In article <[log in to unmask]>, Dave Hendrickson <[log in to unmask]> says: > >John H writes: > >> The implication was that they would return this season. The article said >> that "Walsh convinced them a return would ensure a second straight National >> Collegiate Athletic Association championship". >> >> I've never met Shawn Walsh, and this particular comment isn't attributed to >> Walsh, but to a "source close to the Black Bears". However, this is the >> kind of press that always paints Walsh as an arrogant jerk. I don't see anything arrogant about believing your team will win a champion- ship. If a coach doesn't believe in his team, this conveys a lack of confi- dence to the players. I haven't heard actual quotes from Walsh, but his style is more along the lines of, "Peter, Paul, Mary... Chris :-), if you guys come back we'll have a good chance at getting a shot at the national championship." Coaches like Walsh are successful because they instill confidence in their players, a confidence that says, "We can do it." Look at Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson. Despite a two-game losing streak at the beginning of the season and another two-game skid midway through the season, Johnson believed the Cowboys would make it. Meanwhile, everyone else was talking about the resurrection of the New York Giants. >I guess I'm particularly willing to cut Walsh some slack based on his talk >at the UMass-Lowell luncheon which I posted last week. He was anything but >arrogant. He was charming, gracious, and I'd drive aways to hear him talk in >the future. If I didn't know better, I'd have expected to hear him announce >his candidacy for the Presidency and start kissing babies. :-) I found Walsh to be very cordial in my only interaction I've had with him. The other day I called his office for his thoughts on the two UMaine students who were replacement officials for the Jan. 28 Northeastern vs. Maine game, for a Maine Campus story. His secretary said he was on the phone, but if I left my number he'd call me back. Ten minutes later he called. He was right to the point. (I'll post the article after it runs next week.) I don't know why, but I was impressed. A lot of coaches convey a persona of being too important and too busy to call people back. Usually when I call people for information and they're not in, a secretary will tell me to call back. Then it becomes a game of cat and mouse. >> I wonder. If Walsh were to say something sincere and non-controversial, >> would the media bother to print it? It wouldn't fit the image (P.T. >> Barnum?) that has been created for him. Hm. I don't think it has so much to do with Walsh having an image. The news media love to report on controversy, no matter who creates it. Something that's controversial is more interesting than something that isn't. Ryan Robbins Stodder Hall University of Maine [log in to unmask]