Sheehan's First Year a "Learning Experience"

When Baltimore Oriole president and general manager Andy MacPhail was asked recently about the challenges of trying to compete in the tough American League East, he responded, "Don't look at the height of the mountain. Just climb."

That could well describe the philosophy of Triton Viking head coach Pat Sheehan during his trying first year as a head football coach.

Sheehan, a Lynnfield native and former Pioneer captain as well as offensive coordinator of the Pioneers' 2009 championship team, struggled through an apocalypticly difficult first year leading the Triton program. It just wasn't that the Vikes battled through a winless season. It was the incredible way the season unfolded for Sheehan and his charges.

The Vikings faced a tough schedule with seven of their opponents finishing the season with a winning record. Of Triton's 11 losses, seven came by a TOTAL of 30 points. That's an average margin of defeat of 4.3 points. In five of the losses, the Vikes were tied or ahead going into the final quarter. They lost two in the final minute of play (one with 10 seconds left) and one in four overtimes. As I told Pat, if a fiction writer penned that type of epic scenario, no one would buy it.

 "It was unbelievable to tell you the truth," Sheehan said. "Each week was the same old story. It was one thing or another. You think you have it. We were tied. We were up. We were driving. Then came a costly turnover or just a fluke thing."

Sheehan noted some sage advice he received from longtime Austin Prep head coach Bill Maradei  following the Cougars win over the Vikes in the FOURTH overtime.

"He said 'coach you can't go out there and win and you can't go out there and tell your kids you're going to win. You just have to go out there and play as hard as you can and let the chips fall where they may,'" Sheehan remembers. "he said 'those are hard loses and those are going to pay off in the long run.' I believe that and I hope they do."

So how would Sheehan describe his first season?

"I would definitely describe it as a learning experience," said the young coach who had barely turned 28 when he began his first training camp last August. "I'm a young head coach but I don't know if there is anything that can prepare anyone to be a head coach. I tried to take on as many responsibilities with (Pioneer head coach) Neal (Weidman). I asked for the responsibilities and he trusted me with them but it doesn't compare because now you are in charge of everything.

"It was fairly overwhelming at first," he continued. "I started to get the hang of it midway through the season with the administrative and communication piece of it dealing with the players, coaches, parents and administrators."

Sheehan said dealing with the non football aspects of things was the biggest difference in making the jump from assistant coach to head man.

"At Lynnfield, all I thought about was offense and the defense we were playing that week. In the position I'm in now, I was thinking about offense and defense and special teams and the opponent and the freshmen team and the JV team and the students' grades and the parents and the pasta parties. It was overwhelming at first. Once we really got into the season, after camp and after all the paperwork was in it became a lot more like I was accustomed to. It became more about football, going out to practice ever day and trying to get better."

Despite the frustrations of the trying season, Sheehan never lost his composure and put out a positive spin every week.

"By nature I'm a positive person," Sheehan explained. "I take that probably from my father. As far as being cool, I've always been more cerebral as a player and a coach. I wasn't necessarily into the big 'rah,rah' and banging helmets and things like that. I see football as a tough physical game but  as Vince Lombardi said the game is 80% mental and 20% physical and I truly believe that. I think it's a very mental game and you have to have your wits about you at all times through the ups and downs. I try to approach it in a very business like manner."

Sheehan is looking forward to putting last year behind him and getting on to the 2011 season. The merger of the Cape Ann League and the Northeast Conference moves Triton from the tough CAL Large into a much more competitive CAL/NEC Tier Three with Pentucket, Saugus, Winthrop, Newburyport and Amesbury. The Vikings will no longer have CAL Large behemoths like North Andover and Masco standing in the way of their title hopes.

"We're really excited," Sheehan said about the upcoming season. "We had a difficult schedule last year. The realignment really suits us. We're going to miss having the league games against Masco, North Andover and Wilmington because they present challenges that are exciting and I'm always up for a challenge.. Having said that, I'm also excited about the new challenges. I think there's a little bit more parity and the games will be very competitive. We lost to Amesbury by a point and to Newburyport by two points. Pentucket was a great game. It was 21-21 in the fourth quarter. And Saugus and Winthrop will pose new challenges.

"We have a really committed junior class who are going to be seniors. We're working really hard in the weight room. The kids are starting to buy into it. This is the first full offseason where we can start to implement our programs."

Sheehan also has a couple of standout skill players returning in quarterback Blaise Whitman and running back Derek Paquette. The pair heads a list of 16 returning seniors.

"Blaise has a year with the offense under his belt and understanding it. I think Paquette is going to be the best back or one of the top backs in the league. We have some receivers  and offensive linemen coming back. We are losing a lot of our defense but we're excited about the guys we have coming back and the commitment they've shown this offseason."

In another local connection, one of Sheehan's assistants is Mike Geary, another former Pioneer captain and assistant coach. He made the move north last year and will be back for another season with the Vikings.

"He'll be with me," Sheehan said. "I told him he's not allowed to leave until we win a Super Bowl."

Speaking of the postseason, in an interesting twist, Triton's league will be in Division 3A, which is the same as the Pioneer's CAL/NEC 4. At some point in the future, should both the Vikings and Pioneers win their leagues, they would face each other in the post season semi final playoff.

"That would be epic, wouldn't it?," Sheehan said. "I talk to Neal three or four times a week. We're still very close. I think that would be quite a story."

Although that matchup may not happen this year, look for Sheehan's Vikings to be must improved this season. Clearly the young coach has paid his dues, and here's hoping for a more successful second year for Pat and the Vikings.

That's it for now. Check back on May 6th when we'll take a look at the Pioneer's 2011 schedule.