Walsh’s philosophy recalled

It was a year ago yesterday when University of Maine hockey coach Shawn Walsh lost his battle with kidney cancer. A lot has happened in the last year and a day.

His team, using his death as motivation, came within 52.4 seconds of winning a third NCAA championship in 10 years before bowing to Minnesota 4-3 in overtime.

The NCAA has expanded its hockey tournament from 12 to 16 teams and he was inducted into the University of Maine Sports Hall of Fame.

If Shawn Walsh could return for half an hour and address friends and family, what might he say?

For starters, he would praise wife Lynne for the job she has done raising son Sean Michael and step-daughter Alejandra during his absence. He would tell Sean Michael, Alejandra and sons Tyler and Travis to buckle down academically and always give 100 percent.

He would say be thorough, don’t leave any stone unturned. Motivation and work ethic can carry you a long way.

He would tell the players and coaches from last year’s team how proud he was of them and and how elated he was about Tim Whitehead winning the Spencer Penrose Award, given to the national coach of the year. After all, he hand-picked Whitehead to handle the head coaching chores if he wasn’t available due to the cancer.

He would tell the 2002-2003 Black Bear hockey team not to dwell on last year’s heart-breaking loss to the Gophers and dedicate themselves to getting back into the NCAA Tournament. In order to win an NCAA championship, he knew you first have to qualify for the tournament.

He would insist on them spending more practice time on faceoffs this year.

He would tell the media not to pick this year’s team too high in the polls. He would say the two goalies, Frank Doyle and Jimmy Howard, have never played a minute of college hockey and that they lost their top two offensive defensemen in Peter Metcalf and Michael Schutte along with leading scorer Niko Dimitrakos.

But, deep down, he would know that Maine teams always peak late and perform at their best in the postseason. That’s what set him apart from some of the other upper-echelon coaches.

He would be perturbed by his beloved Cleveland Indians and management’s decision to begin a long rebuilding process.

With the exception of his first few seasons at Maine, Shawn never believed in rebuilding. He was a staunch believer in reloading.

When he first came to Maine in 1984, he was left with a program that had to be completely rebuilt in order to compete in a fledgling new league called Hockey East. He did that and, in his third season, they made the first of their 12 NCAA Tournament appearances.

He would address Red Sox fans.

“Not good enough…. can’t hit in the clutch…manager can’t motivate them… too many stars and not enough role players,” he would say.

He would take time to praise Maine football coach Jack Cosgrove and baseball coach Paul Kostacopoulos for their jobs in guiding their teams to NCAA Tournament berths.

He would also be elated with the football team’s No. 3 ranking in a Division I-AA poll.

Last, but not least, he would thank his family and friends for their love and support and tell everyone to cherish each and every minute of life.

He certainly did in his short time on earth. He didn’t get cheated. He packed several lives into his 46 years.

Larry Mahoney can be reached at 990-8231, 1-800-310-8600 or e-mail: lmahoney@bangordailynews.net