THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 8, 1996 TAG: 9606080280
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: 70 lines
Time and cash flow will tell if buying the Hampton Roads Admirals will pay off for Mark Garcea and Page Johnson. But their decision to keep John Brophy as coach is on the money.
The new owners made it official Friday at Scope, introducing Brophy as their ``new coach'' on a two-year contract. Brophy, of course, is the only coach the Admirals have known in seven seasons filled with excitement, winning, a couple of ECHL titles and capacity crowds.
Seven seasons tainted, also, by Brophy's profane tirades, fistfights, arrests, assorted suspensions and a particular hacksaw eruption.
Sure, Brophy totes enough baggage to make a skycap feign a bad back. And if Blake Cullen still owned the club, the wiser choice probably would be to thank Brophy for his service and cut the cord.
For all its comfort, familiar longevity can become counterproductive. It happened to Cullen - he knew it, and he got out. It could have been time too for Brophy, increasingly exasperated by the Admirals' recent playoff busts and ECHL tomfoolery (i.e. the supposed widespread salary-cap abuse), to step aside.
But just by showing up, a new regime rekindles in most people a pins-and-needles urgency to prove self-worth. Even with no greater demands handed down, the usual instinct is to try harder, reach higher, behave better.
Garcea-Johnson Inc., who hadn't met Brophy before this week, apparently had no qualms about Brophy, the team's past problemsor his hard-driving talent for coaching hockey.
A few ECHL owners, Garcea said, recently told him they'd go after Brophy in a heartbeat if the Admirals let him go. Others encouraged Garcea to keep Brophy because of what he brings to the league.
``More than anything, the guy sells tickets,'' Garcea said. ``When John Brophy and the Admirals are coming to town, it's unbelievable.''
Then again, some people get giddy anticipating car wrecks at the races. Behavioral issues, then, were front and center when everybody sat down to get acquainted.
``I told John, me and Page have a reputation in the community,'' said Garcea, who's used his electronics company fortune to invest in the Norfolk Tides and buy the Hampton Roads Mariners soccer team. ``We're level-headed guys. Yeah, we may get upset about things, but no matter how frustrated you get . . . and before it all came out of my mouth, John said you don't have to say anymore.''
Brophy chastened? Humbled, even? Looks that way. He'd packed up his office after the season, and appears truly thankful that his job is still his. Truly determined, too, to keep only his team in the headlines.
Nobody wants Brophy, 63, to go all soft and PC-cuddly, least of all Garcea. He just wants Brophy to keep the kettle on steady simmer.
``He's got a heart, there's an emotional side of John,'' Garcea said. ``He cares. If he didn't care, it wouldn't bother him so much to lose. Maybe sometimes we all go to extremes. But I'd rather have a guy who cared than who didn't care.''
Said Brophy: ``You certainly want to stay away from that (controversial) stuff, and I'm certainly going to. That doesn't change anything about hockey and what you do on the ice.
``I know everything comes to an end sometime or later. You stay long enough somebody's gonna shoot you in the head, and you'll probably deserve it. I don't think that time's come. And I think the new owners are going to give us every chance to win and that's the main thing. That's the deal.''
Could be promising - dust off the franchise, ratchet up the enthusiasm, then trust the reins to the one holdover who's heard the echoes of glory and is dying to revive them.
Brophy deserves a shot, all right. The one the new guys just gave him. The one he feared he'd lost. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Admirals coach John Brophy signed on for two more years. by CNB