Posted on Mon, Jan. 08, 2007
GOPHERS WOMEN'S HOCKEY COACH LAURA HALLDORSON TALKS BOB SANSEVERE LISTENS 'I WANTED TO BE A ROCK STAR'
I'm still a high school sophomore at heart. I still like to goof around and enjoy things and not take life too seriously.
If I had a time machine, I think I'd go back to my high school days when I was playing four sports and my dad was still alive and coming to all my games. It was just a fun time in my life.
I went to Wayzata West Senior High School. The school didn't have a girls hockey team. I played for the Minnesota Checkers. It was a youth hockey team in Wayzata. We won some national tournaments back in the day. We traveled a lot. We went to Finland and Russia. I also played school sports, including volleyball, basketball and softball. I was better at volleyball and softball than basketball. Those were the two sports I was looking at playing in college until I realized halfway through my senior year I could play hockey in college.
My favorite cartoon? I liked Underdog. He was a little scrawny thing, but there was always a happy ending with him. He had that pill he would take to become Underdog. A close second would be Hong Kong Phooey. There was a catchy little song with it.
At volleyball camp when I was a junior in high school, I lip synched with Jill Pohtilla in a talent show. She's the Augsburg women's hockey coach now. We sang "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights" by Meat Loaf.
My parents had the biggest influence on my life. I still have a grandma who's going to be 92 this month. She's been a special person in my life, too. Besides those relatives, coaches have had a big impact on me. I've taken things I've learned through my experiences and owe a lot to my former coaches.
I was a psych major at Princeton. I incorporated sports into my thesis, which involved the men's hockey team at Princeton. It was about TV violence and hockey aggression and whether there was a correlation between TV shows somebody watched and how physical a hockey player they were. I concluded there isn't a correlation. A lot of the research I read said there was.
When I was real young, I thought it would be really cool to drive. Before you get your driver's license, you want to drive. I thought, "Bus drivers get to drive all day and that'd be cool." I was about 10, when life was simple. I didn't understand a whole lot about what my career options were.
I didn't get in too much trouble as a kid. I had detention once in junior high. On my birthday, I was thrown in the showers. Not only did the kids who threw me in get detention, I got detention, too. I wrote a letter to the gym teacher stating my case why I shouldn't have gotten detention. I didn't think it was fair. I'm the one who got thrown in the showers. I thought the gym teacher was kidding when she said, 'What day do you want detention?' I went to detention because she was the boss. To this day, I think I was right. But life isn't fair, right? As a coach, I've been on the other side of those things.
I am not good with losing. I need a little time and space. I'm getting better, and I am working on that. My friends and family know not to talk to me right away. I like to win. I'm very competitive in everything.
I love sports, and I love working with people instead of sitting in an office in front of a computer all day.
I never had this plan to be a coach. I never said, "Here's what I want to do. This is my goal." It was more like, "Here's what I enjoy doing and let's see what happens."
I've always wanted to have a positive influence on people's lives, and sports gives me a vehicle to do that.
The past couple of years, I've given a lot of thought to what is my purpose in life. I've done some heavy thinking. I think my role is helping the players and people I come into contact with.
Hockey is important to me. I probably would describe myself as a workaholic. Aside from my job, I don't do a whole lot. I have the boring life.
We have the Gopher Women's Hockey Constitution and No. 4 is "Enjoy the journey." We have it up in our locker room. No. 1 is "Commit to excellence." No. 2 is "Do the right thing the right way." No. 3 is "Be dedicated to continuous learning and growing." They apply to on-ice and off-ice.
I am the exception to the rule about hockey players who golf. I don't golf. I hear all the time hockey players are good golfers. Not me.
Growing up, my favorite TV show was "The Partridge Family." I was a big David Cassidy fan. I knew all the songs. My teammates and I sang the songs and used our hockey sticks as microphones. I wanted to be a rock star, but I couldn't sing.
My all-time favorite TV shows include "Seinfeld" and David Letterman's late-night show. My favorite new show is "Men in Trees." It's set in Alaska, which has something to do with it.
I've been to Alaska. I just really enjoy getting outside and enjoying the beauty of nature. That sounds so corny.
We've won two NCAA championships, but we've won three national titles. The first year we won was in 2000. It was the American Women's Collegiate Hockey Alliance tournament. It was a USA-sanctioned national tournament. We didn't have the NCAA tournament yet. It doesn't count as an NCAA national championship, but don't tell those players they didn't win a national title.
One of my most memorable moments was in the 2000 national tournament. Winning the championship wasn't the highlight. It was the semifinal game when we beat Minnesota-Duluth. We had a very dramatic win. I remember it like yesterday how that game went, and the look in our players' eyes during the timeout with about three minutes left. I remember when we lost in the WCHA tournament to Minnesota-Duluth. It was an emotional loss. The team was devastated. I told them, "Remember how you feel right now." During the timeout in the semifinals, I said, "Remember how we felt the last time we played these guys, and we're not going to feel that way today." That was a precious look to see the fire in their eyes and the way they pulled out that game. That was my all-time favorite game. It was really anti-climatic to beat Brown in the championship game.
I'm probably a little stubborn. I try to be compassionate. I may not be the best at showing how much I care, but the student-athletes and staff we have are so valuable to me and so important in my life.
I'd say my favorite book is "Tuesdays with Morrie." It's one of the gifts I give to all my seniors. It gives you perspective.
My players would be surprised if they knew when I was younger my dad would take our Great Danes to dog shows, and I would go along and help him.
I have a wide variety of musical interests. I like adult contemporary music. I was a huge dance music fan in my younger days, but I've gotten mellow. My team likes country music, so I bought a couple of country CDs recently to branch out. I have a jukebox downstairs in my basement.
I do not sing in public. Only in my car.
I really like "Hoosiers." I also like funny movies like "Tommy Boy" and "Meet the Parents." For sad movies, I like "Beaches." It depends on what mood I'm in.
You hear stories about people feeling they can't do different things. Growing up, I remember my parents being very supportive and saying, "You could do whatever you want."
I would like my legacy to be more than about Laura Halldorson. I want my epitaph to say, "Here lies Laura Halldorson. It wasn't about her."
Bob Sansevere can be reached at
bsansevere@pioneerpress.com.
http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?ei= ... 1&.intl=us
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