Boston University head-coach Jack Parker is one of the top-notch coachs in college hockey! As if some of you needed to here it from me! *grin* Don't get me wrong, I'm happy about new head-coach Tim Whitehead and anything praiseful I've said about recently-lost-to-Northeastern coach Bruce Crowder still holds. I also have strong sentiments that have me wishing heavily on B.U. losing, which were happily granted the weekend before last. *smile* But when it comes down to it, I have to admit that what I've seen/heard and witnessed of Parker has consistently impressed me. It was with mixed emotions that I witnessed the "We hate Parker" chants at Tully Forum recently. I know that our Lowell fans get over-zealous at times and I really wouldn't want it any other way. But it was tough to see a great coach get any undeserved irrespect. "Parker" is synonymous with "BU", so I simply made the substitution which worked well. *smirk* Of course I never would need to do that with the "Sucks to BU!" chant. Many, many things have impressed me, but I'll only mention a few. I love it when I see a coach chastise a player for shooting his mouth off. You hardly ever see a BU player running his mouth and Parker has a lot to do with that. Occasionally, a player will taunt an opposing player or "get into it" with an official ... and invariably you'll see Parker telling him to "shut-up and play hockey" once he gets to the bench. I'm also privvy to some of the behind-the-scenes stuff with BU hockey and the attitudes and direction he supplies these players is very commendable. I've seen a complete maturity happen under Parker's tutelage in a local boy - Sean Bates. I'm expecting the see the same results to Lacouture. Bates had the same admissions problems and now he's doing fine scholastically. I love how Parker and his organization handled Lacouture's decision to leave school last semester and despite what all the un-knowing commentators had to say about the whole incident, I personally know that Parker handled it skillfully and tactfully. I love Jack Parker's down-to-earth philosophy. He doesn't create this "hockey-is-everything" mentality. He leads his players into the larger schemes of life and helps to prepare them for the world ... not just the hockey circuit. He doesn't do this as a purpose, he just happens to lead this way because he's not caught up in it all. Last Monday, he was being interviewed before the Beanpot matchup and the interviewer's whole tact was to picture the "incredulous" notion of a Beanpot without Parker. He directed this notion to Parker who responded very colorfully about how nice it might be to be in the Caribbean in February. He easily diverted the focus off "Jack Parker's Beanpot" and back onto the teams involved. Last summer, I heard another quote from Parker who had remarked "The two best things I love about coaching college hockey - July and August!" The reason I was compelled to write these things down was the recent article on USA Today's College Hockey site. The article is about Boston University's Chris Drury. The url is "http://web.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/shc/east/shchfs01.htm" and its definitely worth reading. A small story in the article is a perfect example of the humility that Parker possesses ... to shove one's pride in the back pocket in order to correct one's mistakes. It also shows the respect he has for his players as men, not just hockey players. I loved the quote Dave Hendrickson had from Parker a few weeks back. It was after BU had tied BC twice one weekend and then dropped two games the next to HockeyEast's Lowell and Maine ... all of this right after they swept the powerful and high-riding UNH Wildcats the weekend before. Parker commented on how it appeared his team was saying/believing "We can beat anyone" one second and then "We can't beat anyone" the next. Parker's quote was something along the lines of "We're a bunch of egomaniacs with an inferiority complex!". Its easy to see he's trying to gain consistent balance instead of any high/low rides. Of course, I'm not too sure he'd mind a "high" ride all the way through the spring. I'm really curious about what's been going on between Parker and Maine head coach Sean Walsh. Its must have been something for Walsh to not shake Parker's hand after the Maine-BU game a few weeks ago. I wonder if Walsh got a hold of some Parker comments about the whole Maine thing. I guess we'll never know for sure. Lowell fan, Paul. HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.