University of Minnesota Athletics
Role Reversal: Senior Forward Jon Waibel
11/13/2003 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
"We have some intense players on our team. At times they need to be settled down and at times everyone needs to be settled down," Waibel said. "I try to bring that to the table and tell everybody to relax. In between periods I try to remind everyone just to have fun. Play the game like it's supposed to be played. Instead of living off your emotions with all the up and downs, just play the game."
Teammates have turned to Waibel over the last three seasons for his easy-going perspective. Alternate captain Troy Riddle credits him with keeping the locker room light, infecting others with his positive attitude.
"Waibel is probably one of the best teammates you could have in the sense that he's always an upbeat guy," Riddle said. "Jon's never mad. He's always a very positive guy. He brings the good into everything. That's what so humorous about Jon - he's always having a good time and has a great attitude. He has a great perspective about things. He's the kind of guy you love to go in the locker room and see. He makes everything better, makes you a better hockey player and teammate."
That great perspective could be the biggest factor in Waibel's Golden Gopher career. Without it, it is hard to tell if he would have had the patience to continue to wear the Maroon and Gold. Growing up in Baudette, Minn., Waibel had always been one of top players on his teams. He was a first-line goal scorer. When he joined the U.S. National Development Team program in Ann Arbor, Mich., during his junior and senior years of high school, he continued his offensive ways. Waibel ranked second in scoring on the Under-18 Team with totals of 17-21-38 in 51 games played.
In the fall of 2000, Waibel came back to the state of Minnesota to play for the Golden Gophers. During his freshman year, he appeared in all 42 games, one of only three rookies to do so that season. But something had changed. During those 42 contests, he amassed eight total points with one goal and seven assists. Not only that, but he was further down the lineup than ever before, a fourth-liner. While adjusting to the collegiate game was difficult enough, he also had to adjust to his new role on the ice.
"At first, it was hard. It was tough," Waibel remarked. "It's definitely not an easy thing to swallow coming out of juniors and high school. I think my positive attitude has helped me accept the role. Not everybody could do it, take that role and be happy with it. Obviously, I wasn't always happy. I still wanted more, but in the same aspect, I had to realize that we needed players to play third and fourth line on a consistent basis and to be that energy on the ice."
On the outside, Waibel may have seemed like his normal positive self, but the change hit him harder than he may have let on. It was difficult to tell his concern through his relaxed attitude, something Waibel noted can happen. His easygoing nature has been praised as beneficial for him and his teammates, but Waibel tries to draw a line between being laid-back and indifferent. "I give the impression that I don't care, but deep down in my heart I care," he said. "It's just that there is only so much that you can worry about as far as what you can take care of."
Over the last three seasons, Waibel has learned to embrace his place on the fourth line, playing with as much spark and energy as he would if he were a top-liner. He has become a key member of the hockey team, as can be seen in his appearance in 130 career contests, missing only five games due to injury. As a sophomore, Waibel scored the game-winning goal with 10 seconds remaining in regulation at North Dakota. During the 2002-03 season, he set career-highs with nine goals and eight assists for 17 points, and even scored a hat trick against Alabama-Huntsville. He also helped lead the postseason charge for Minnesota by scoring in three of the last four games of the year.
Waibel has also discovered his niche on the ice for the Golden Gophers. While he may be the easygoing teammate who keeps things light in the locker room, on the ice he is the pesky penalty killer who is out there to irritate all opposing power play units. Since his freshman season, he has been a fixture on the Minnesota penalty killing corps. In 2000-01, Waibel helped guide the unit to the best penalty-kill percentage (.885) in Gopher history, allowing only 26 opponent power play goals, the second-lowest total in school history. The penalty kill unit for 2001-02 finished with a fifth-best .850 percentage. And last season, Waibel led Minnesota with two shorthanded goals.
"I take pride in killing penalties," he said. "You don't want to get scored on, but at the same time I try to score goals. I try to take advantage of everything. I try to do my best for the team and I think penalty killing is one thing that I can do well."
"I like to just go hard," Waibel added. "I think that the most important part of penalty kill is disrupting what they are trying to do and the best way to do that is just get in the way. If it's skating at them 100 miles per hour when they're trying to set up or trying to know where they are going to go, there are different ways of doing it. But I think it's about trying to be a nuisance more or less."
Teammates have noticed Waibel's knack for getting under the skin of team's power play units, recognizing the intelligence it takes to foresee what an opponent is trying to set up. "He anticipates the play so well and that's just part of being a smart player. He really reads people out there," Riddle commented. "Jon's a very smart player. He doesn't overdo it; he doesn't try to do too much. He does it just about right and it works out for him every time. That's the way it is on penalty kill. If you overdo it, it's not going to be successful."
Jon Waibel's easygoing attitude and desire to have fun out on the ice has made his three seasons at Minnesota enjoyable for himself, teammates and fans. While he could have been discouraged with the change in his role, his positive attitude allowed him to embrace his pesky penalty killer title and has made him one of the best penalty killers in the league. Even when reflecting on his years wearing the Maroon and Gold, Waibel couldn't avoid putting a positive spin on everything he has learned from his experiences.
"It's been an interesting four years," he said. "It hasn't been, personally, as successful as I would like it to be. But I look back and I've won two national championships so far and in that case it's been positive. It's brought me to the person I am, not so much on the ice but off the ice, to start to understand that there are roles to play in everything. You can't have 10 goal scorers; you've got to have so many of each type of player. It's tough for some people to understand. I think that I've grasped that. It's just an aspect of the game that needs to be filled by somebody and I was fortunate enough to be the one to fill that role."
Written by Media Relations Assistant Courtney Walerius. She welcomes comments at gophers@umn.edu.
Jon Waibel is the guy you want to be next to if things are getting a little too intense. He is the guy you should see if you need to cool down. The senior forward is there to make sure you remember one thing about hockey - it's just a game. Not all the time are you going to be happy with your performance on the ice or the role you have been put into, but to Waibel, that is not the concern. Instead, be thankful that you get to play and have as much fun out there as possible.
"We have some intense players on our team. At times they need to be settled down and at times everyone needs to be settled down," Waibel said. "I try to bring that to the table and tell everybody to relax. In between periods I try to remind everyone just to have fun. Play the game like it's supposed to be played. Instead of living off your emotions with all the up and downs, just play the game."
Teammates have turned to Waibel over the last three seasons for his easy-going perspective. Alternate captain Troy Riddle credits him with keeping the locker room light, infecting others with his positive attitude.
"Waibel is probably one of the best teammates you could have in the sense that he's always an upbeat guy," Riddle said. "Jon's never mad. He's always a very positive guy. He brings the good into everything. That's what so humorous about Jon - he's always having a good time and has a great attitude. He has a great perspective about things. He's the kind of guy you love to go in the locker room and see. He makes everything better, makes you a better hockey player and teammate."
That great perspective could be the biggest factor in Waibel's Golden Gopher career. Without it, it is hard to tell if he would have had the patience to continue to wear the Maroon and Gold. Growing up in Baudette, Minn., Waibel had always been one of top players on his teams. He was a first-line goal scorer. When he joined the U.S. National Development Team program in Ann Arbor, Mich., during his junior and senior years of high school, he continued his offensive ways. Waibel ranked second in scoring on the Under-18 Team with totals of 17-21-38 in 51 games played.
In the fall of 2000, Waibel came back to the state of Minnesota to play for the Golden Gophers. During his freshman year, he appeared in all 42 games, one of only three rookies to do so that season. But something had changed. During those 42 contests, he amassed eight total points with one goal and seven assists. Not only that, but he was further down the lineup than ever before, a fourth-liner. While adjusting to the collegiate game was difficult enough, he also had to adjust to his new role on the ice.
"At first, it was hard. It was tough," Waibel remarked. "It's definitely not an easy thing to swallow coming out of juniors and high school. I think my positive attitude has helped me accept the role. Not everybody could do it, take that role and be happy with it. Obviously, I wasn't always happy. I still wanted more, but in the same aspect, I had to realize that we needed players to play third and fourth line on a consistent basis and to be that energy on the ice."
On the outside, Waibel may have seemed like his normal positive self, but the change hit him harder than he may have let on. It was difficult to tell his concern through his relaxed attitude, something Waibel noted can happen. His easygoing nature has been praised as beneficial for him and his teammates, but Waibel tries to draw a line between being laid-back and indifferent. "I give the impression that I don't care, but deep down in my heart I care," he said. "It's just that there is only so much that you can worry about as far as what you can take care of."
Over the last three seasons, Waibel has learned to embrace his place on the fourth line, playing with as much spark and energy as he would if he were a top-liner. He has become a key member of the hockey team, as can be seen in his appearance in 130 career contests, missing only five games due to injury. As a sophomore, Waibel scored the game-winning goal with 10 seconds remaining in regulation at North Dakota. During the 2002-03 season, he set career-highs with nine goals and eight assists for 17 points, and even scored a hat trick against Alabama-Huntsville. He also helped lead the postseason charge for Minnesota by scoring in three of the last four games of the year.
Waibel has also discovered his niche on the ice for the Golden Gophers. While he may be the easygoing teammate who keeps things light in the locker room, on the ice he is the pesky penalty killer who is out there to irritate all opposing power play units. Since his freshman season, he has been a fixture on the Minnesota penalty killing corps. In 2000-01, Waibel helped guide the unit to the best penalty-kill percentage (.885) in Gopher history, allowing only 26 opponent power play goals, the second-lowest total in school history. The penalty kill unit for 2001-02 finished with a fifth-best .850 percentage. And last season, Waibel led Minnesota with two shorthanded goals.
"I take pride in killing penalties," he said. "You don't want to get scored on, but at the same time I try to score goals. I try to take advantage of everything. I try to do my best for the team and I think penalty killing is one thing that I can do well."
"I like to just go hard," Waibel added. "I think that the most important part of penalty kill is disrupting what they are trying to do and the best way to do that is just get in the way. If it's skating at them 100 miles per hour when they're trying to set up or trying to know where they are going to go, there are different ways of doing it. But I think it's about trying to be a nuisance more or less."
Teammates have noticed Waibel's knack for getting under the skin of team's power play units, recognizing the intelligence it takes to foresee what an opponent is trying to set up. "He anticipates the play so well and that's just part of being a smart player. He really reads people out there," Riddle commented. "Jon's a very smart player. He doesn't overdo it; he doesn't try to do too much. He does it just about right and it works out for him every time. That's the way it is on penalty kill. If you overdo it, it's not going to be successful."
Jon Waibel's easygoing attitude and desire to have fun out on the ice has made his three seasons at Minnesota enjoyable for himself, teammates and fans. While he could have been discouraged with the change in his role, his positive attitude allowed him to embrace his pesky penalty killer title and has made him one of the best penalty killers in the league. Even when reflecting on his years wearing the Maroon and Gold, Waibel couldn't avoid putting a positive spin on everything he has learned from his experiences.
"It's been an interesting four years," he said. "It hasn't been, personally, as successful as I would like it to be. But I look back and I've won two national championships so far and in that case it's been positive. It's brought me to the person I am, not so much on the ice but off the ice, to start to understand that there are roles to play in everything. You can't have 10 goal scorers; you've got to have so many of each type of player. It's tough for some people to understand. I think that I've grasped that. It's just an aspect of the game that needs to be filled by somebody and I was fortunate enough to be the one to fill that role."
Written by Media Relations Assistant Courtney Walerius. She welcomes comments at gophers@umn.edu.
