Mike Watson Shows the Way

Mike Watson played against his dad's team once. The current Harvard captain was a freshman at the time. His father. Sid, was coaching Bowdoin in Brunswick, Maine--a post he had held since 1959. That's a lot of years devoted to hockey, and the thing to know is that the elder Watson does not like to lose. But that day he did.

Certainly every father is proud of his son and takes credit, justified or not, in his offspring's achievements. But to get beaten by your progeny in a game you yourself introduced him to when he was four years old? It just didn't sit well with Elder Watson.

"It wasn't fun," Watson Junior recalls. "It was weird. .interesting. . .but of course, we were supposed to win."

Of course, Harvard--at least in hockey--is a card-carrying member of the NCAA's Division I. Bowdoin and its 2500 students rate a notch lower in Division II. The Harvard win could hardly be called a collegiate upset. But a familial one it definitely was.

Mike Watson deals with the subject in what both friends and casual fans have come to recognize as his understated style. "Quiet off the ice, effective with puck on the ice," reads the Harvard hockey media guide. Reserved, he is, Reflective, yes. Circumspect, of course. But perhaps most of all, Watson should be labelled authentic. He presents himself as he is, and takes action only within prescribed limits. Especially in his role as Harvard's 81st captain.

"I try to lead by example. You can only do so much talking before people say. 'Hey, he's' not doing it.' I get people thinking about the game, and then go out and do what I'm doing, and that's about it.

"I don't go around banging trash cans, things like that." Things like that include hurdling about the ice during a game like Roger Ramjet, trying to do anything and everything at once. "While other guys go crazy, I don't think I expend as much energy. I try to keep my head out there," says Watson.

To some degree, the captain's controlled style was born of necessity. "[Coach Billy] Cleary likes people who can skate. Clearly, I'm not one of the best skaters on the team, not one of the fastest by any means, but the thing is. I anticipate well. Trying to size up the situation is the best part of my game."

The situation facing Watson when he walked on campus freshman year was one of simply trying to make the team. Five-ft., 6-in. and 125 pounds after his senior year in high school, he spent a year at Deerfield and boosted those starts to 5-ft, 9-in., 170.

"After high school, I thought I could make it I've seen other kids in Division I, and thought basically, all I had to do was grow and get physical," he says.

But even with the added bulk, Watson never received any guarantees about playing time at Harvard. He responded with a 16-goal, ten-assist rookie season.

Early success made Watson anxious for more. Too anxious. Sophomore year, for one of the few times in his life, he let things get out of perspective. "It was frustrating," he recalls matter-of-factly.

Watson pressed for perfection, tried to do too much on a team destined for an 8-15-3 season. His game stagnated, and the most jarring lesson of the learning experience was the drop to just nine goals.

"Starting last season, I went in with a different perspective, one not so intent on winning and achieving, but on having a good time," he says.

But Watson has a chore now, that of leading his team out of what has become an annual rite of passage--the stretch of games during reading period--and into its first over-.500 season in five years.

Says Watson: "I've got to try to keep the guys from getting down, keep them working hard. This year we started off well (before Christmas break), but then we hit that streak (0-6). It's hard to concentrate on the ice when you've got a lot of things to think about off it."

Perhaps he is the man to put them there. Harvard hockey had its share of trash-can bangers, and this is a different breed of captain.

"I do appreciate hockey now. I found it out last year. You know how you feel that if you win something, it would be the greatest thing in the world, and then when you get there it's just one more thing?

"The reward really is in the doing, not the achieving. . .But I would like to have a winning season and to be in the playoffs this year."

"I try to lead by example," says Harvard captain Mike Watson. "You can only do so much talking before people say, 'Hey, he's not doing it.' I get people thinking about the game, and then go out and do what I'm doing, and that's about it. I don't go around banging trash cans, things like that."