DATE: Saturday, March 1, 1997               TAG: 9703010636

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Tom Robinson

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   76 lines

THIS FINANCE MAJOR IS REDEFINING NET GAINS

Because you just never know when you'll need a goalie, keep John Mewhort's name handy. The Hampton Roads Admirals do. So does the Toledo Storm, also a member of the East Coast Hockey League.

Quite by accident, Chesapeake's Mewhort is suddenly in the Rent-A-Goalie business. His is a low-budget, one-man operation, but the phone has rung a few times over the last six weeks, much to Mewhort's wide-eyed delight.

Since Jan. 11, Mewhort, a 22-year-old Old Dominion finance student and club-team hockey player, has spent time with Hampton Roads and Toledo, anywhere from a few days to his current Admirals life of nearly two weeks.

The latter began when Marc Seliger's Feb. 17 promotion to Portland left the Admirals with only one goalie, Darryl Paquette. For $100 a game, Mewhort became the Admirals' insurance that they wouldn't have to prop winger Rod Taylor, their real emergency goalie, in front of the net should Paquette pop a hammy.

Through five road games, they haven't had to send out Mewhort, a 5-foot-11, 160-pounder with shoulder-length black hair, either.

Toledo is a different story, but more on that in a minute. Right now, let's let Mewhort, a 1992 graduate of Indian River High School, gush about his Mitty-esque adventure.

``This experience just reinforces that what you put your mind to, you can accomplish,'' Mewhort said Friday before his first Scope appearance as an Admiral. ``That's what this is all about. I know I'm not going to be a pro goalie, but it tells you that anything can be accomplished if you have goals and dreams.''

Goals and dreams are nice, but a few hints dropped to the right person were really what opened the ECHL's door to Mewhort. A rec-league hockey player for 10 years, Mewhort actually has nursed a notion to be a pro goalie and plans to try out for a Central Hockey League team next season.

He let that slip to an acquaintance, Bruce MacIsaac, brother of Admirals general manager and assistant coach Al MacIsaac. Things fast-forwarded when Seliger got hurt and MacIsaac, only on Bruce's recommendation, asked Mewhort to join the team in Roanoke on Jan. 11.

That led to a call from goalie-shy Toledo when it hit town, so Mewhort was a Storm backup Feb. 5 at Scope. Mewhort stayed with the Storm and, three days later, through none of his own doing, he started a game in Roanoke when Toledo's replacement goalie was delayed en route.

The guy showed up just before the opening face-off, so Mewhort was pulled after about three minutes. But he'd made two saves and allowed no goals, a perfect pro debut.

``In warmups, my stomach was turning,'' Mewhort said. Yet once the game began, he said, ``there were 8,800 people there, but I just heard this hum. It was complete focus, no nerves. It was a unique feeling, just like I was playing pickup hockey when I was a little kid.''

Youngsters do grow up to be ECHL emergency goalies; most clubs have local men like Mewhort who will drop everything when asked. But is he any good?

``I'll say this for John Mewhort,'' MacIsaac said. ``He's more than I thought he was going to be. For him to go in on an emergency basis, obviously we'd be concerned, but we do have some confidence in him. And I think John has confidence that he'd go in and give 100 percent, which is all we could ask.''

Mewhort isn't about to ask for more, either. He has no contract - emergency goalies aren't signed in the ECHL. But with Seliger due back next week, Mewhort has the promise of at least one more game, tonight in Raleigh.

Too, he's had nearly two weeks of coaching and camaraderie with the first-place Admirals, who MacIsaac said have taken to him. He's been yelled at by coach John Brophy, a distinct honor.

He got passes for his mom, stepdad and two friends to Friday night's big game against Richmond. The Admirals even put his name on the back of his white uniform sweater - on the road he was anonymous - and as he sat on the bench, a capacity crowd got to read it.

Mewhort

30

You just never know. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

Rent-a-goalie John Mewhort, an ODU student from Chesapeake, has been

an insurance policy for two ECHL teams this season.

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