Joe Shawhan should have the easiest time telling his pupils that ageless adage about letting an opponent hang around. The recipients of such an allowance have a way of capitalizing when the big break emerges, and the flavor of triumph is bolder for it.
The 54-year-old Shawhan will replace Mel Pearson — aka Red Berenson’s successor as the Michigan Wolverines head coach — behind the Michigan Tech bench. He will do so after a combined 12 years as an assistant skipper at all three of the state’s Upper Peninsula programs, including the last three in Pearson’s cabinet.
Between those years, plus his playing and coaching days at two institutions in his native Sault Ste. Marie, Shawhan knows virtually nothing but the U.P. In the same vein, he is a regional loyalist who has paid his dues and brushed off some debatable pass-ups for promotion at past employers.
The one-time Lake Superior State goaltender returned to his former junior program, the Soo Indians, as his first coaching go-round in 1995. Six years of exponential elevation in the North American League standings led to his own ascension to the position of general manager.
Those years of finding and grooming college prospects yielded assistant gigs at his alma mater and Northern Michigan, where he finished his bachelor’s degree in 2009.
Since the tail end of his time at NMU, Shawhan has been in three places to market his aptitude toward a spot the coveted college coaching fraternity without leaving Yooper Country. But neither of his first two NCAA employers fed him the puck.
Shawhan was on Walt Kyle’s staff in Marquette by the time LSSU fired his former higher-up, Jim Rocque, in 2014 after a nine-year run. By that point, a then 51-year-old Shawhan had been away from his hometown and alma mater for six years, but had a decade of multifaceted Junior A success and nine seasons of working under Rocque and Kyle to speak of.
Mel Pearson, who spent a quarter-century as an assistant at MTU and Michigan before catching his big break, left the vacancy for Joe Shawhan to fill with hard-earned facility after coming up short at the other two D-I programs in the U.P. (Photo by Dave Reginek/Getty Images)
Yet at the time of LSSU athletic director Kristin Dunbar’s search, Randy Russon of Hockey News North reported, “Surprisingly, one applicant who will not be interviewed for the Laker coaching position is Joe Shawhan…a source within LSSU said the search committee did not forward Shawhan’s coaching application to Dunbar for an interview.”
Instead of an alumnus with all of the aforementioned seasoning, the Lakers tapped Damon Whitten, 14 years Shawhan’s junior, as their fourth new coach since the legendary Jeff Jackson bolted in 1996. A smattering of Laker loyalists were less than thrilled with the snub, per the comment thread beneath Russon’s write-up.
Ironically, Whitten — a 2001 Michigan State graduate — had spent the previous four seasons with the MTU Huskies, serving on Jamie Russell’s staff in 2010-11, then holding over for Pearson. With the resulting vacancy in Houghton, that same 2014-15 season witnessed Shawhan’s transfer from Kyle’s cabinet to Pearson’s.
Earlier this spring, the pattern reprised itself when the Wildcats let Kyle go and turned to another thirtysomething outsider in Grant Potulny. Potulny is coming off seven seasons in the Don Lucia administration at Minnesota, where he had also played from 2000 to 2004. But his seasoning and familiarity with the U.P. and its three post-realignment WCHA rivals pale against Shawhan’s.
As far as the local media gathered, let alone disclosed, there was even less explanation for Shawhan’s shortcoming in the NMU derby.
Come what may, the Wildcats made their move for Potulny one week before the Wolverines hired Pearson — who had his own long-time-coming narrative as a Berenson associate and assistant for 23 years.
A third institution in as many years in Shawhan’s lifelong locality had opened the seam he doubtlessly craved. And this time, he was in a prime passing lane as Pearson’s righthand man in the resurgent program’s first set of three consecutive winning seasons since the John MacInnes era, plus two NCAA tournament bids in that span.
In nearly any given year, but especially 2014 or 2017, Shawhan could have vied to take his talents elsewhere. He could have deferred his Division I fulfillment for a return to the junior ranks or by seeking a Division III head coaching job.
Instead, the outspoken actions-over-words homebody will be seen plenty more around his native region. The same will go for his influence at Michigan Tech’s ice house and for WCHA away games at LSSU and NMU.
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