Shaw May Get Steam to Rise to the Top
Michael Vergane
Monday July 17, 2000
This is the first head-coaching job for both Shaw and Haege. Last year, both of them coached together with the New Jersey Red Dogs. And both coaches brought former Red Dogs with them to help stock their rosters. Where the similarity ends is with their team`s records. Frank Haege has his Steamwheelers at the top of the af2. Pete Shaw finds his Steam struggling to avoid the worst record in the league.
Pete Shaw has been a coach for all of his adult life. Shaw came to Roanoke from a college assistant`s job at the University of Tennessee - Martin. Actually, he came to Roanoke from his wealth of experience gathered at a myriad of stops along the way.
"I`ve been with 8 colleges, 3 head high school jobs and I`ve had 5 defensive coordinator jobs in college", said Shaw. "That`s a lot of places in 8 states over a 20 year period."
Shaw started his football career as a defensive back at Cortland State in Cortland, New York. After he got hurt in his senior season, he became a student assistant and has not stopped coaching. "I really didn`t have a defined plan after college. I had a lot of friends that wanted to go to the NFL. I just wanted to coach. I was young, and I liked coaching kids. So it didn`t matter what level I coached at."
So in the year 2000, Pete Shaw finds himself as Head Coach and Director Of Operations of the Roanoke Steam. He had spent 1997 & 1998 as the Fullbacks/Linebackers Coach with the New Jersey Red Dogs. So it`s not surprising that the Steam roster has a Red Dog flavor to it. One of the first additions to his coaching staff was Pete Costanza who was the receivers coach in New Jersey. Shaw was also able to snare former Red Dog players Moe Cooper, Joe Chin, Kevin Allen, James Kirkland, Mancel Johnson and current starting QB, Will Burch.
Burch has been doing a fine job at QB since he took over the starting job back in May. The Steam`s opening day QB was former Virginia Tech star, Al Clark. Clark had his problems adapting to the Arena game and has since quit the team. "At times when Al would make a decision, he would run out of field", said Shaw. "In the 11 man game you have time to make that decision. Al did not adapt quickly enough for what our needs were at the time, so we made the commitment to Will Burch, and he has paid dividends."
Burch paid great dividends for the Steam on Memorial Day weekend. That was the Steam`s first victory of the season; a 71-61 victory over the Charleston Swamp Foxes. In that game, Burch threw for a record 10 touchdown passes and 339 yards. But more importantly, no interceptions.
One week ago, Pete Shaw got maybe his most impressive win of the season as the Steam knocked off the Pensacola Barracudas, 57-53, and ended a 3-game losing streak.
Pete Shaw`s good friend, Frank Haege, played the Steam back in June and says that Roanoke is competitive, but things haven`t gone their way too often.
"I think they have a decent group of guys", said Haege. "They`re not great and they don`t have great speed, but they`re solid at most positions. They have some players from the Red Dogs that I tried to get. But for whatever reason the Steam just have not put it all together."
The Roanoke Steam have been making progress since the beginning of the season. It may seem slow - even too slow for many of their fans. But with 20 years of coaching experience behind him, Pete Shaw has been through this before. And given time he can get the Steam to rise to the top.
Michael Vergane was a writer for ArenaFan Online from 2000 to 2002.
