assistant coaches during and after games.
 
Towards the end of Cornell's contested, narrow win at Brown, one of
Cornell's star players made a complete fool of himself by flipping the
the proverbial bird at the Brown bench several times. After the
game, a Cornell player taunted the Brown coaching staff in the
corridor leading to the locker rooms by yelling "you guys had better
get some recruits because your team sucks" at them. Such behavior
is inappropriate for student-athletes representing a school with such a
distinguished hockey tradition as Cornell. Schafer himself seems to be
a master at irking opposing coaches with subtle little things, which
makes me question his sportsmanship. For example, Schafer's decision
to start freshman Frank Kovac at center against Brown was clearly
designed to stick it to the Brown coaching staff, who had spent a great
deal of time and energy recruiting that young man, and who had been
led to believe as late as March that he was coming to Brown.
 
Schafer may be a great motivator and a good tactical coach, but he's far
from the gentleman some of the people in this list would like us to
believe him to be.
 
Luiz F. Valente
 
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