Fifteen Questions With Ted Donato

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ted Donato ’91 was named Harvard men’s hockey coach on July 2, 2004, replacing the departed Mark Mazzoleni. During his four-year playing career at Harvard, he led the Crimson to its only national championship in 1989, earning the Frozen Four’s Most Valuable Player award for his performance in the tournament. After 13 seasons in the National Hockey League, he retired just prior to returning to his alma mater. He sat down with The Crimson yesterday.

The Harvard Crimson: You haven’t been here very long, but what are your first impressions?

Ted Donato: I think I bring a lot of enthusiasm. I’m very excited about the position. There’s a lot of pride. I’m very comfortable with what we’re trying to do, what were trying to sell from a recruiting standpoint. I believe in a Harvard education, I believe we can have a great hockey program. From a recruiting standpoint, which is a large part of the job, I’m comfortable with our position. And from the administrative side of the job, it definitely has its challenges, especially for someone without a background in that, but I think our staff is good....We’ll all help each other out.

THC: You’re new to the job and you’ve never recruited before, but is it easier to sell a school you’ve been to and have invested so much in?

TD: Absolutely. We are competitive on a national level. But the negative from a recruiting standpoint is that financially, we can’t offer full scholarships. Quite frankly, almost everyone we recruit has full scholarship offers. You have to believe in what you’re trying to sell. To me, I know I’m selling the Rolls Royce of college educations. And from a hockey standpoint, we’re a very very good hockey program, we should be. I’m confident, and I feel like I’m giving out passes for successful life to a lot of these kids. It’s always one of the draws for the job, the kind of kids you get to work with.

THC: You inherit a program that lost a lot of seniors to graduation.Do you find it easier to relate to all the freshmen you have coming in?

TD: Yeah, I do. I think I share some of their eagerness, also their uneasiness with a transition from one spot to another. I think we have a lot in common in that regard. I think I’ve been blessed to come into a situation with a great senior class and great senior leadership. I think that somewhat makes up for the fact that we lost a lot to the graduating class.

THC: This team has gone to the NCAA Tournament each of the past three years. What is it going to take to move beyond the first round this year?

TD: To me I want to focus more on the journey than just the end result. I feel if we do the right things and progress during the season, at the end of the year we’ll have a chance to compete and bring the program to the next level. These guys deserve a lot of credit. The last coaching staff deserves a lot of credit for what they’ve accomplished over the past three years.

THC: You’ve been there before, winning the NCAA title in 1989. Looking back, how much does that mean?

TD: I think it means a great deal. To me, it represents the ultimate combination of athletic achievement and academic success. That’s the opportunity I want to help to provide, to give these guys a chance from a hockey standpoint to compete for the national championship every year. But only one team is going to win. You have to enjoy the journey and not just worry about the end result.

THC: Does your past, being the Most Valuable Player of the Frozen Four the year your team won the title, give you greater weight with your players?

TD: I think it gives some credibility to the fact that I believe that we don’t have to give up anything from an academic standpoint to play at the nationally competitive level, hockey-wise. I’m living proof that you can juggle both academic excellence and athletic excellence at the same time.

THC: You have a bit of a reputation as a joker from back during your playing days….

TD: I like to have fun and to me, the college experience should be a fun one. It’s the best time of your life. I want these guys to enjoy themselves and remember their time at Harvard and with the Harvard hockey program. That’s not to say that there isn’t a lot of work to be done and there isn’t competitive fire that burns. But at the end of the day it is about the journey and it should be a fun journey for these guys.

THC: What did your former coach Bill Cleary tell you when you took this job and what do you try to take away from him?

TD: I talked to him continue to talk to him, and try guide the ship the way it should be guided at Harvard. You accomplish what all college coaches try to accomplish, and he did it the right way. That’s what’s most important about what he represents, the ability to athletically go after it without giving up anything from an academic standpoint.

THC: What’s the most important thing you take away from him and have tried to make your own?

TD: Well I think that his greatest asset as a coach was his ability to deal with people. His people skills, his communication skills. He brought an enthusiasm that was contagious. An excitement that was contagious. An attitude that I think filtered out throughout the program. I think that’s my goal. That’s my goal, to create an atmosphere that I enjoyed when I was here. To be in good standing within the university and within the hockey community.

THC: Was it hard to walk away from professional hockey, or was this just something you were ready for?

TD: I think both. I’m not going to lie and say that I don’t have the itch, the excitement of the game. You just can’t get a bottle and put it on the shelf. I’m excited about this season, about working with what I found to be great kids. I think in life you move on to different challenges, this is a huge challenge and I’m excited about it.

THC: Was playing for the Boston Bruins a dream come true?

TD: Yeah, it was. I think I’m unique in the fact that I always dreamed for playing for the Bruins, more than I wanted to play in the NHL, and I was lucky enough to be drafted by Boston. It was definitely a dream-come-true scenario.

THC: How active do you expect to be when you coach? Are you going to be the sort that slaps on your skates and mixes it up, or will you be more removed?

TD: I want to make sure these guys feel like they’re developing, feel like they’re improving on a day-to-day basis. How active I get in showing that remains to be seen but I think I know my place and these guys have obviously accomplished a great deal to get to this point and I want them to feel like they can compete at a high level while improving and developing as hockey players and people.

THC: You come into a situation with two or three very solid goalies. Dov has taken the Crimson to three straight NCAA tournaments, but does he come in as the favorite, or is the job up in the air?

TD: I think competition is always good. As a coach I want to base all my decisions on what’s purely good for the team, not what has gone on in the past, what’s going to go on in the future as far as projecting that. Realistically, I think Dov has won two ECAC championships, led the team to the NCAA tournament three times in a row. I’d be blind to say that he wasn’t the guy with the most experience and the lead for that position. I think he’s earned that.

THC: Over the past couple of years, there has been a lot of “static” in Bright Hockey Center, from alums, family, fans. Do you think that you went to Harvard and played with many of those same alums will help you out?

TD: Yeah, I think that comes back to what kind of atmosphere I create around the program and within the program. I think having gone to school here and kind of sitting up in the seats being an alumni, I understand the concerns of both parents and the alumni.

THC: Harvard hasn’t won a Beanpot in some time. What would it mean to win such an important tournament this year?

TD: I’m so excited about the opportunity to be a part of the tea party here. I want my enthusiasm and excitement to compete against the other Boston schools to filter into the rest of our team, to get excited about it. Hopefully the results will follow from the preparation and dedication throughout our hockey team.