Blais McDonald to stay coach at Lowell

This article was written by Adam Wodon on college hockey news. While I have a great amount of respect for Adam Wodon I must take issue with some of the things that are written in this article.

Lowell Exercises its 'Right'

by Adam Wodon/Managing Editor

I had originally written this article to suggest that the firing of Massachusetts-Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald would be entirely justified.

Soon thereafter, however, Lowell officials, and University of Massachusetts chancellor Marty Meehan, decided to reinstate MacDonald. This followed a suspension after he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, failed multiple field sobriety tests, and two Breathalyzer tests found MacDonald at almost three times the legal limit.


Either way Lowell went, it could receive criticism or praise.

The original thought was that a DUI offense, while bad, is a pardon-able offense. But as new facts came to light, things looked grim for MacDonald. Police found four beers and a bottle of Absolut vodka in his car. His car looked like it had hit a tree or bush. And more.

First off: I am not going to say that I am a fan of drunk driving because I am not, drunk drivers kill 1,000's of innocent people every year on America's highways, however, what does this have to do with the offense. The offense was drunk driving; (OUI, DUI etc), the least of McDonald's worries is an open bottle in his vehicle, or the brand of the alchol that he drank. Regardless, if threshold of drunk driving is a BAC of .08 or .10; that fact is that offender committed a crime regardless if he drank wine, vodka, beer or whiskey. The fact of this incident was not the contents of the car (open bottles) but the BAC of the driver of that vehicle was too high.

Article Continued: However, it's easy to sit here from a distance, in cold detachment, and suggest that MacDonald should be fired. It's another thing to be his friend for 18 years, and see MacDonald lead a program that has had nary a discipline problem, and has the highest cumulative grade point average of any men's program at the school. That's the issue Lowell AD Dana Skinner faced, and he chose to keep MacDonald.

Thirteen years ago, Michigan made a similar choice when it retained Red Berenson, even though the now-legendary college coach was stopped for DUI and public urination. It certainly can't be said that Michigan is a renegade program by any stretch.

Coaches like to talk about "learning moments" and if handled right, they can turn their own embarrassing episodes into them.

Lowell had an even tougher decision, considering MacDonald's won-loss record at the school is not nearly as sparkling as Berenson's, even at the time, before Berenson had won his two national titles.

Unfairly or not, when you factor in what in many people's eyes has been an underachieving record at Lowell, MacDonald's dismissal seemed even more justified. MacDonald has been known as fun to be around, a glib interview, fiery — in other words, everything his predecessor, Tim Whitehead, was not known for. But that hasn't translated into any more success than Whitehead, who has gone on to prove himself at Maine.

But that only makes this decision by Lowell more palatable. After all, it didn't retain a cretin because he wins — like basketball's Bob Huggins.

So if Lowell believes it can live with MacDonald as its coach, and actually get positives from it, then it's their prerogative to make that decision.

Of course, this couldn't have come at a worse time, the program already embroiled in controversy and fighting for its very existence throughout the spring. Then, just as the program gets a reprieve, and it's announced that all 375 Club seat packages had been sold (meeting a goal), the DUI happens.

So MacDonald has a recruiting mess on his hands, partially, now, of his own making. Perhaps, in a perverse way, that will be his penance.

To quote the Caveman from the Geico comerical. WHAT? I honestly don't know what the point of this article is? The University made a decision to keep a hockey coach that in my mind is a good guy that made a bad mistake. It happens people. I am sure most of us know someone that got a driving under the influence charge. Lets give Blaise McDonald the benefit of the doubt, McDonald has apologized for his mistake and we should move on and let his action speak for himself. I doubt that this incident is going to affect Lowell's recruiting as much as the chance that the hockey team folding because of state budgetary constraints, that in my opinion would be more detrimental recruiting than a one time incident.

Honestly, I think that we can be assured that if this happened again McDonald would be out on his ear in a New York Minute. Lastly, comparing this incident to Red Berernson's incident 13 years ago, what does that incident have to do with this incident? Each are separate incidents that have no bearing on the other. If anything Red's incident was worse, public urination (basically you have a offense of drunken disorderly conduct and a DWI). Besides, on the recruiting front; Michigan is a big ten school with a winning history and 9 national titles making it a much easier sell than University of Massachusetts's Lowell is a state school in Massachusetts that is a middle of the road hockey team that doesn't even make the NCAA tourney on a regular basis. In fact your comparing apples to oranges. I could see why maybe Blais McDonald's record isn't as good as Red's.

Face it we are human being make and we move on. Some mistakes are worse than others, I would be willing to bet that McDonald isn't going to be the last one to make this mistake. I would also be willing to bet that there have been 150 OUI/DUI/DWI's in Lowell, MA since this incident and none have probably gotten the press this one incident has.