Extra Innings on Ice
Two-sport star returns to the rink, right
off the bat
By Paul Perillo
Matt Keating is a professional baseball player. But instead of playing
in an instructional league in Mexico or some other Latin American country
this winter like many other minor leaguers, he's spending his off-season
at Northeastern.
His days are filled with classes that bring him closer
to his criminal justice degree. Nights are reserved for hitting baseballs
off a batting tee in his room, fine-tuning the swing that made him the
San Francisco Giants' thirty-fifth-round pick in last June's Major League
Baseball draft.
And if all that weren't enough, he somehow finds time to be a key member
of Bruce Crowder's hockey team as well. Keating, an Arlington, Massachusetts,
native, has played forward at Matthews Arena for the past three seasons.
Last year, his finest season, he racked up ten goals and ten assists for
the Huskies.
But after his junior baseball season, during which Keating batted .343
with six home runs and 43 runs batted in for the Husky team, the Giants
came calling, and he jetted off to the West Coast. He spent the summer
in such outposts as Salem, Oregon, and San Jose before returning to Boston
in September.
Why return to the hockey team with a budding baseball career on the
horizon?
"Because the Giants let me," Keating says simply. "I
asked them if they minded if I came back to play hockey and finish school.
They had invited me to go to their instructional league team, which was
really kind of exciting. But this is my last year. I really wanted to win
something when I came to NU, and this is my last chance."
Though Keating's back on Huntington Avenue, the start of his hockey
season was delayed by a freak injury during practice when a skate came
up and cut his wrist. He underwent an operation to pull down a tendon and
missed the season's first six weeks. When he returned to practice in early
December, Crowder was more than happy to have him back.
"Matt's a heck of an athlete," Crowder says. "He means
an awful lot in our locker room and is a tremendous competitor. He was
such a huge surprise for us last year and emerged as one of our most valuable
players."
The reason for Crowder's surprise? Last year, Keating was seriously
considering giving up hockey. He'd had a miserable sophomore season in
19981999, and as his baseball career took off he felt his time on
the ice was coming to a close.
"I remember walking around campus and ducking the hockey coaches
because I didn't know how to tell them I wasn't playing," Keating
jokes. "They really didn't have much room for me. But then we lost
Bobby Haglund when he got in a car accident, and they had me in for a meeting.
I was thinking it was going to be the last time I'd ever go into the hockey
offices, but with Bobby's injury they told me they needed another forward-and
I stayed."
His ten goals tied for the team lead in 19992000, and his twenty
points topped his career totals. Then, in the spring, before heading out
west, he was a first-team America East All-Conference pick for Neil McPhee's
baseball team.
"Matt's an outstanding pro prospect," McPhee says. "He
has the size [6-foot-2, 210 pounds], the swing, and the aggressiveness.
He loves to swing the bat. He needs a little polish defensively at first
base, but he's such a great natural hitter. He loves to be up there with
the game on the line."
McPhee is familiar with coaching pro-level athletes. In the past, he's
had first-round pick Carlos Pena (Texas Rangers), Mike Glavine (Atlanta
Braves), and pitcher Jay O'Shaughnessy. He believes Keating has the potential
to make a career out of baseball.
"I'm a very big believer in two-sport athletes," McPhee says.
"But he didn't get a lot of time in the batting cages working on his
swing and on his defense. The overlap in seasons makes that difficult.
But Matt passionately loves the sports he plays, and that's why he plays
hockey even though he hopes to be a Major League Baseball player."
As passionate as Keating is about sports, he's also enthused about life
outside athletics. That's one reason he chose to come back to school to
finish his degree. His father, Ron, is an FBI agent, and Matt would be
more than happy to follow in his footsteps.
"I'll still have another year of school to go, but I'll worry about
that next year," Keating says. "Becoming an FBI agent is something
I've always thought about, but I'm going to see baseball through-go for
it first. We'll see what happens in the future."
When it comes to Matt Keating, that could be just about anything.
A Klemic Dynasty Unfolds at NU
The Northeastern women's hockey program has a rich tradition of success,
as numerous Beanpot and Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) title
banners attest. So when head coach Heather Linstad left last summer for
a similar position at UConn, Joy Woog immediately expressed interest in
becoming the Northeastern team's next leader.
The 27-year-old Woog knew all about NU's winning ways,
having competed against the Huskies several times during the four seasons
she played on the Brown University hockey team in the mid-1990s. Head coach
last season at Division III Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut,
she saw the NU slot as an opportunity to further her career.
"I'm a very competitive person," Woog says. "I'm very
passionate about hockey, and Division I is a better environment for me.
I can get pretty intense about the game at times, and the girls at this
level are better suited for that than at the Division III level."
Woog grew up with hockey-and coaching-in her blood. The Sherwood, Minnesota,
native spent many winter nights watching the University of Minnesota men's
games; her father's second cousin, Doug Woog, was the coach.
Once her playing career at Brown was over, she stayed in Providence
as an assistant and also coached women's soccer at Rhode Island College
while training with the U.S. National hockey team. When she was cut from
the national team in 1996, she coached hockey and soccer back in Minnesota
before taking over at Sacred Heart.
After the Northeastern job became available, Woog wasted little time-actually,
she didn't have much time to waste. She interviewed with athletic director
Ian McCaw during Labor Day weekend and was offered an interim coaching
position on September 19. That left less than a month to prepare for the
start of the season.
"When I got here, there were recruiting letters left unopened from
April," Woog says. "We had equipment issues, travel plans to
make, scheduling conflicts. We were all playing catch-up. We didn't even
have enough jerseys for all the freshmen. Luckily, the men's team donated
some of theirs to us."
Despite the hardships, Woog is very excited about her new job. And on
the ice, the problems had little effect on the players, who won ten of
their first twelve games with Woog in charge.
"We have a large number of seniors, and they've been extremely
helpful to me," Woog says. "They know the ropes and what they're
supposed to do. Colleen Coen, one of our captains, has been great in helping
with scheduling practices, filling me in on how classes are set up here,
and things like that.
"And we've gotten great performances on the ice from them, too.
Erika Silva, our goalie, has been spectacular at times. [Junior] Brooke
Whitney, Colleen, Lisa Giovanelli, and Kathy Savino are all playing great."
Woog believes her familiarity with the ECAC is a big plus. When she
played at Brown, the Bears were the first Ivy League team to beat the Huskies
in several years. At the time, Northeastern, New Hampshire, and Providence
were the big guns. Now, the Ivy League schools have joined that group to
form a deep, talented league that Woog hopes to remain a part of for the
long term.
"I was hired so late, they needed to be safe and look into things
to be fair to the program," Woog says of her interim status. "They
told me at the time they'd make a broader search, but I don't anticipate
a problem."
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