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Sports: February 11, 1998
Sports (overview)
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Coach Toot's "scoot" brings success to hockey Don Cahoon has transformed his players into winners and Tiger fans into believers
Don "Toot" Cahoon's
distinctive, hurried gait is a familiar sight around
Baker Rink. He's perpetually in motion -- scooting from one task
to another like an aggressive forward hustling for a loose puck.
It's been that way since the summer of 1991, when Cahoon came
to Princeton after head-coaching jobs at Lehigh and Norwich
and several years as an assistant to Jack Parker
at Cahoon's alma mater, Boston University (BU). He assumed the reins
of a Tiger program that had generated success for
individual players, but that hadn't had a winning season as a team in
31 years.
Although his early squads weren't as strong as his current team
is, Cahoon still expected they -- and he -- would find ways to
achieve. He'd feverishly match lines against
superior teams, trying to minimize the potential
for mismatches. He'd install a new system in a
week -- in 1992 putting in a three-defenseman, two-forward scheme, which he used to
defeat a shocked Yale squad. He even played all three goaltenders for
one period each in 1993, resulting in a 3-2 upset of a BU team bound for
the NCAA semifinals.
"I think his biggest strength is ...the way he adapts a style to
fit the team," says former Tiger radio announcer Geoff Howell. "He
recognizes a team's, and a player's, strengths and weaknesses. He's not afraid to
try something new, especially at a place like Princeton where players can
handle the changes."
The turning point occurred during the 1994-95 season, Cahoon's
fourth at Princeton. Even with three classes of Cahoon recruits filling most of
the roster, the squad began the season 2-5. But then it was unbeaten in its
next 10 contests, climaxed by a 3-2 upset of top-ranked Maine. The year
ended in the ECAC Final at Lake Placid, the first time the Tigers had
advanced beyond the quarterfinals since tourney play commenced in 1962. His
cur- rent team (104-4 overall, 4-4-3 ECAC) stands fourth in the league.
"When I first came here, we spent an enormous amount of time on
skill development," says Cahoon, a former left wing
who still holds the ECAC tournament record for fastest goal
at the start of a period -- seven seconds. "Now we're more athletic and
more skilled, from top to bottom. We do more conceptually. We work on
developing strategies for different teams. We'll
have two or three approaches we can use, depending on game conditions."
Success has not stemmed solely from recruiting more athletic players.
Cahoon fosters in his players a sense of commitment to the tenets of his
program, among them unselfish puck movement and cohesively rigid defense. An
intense off-ice conditioning program that uses the rink's weight room -- for
which Cahoon lobbied hard in his first two years -- keeps the
team working together beyond seasonal practice
time. When the team travels by bus, the players all don black sweatsuits
with orange trim. Cahoon creates a different rooming list for each road
trip, hoping players will form stronger connections through the shared experience.
"It's no different than a family," explains Cahoon, who has two
teenage children. "I know that's an overused term, and I don't use the
word with the team. But you deal with in-house problems and with factions
of people, and you have to make sure those relationships mesh."
The weight room and sweatsuits, even trips to Europe in 1993 and
1997, are perks at Princeton -- most other college programs deem them
essential. They are the fruits of Cahoon's efforts with alumni: involvement
with the Friends of Princeton Hockey has more than doubled since his
arrival. "He's a dynamic personality who is
positive about everything," says Ken Scassera '61, the group's president
and treasurer.
"The first time I met him was at the end of the summer before his
first year," recalls Howell. "My intent
was to ask him for help in seeking advertisers for the games. I went away
thinking, what can I do for him?"
Last summer Princeton could have lost Cahoon. When the NHL's
Boston Bruins wooed BU's Parker to be its coach, BU administrators and
alumni penciled in Cahoon's name atop their list of potential replacements.
Fortunately for the Tigers, Parker turned down the NHL to remain at BU.
"I know my wife [Cindy, a nurse at McCosh Health Center], I know
my kids, and I know how much we like living in this area and working with the
student-athletes at Princeton," says Cahoon. "I also knew from talking to Jack
that he wasn't going to leave BU, so I never had to deal with the 'what-if?' "
Cahoon is now pondering the chances of a team that may possess the
most talent and potential of any Tiger squad he's coached. That doesn't mean
his workload is any less daunting. "I'm blessed in that I have good people
around me," says Cahoon. "But if I'm
reluctant to test myself, we're going to be treading water as a program. We're
not going to get it done all at once, but we've got to keep plugging away."
Swimmers must retain form to win titles "It's a matter of how you choose to handle the dual meets," says
women's coach Susan Teeter. "You don't want to hurt your training. If you rest
too much, you won't swim well at the championships."
Princeton's men and women amassed several early wins, and are
now preparing for their end-of-season
competitions. Time will tell if they've mastered the challenging balance.
The women (5-0 overall, 4-0 Ivy) started the month of December
by taking second place at the University of Virginia Invitational,
sparked by Bess Frank '99, whose 55.98 time in the 100-yard backstroke
eclipsed her own school record of 56.57 set last season. Other winners were
three-meter diver Erin Lutz '01 and the 200-yard medley relay team.
On January 3, the Tigers destroyed Yale at DeNunzio Pool, 179-113,
taking 14 of 16 possible first-place finishes. At Cornell a week later, Princeton
earned a 167-127 win behind strong performances from its underclassmen.
The Tigers faced Harvard and Brown on February 7 and 8, respectively,
and are now preparing for the Ivy championships, to be held from
February 26 to 28 at Harvard.
The men (3-0 overall, 3-0 EISL) began December by winning the
Virginia Invitational; individual victories came from Matt Vogt '99 (50 freestyle), Clayton
Jones '01 (100 and 200 freestyle), Terry Meck '00
(three-meter diving), and captain Davin Quinn '98 (200 breaststroke).
Next the Tigers beat Army; their 179-113 victory
on January 6 was 19-year head coach Rob Orr's 19th in
a row against the Black Knights. A few days later
Princeton dominated Cornell, 186-108, in Ithaca, winning
all but one event.
"We're swimming well right now," says Orr. The
coach remains cautious about Princeton's prospects, however,
because his lineup is fairly young.
The Tigers tested themselves against a strong
Harvard squad in the H-Y-P Invitational February 6 and 7,
and are now looking ahead to the EISL Championships,
from March 5 to 7 at West Point.
Intensity brings wins to basketball But guard Lynn Makalusky '98 stands unmolested just outside
the three-point arc, and seconds later, she buries another of her
line-drive bombs, increasing Princeton's lead to 12. In the second half,
Brown gets no closer than eight, and the Tigers win, 72-54.
The victory, on January 10, was the team's second in as many
days; the Tigers (7-7 overall, 2-1 Ivy) had trounced Yale, 67-45, the night before.
Several players shone in the two wins: Langlas rang up a
career-high 28 points against Brown (the most since Corneille Burt '92 had 31
in 1991) and had 15 against Yale. Drohan continued to shine,
getting nine blocks over the two games.
However, credit for these two wins is due in large part to Angell
and Makalusky, two new starters. According to coach Liz Feeley,
Angell "took her game to a higher level" in the two games, with her 26
points and strong defense. Feeley says Angell "answered the call" when she
saw an opportunity.
Likewise did Makalusky, who had 20 points and five steals in the
games; the coach credits her "consistency of intensity" and "incredible
desire to win." Together, the two helped give the team an aggressive
edge on offense and defense. That edge had been absent in Princeton's
first Ivy matchup, on January 3 -- a disappointing, 55-52 loss to Penn
-- when the Tigers let a 12-point lead evaporate in the second half.
The team remembered that lesson a week later, closing out
the wins over Yale and Brown with potent offense and unrelenting defense
(its full-court press was especially effective). "They get it now," said
Feeley. "They understand that talent can take you so far, but when you
bust, it can take you a lot farther."
After a 16-day break for exams, Princeton faced Rider, then
began its Ivy run in earnest, traveling to Cornell and Columbia and
hosting Dartmouth and Harvard. The Tigers play at Brown and Yale
February 13 and 14.
Scoreboard (13-1 overall,2-0 Ivy)
W at Yale, 69-58
W at Brown, 69-38
W. basketball
(7-7 overall,2-1 Ivy)
L vs. Penn, 52-55
W vs. Yale, 67-45
W vs. Brown, 72-54
M. ice hockey
(10-4-4 overall,4-4-3 ECAC)
W at Dartmouth, 6-4
L at Vermont, 3-6
W. ice hockey
(88-1 overall,6-6 ECAC, L at Dartmouth, 0-4
W at Boston C., 6-2
M. swimming
(3-0 overall,3-0 EISL)
W at Cornell, 186-108
W. swimming
(5-0 overall,4-0 Ivy)
W at Cornell, 167-127
M. track
(1-0 overall,0-0 Ivy)
W vs. Navy, 87-49
W. track
Delaware Invit.1st
Wrestling
(7-1 overall,0-0 EIWA)
North South Duals
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