Steve Kapetanakis writes: >The Boston Globe >Monday, August 8, 1994 >by Will McDonough ... [from the Globe article] >Some who know college hockey well ... Will is clearly not one of them. >... say the Maine hockey program >has been out of control in recent years. In the last six >months, the athletic director and compliance officer have left >the program, and the feeling is they took the fall for what >has been going on in the hockey program under Shawn Walsh. Sure, Will. It was *really* Walsh who made the compliance officer tell Patrice Tardif that he only had to take 6 credits instead of 8. As well as the four athletes in sports other than hockey. Walsh runs the whole athletic department. In fact, it was *really* Walsh who moonlighted in the admissions department to make that one credit mistake regarding Cal Ingraham. It is absolutely obvious to anyone who paid even a bit of attention to the case that the AD and compliance officer are gone mainly because of the grad credits situation. If that had not happened, they would likely still be around. Walsh clearly had NO responsibility for what happened there. So, how could they have taken "the fall for what has been going on in the hockey program under Shawn Walsh"? Did Will forget that the AD was mainly criticized for having known about the situation - before the coaches did - and letting some of the athletes compete anyway? Will is also guilty of selective memory...when Walsh was responsible for something that happened, namely the Tory situation, he admitted responsibility and did not question the punishment handed down to him by the school. That does not sound like someone who is letting others take the fall. [Steve's comments] >The one thing that bothers me about Will's article is that >he doesn't quote one source by name. The article is highly >speculative. But we've all heard these same rumblings about >Maine's program, this is the first time I've seen them in print. Probably because no one else has been as stupid as Will to print them. It is one thing for people to banter around rumors...it is another to print them without a single piece of evidence to back them up. It is certainly very easy to see why people in Maine think the Boston media is out to get them. I have heard rumors like this before about Maine, but my approach has been the same as to the poster who recently charged that BU's Jack Parker was lobbying against Maine...let us see evidence, or else keep it out of a public place like HOCKEY-L or a newspaper. This reference to "some who know college hockey well" is about as bush league as a journalist can get. Anyone trying to break into the business who wrote something like that would be laughed out of town. If evidence is found and made public regarding violations that Walsh or others in the program made, I will be as critical as I was of the Tory situation, and Will should be too. But I am also going to be fair and not ruin people's reputations if they were not responsible for something. Apparently that is where he and I differ. I will reiterate: Will is STUPID. I have no respect for him as a journalist, and I would say that to his face. He should stick to football and leave college hockey to people who pay attention to it more than one or two times a year. Better yet, he should retire from sportswriting and broadcasting and save us all the aggravation of having to read and listen to his garbage. The sad thing is, Will is one of the more known writers in Boston and when people read things he writes, they put a lot of stock in them. That is why it is so distressing that he would write something like this. Someone in his position should know better than to write something that is little more than "Hard Copy"-like material and pass it off as responsible journalism. And he has done it a number of times. I'm giving some thought to sending parts or all of this to the Globe. I don't know if they answer their email, though. I sent them a note once and never heard back. --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93 <<<<< Color Voice of the Merrimack Warriors (station TBA for 94-95) >>>>>