GSA’s Matt Mattson has mind for defense

This, that, and another thing or two.

Talk a little hoop with George Stevens Academy boys coach Matt Mattson and you will be impressed with his mind for the game. He talks Xs and Os but you come away from the conversation understanding exactly what he was talking about.

Perhaps that’s why his team played such great team defense. Not only had the coach sold the kids on the concept, but they also understood their roles.

“We’re not flashy. We don’t have any secrets. We just work hard as a team,” Mattson said.

But there is more to it than that. His team played a disciplined game that took advantage of its opponents’ mistakes and misfortunes. Mattson also brought a bit of fire to the table. He was not afraid to come to his feet and point out mistakes to his players during the tourney.

Footnote – having covered Mattson in his high school playing days at GSA, watching the Eagles’ coach hold two children prior to GSA’s game with Schenck of East Millinocket made this reporter feel old. Mattson, who graduated in 1991, said his high school playing days were a “long time ago.” No, it was only yesterday. …

The team concept, hereafter known as “Patriots Syndrome,” seems to be the current sports fad. Every coach we see interviewed, from the high school level to the pros, talks about his or her team, playing like a team. Being a family. The kids really like each other. No, I mean really like each other. Not just a little. They really like each other. …

Americans will never win cross-country skiing races on an international level. We prefer to use automobiles to travel 50 kilometers. …

Every Olympics is full of stories to stir the emotions. Stories of athletes overcoming adversity to become Olympic champions or even just to compete. But will someone please explain why the story of a guy from Brazil in the 50-kilometer cross-country race who finishes dead last, more than eight hours behind everyone else, collapses at the finish and is dangerously close to frostbite, is so appealing? A person could read Winston Churchill’s “History of English Speaking People” during the time it takes this guy to finish the race. All four volumes.

Shouldn’t someone tell the guy he shouldn’t be out there in the first place? Shouldn’t there be a rule or something? It was a little stirring to watch those three Brazilian fans in the stands go crazy and wave the flag as the ambulance pulled up to pick up the guy. …

Wayne Gretzky complained that everyone was rooting against his Canadian hockey team. It sounded like whining, but he was right. At least, I was rooting against them. From a personal perspective, I had hoped the Canadians would lose before the gold medal game for a greedy reason. They were the only team that I felt could beat the Americans. Besides, the U.S. and Canada are joined by a common border, not at the hip. …

Speaking of hockey, the NHL could do itself a real favor by incorporating some of the international rules with its own. NHL purists (are there such people?) would argue that the NHL game is perfect in every way. Olympic hockey games were much shorter than NHL games. There were no TV timeouts. The puck was dropped 14 seconds after a whistle had ended play. The networks took their own chances going to commercial. Can you imagine the uproar had one of the teams scored while NBC was selling Chevys during the gold medal game?

There was no fighting and much less clutching and grabbing than in the NHL. The big ice sheet helped to create odd-man attacks – two-on-one and three-on-two situations. The icing rule was automatic, and with no need for a defender to touch the puck, it helped to speed up the game.

Another improvement over the NHL game was the two-line pass rule – there wasn’t one. There was no red line for the players to trip over. The result was exciting, open play that created scoring chances.

The Olympics hockey tourney helped emphasize how slow the NHL game really is. The Olympics lured casual fans to watch in some part due to patriotism, but also because of the exciting style of play. The sad part for the NHL establishment is that some people undoubtedly became hockey fans during the Olympics, but will be turned off by the NHL’s skating-in-slush style of play. The NHL will not really lose those fans. They never had them to begin with. …

Is Trot Nixon becoming the boy who cried wolf? At the end of the last baseball season, Nixon was lauded for going public with his feelings on how he thought some of his teammates had quit down the stretch.

However, Nixon has now criticized Manny Ramirez for showing up at camp a day late without knowing the circumstances surrounding Ramirez’ tardiness (reportedly Ramirez was required by the insurance company that guarantees his contract to take a physical). Nixon has since backed off his criticism of Ramirez. While it was refreshing to see a player, particularly a young Red Sox player ready to take on a leadership role, Nixon has to be careful of becoming a guy with a reputation for shouting at the moon.

Don Perryman can be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or dperryman@bangordailynews.net.