Muldoon's Musings: Paying his dues ... and then some

So you want to be a college basketball coach?

Be careful what you wish for.

Here was what Mark Dunham of Salem, an assistant at Daniel Webster College, did on Wednesday.

Wake up at 6 a.m. Pick up recruits in Lawrence at 7:45 a.m. Pick up recruits at Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill at 8:30 a.m. Drive them to the Nashua school. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., he showed them the campus, brought them to the admissions office, visited the financial aid office, had lunch, had them visit with head coach Jeremy Currier and finally brought them back to NECC and Lawrence by 4 p.m.

From 5-7 p.m. he was at a Salem High practice looking at a potential recruit. From 8-10 p.m. he was at an NECC practice watching more prospective recruits. He arrived back at his family's Salem home at 11:30 p.m.

That's 171/2 hours. Bill Belichick and a Fortune 500 CEO or two might work those hours, but they don't have to do second and third jobs to make ends meet.

"That's the life of any Division 3 coach," he said.

Well, maybe not any. The hours are long for everybody, but he vows he and Currier won't be outworked.

"He's relentless," praised Salem coach E.J. Perry, who coached Dunham's brother Mike a few years back. "He wants to find diamonds in the rough."

Dunham feels he nabbed the New England Division 3 version of the Hope Diamond last spring in Salem's Stephen Savage.

"Getting the New Hampshire Player of the Year gives you credibility to recruit any gym in the state of New Hampshire," explained Dunham. "To make that happen, the staff and I didn't miss a game. We were at probably four practices a week. ... (We wanted to show) it was more important for us to get Stephen Savage than maybe it was for Keene State or Plymouth State."

Currier and Dunham, who once comprised arguably the state's top backcourt when they were lighting it up from deep at Pinkerton Academy, have let it be known they love kids from our region.

Eagles captain Ryan Middlemiss of Methuen (3.3 points, team-high 3.8 assists), Savage (8.3 points, 4.0 rebounds) and another freshman from Salem, Chris Voukides (3.1 points), are all contributing.

The duo currently is hot and heavy after Methuen High senior guard Romeo Diaz, among others.

They are selling their youth (Mark is 27, Jeremy is 26), their energy, immediate playing time and a chance to get in on the ground floor of an emerging program. They have to overcome a gym which is a former airplane hangar and a school enrollment which is 60 percent male to 40 percent female.

The Eagles are struggling to date at 3-8.

"We're taking our lumps," said Dunham, who makes ends meet by also serving as golf coach and community service liaison for the athletic department. "We are a year or two away from being really, really good."

But they have already made strides. Two years ago, the year before Currier and Dunham were hired as assistants, the Eagles were 0-25.

The sacrifices are many, for which Dunham's glad his fiancee, his former Pinkerton classmate Katelyn Cavanna, is so understanding.

"If you are going to be a Division 3 coach, you need a wife or fiancee like I have," said the former Plymouth State star.

The sacrifices, though, he feels are well worth it.

"I've scored 40 points in a game. I've hit 10 3-pointers in a game," explained Dunham, who is still close to his former AAU teammate Matt Bonner of the San Antonio Spurs. "I've played vs. the best players in the country. But you design a play (that works) or you see your players have joy, that's phenomenal."

Michael Muldoon is sports editor of The Eagle-Tribune. E-mail him at mmuldoon@eagletribune.com.

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At 31, finally getting chance at NFL

Unusual story out of Chelmsford. Ex-Chelmsford High and UNH star Dan Curran, 31, a 6-foot, 242-pound fullback, has signed a two-year contract with the Seattle Seahawks. That would be quite a story if he made it as Curran was injured most of last year for the New Orleans VooDoo of the Arena League and hadn't played in 2005 or 2006. ... Musings happy birthday wishes go out to ex-Heisman contender Joe Dudek of Derry (44 on Tuesday) and ex-Lawrence High great and longtime San Diego Charger linebacker Ray Preston (54 on Friday). ... The athletic Petzy clan from Lawrence is duly proud that the latest Petzy, Exeter senior guard Chris Petzy, is one of the top schoolboys in New Hampshire. He had a recent 40-point game with six 3-pointers.

Skinner vs. the greats

Hector Longo's fine piece on Brooks star Alex Skinner of Bradford got me thinking of his father. Ex-Merrimack great Dana Skinner was selected 50th overall by the Celtics in 1978.

That's mighty impressive for a Division 2 player. Among those drafted after him were Philadelphia enforcer Marc Iavaroni (55th), crafty Pat Cummings (59th), Lakers star Michael Cooper (60th) and Celtic guard Gerald Henderson (64th). Skinner, who transferred to Merrimack from Northeastern, was a late cut but that foursome played a combined 44 years in the league.

Another brilliant shooter from Merrimack, Ed Murphy, was also drafted in 1978. He was chosen 160th overall by the Atlanta Hawks.

He actually was the more decorated collegian, although as seniors both were chosen to the five-player National Association of Basketball Coaches All-American team.

Speaking of Gerald Henderson, his son, Duke slam-dunk artist Gerald Jr., obviously inherited the family's jumping genes.

Stick to football

Usually anybody who makes the NFL is a high school whiz in any sport. That wasn't the case, though, for former New York Giants fullback Greg Comella and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

Both played basketball at Xaverian High in Westwood, but were mediocre at best.

Not too many high school basketball teams produce two NFL players, but Comella (2) and Hasselbeck (6) only combined for eight points when the 2-3 Hawks beat 5-0 Central Catholic in January of 1993 by a surprisingly easy 56-36 count.

Hasselbeck's brother Tim also later played for the Hawks and he, too, was a mediocre high school guard.

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