PORTLAND, Maine – Back in the day, Brad Church, coach of the Portland Junior Pirates, had himself a pretty good professional career.
A coupla games in the NHL (with Washington), a lengthy tour of the minors, following which he began his coaching path.
He had enough of a career to have known about feared enforcer Peter Worrell, and known enough not to even think about tangling with him.
Now, in a much different place and time, Church is plenty grateful that hockey games are still settled by play on the ice, not by fist-fights between the each team’s head coach.
“It would be a forfeit,” said Church.
Now Church was tough enough and big enough to answer any bell when that rang.
But Worrell?
That would have been another matter.
Continue reading “A softer touch: Worrell handles youngsters with kid gloves”