I just finished up my work for the daily paper and wanted to check in here with some observations from the news regarding Sam Maresh.

I was surprised at how well Sam and his family handled the entire announcement today. I was so struck by Sam’s calmness that I asked him if he’s scared because you couldn’t sense it. He said yeah and kind of laughed.

I’ve gotten to know Sam fairly well through the recruiting process and I can tell you he’s a great kid. I’ve always walked away from our conversations thinking he has it all together.

This is obviously a tough deal for him and his family but Sam is hopeful and even confident that he will be able to play football again. He has a long road ahead of him, but I have no doubt that he will do everything that is necessary.

I’ll have a full report in tomorrow’s paper, but there are a few notes I didn’t get in. Sam obviously will remain on scholarship. That’s a given. If in the future his heart condition is deemed career ending, the school can petition to get a non-counting waiver from the NCAA, meaning he will stay on scholarship but will not count toward the 85 limit. I’m pretty sure this is what happend with Brandon Owens.

Kent Youngblood of our staff talked to Fred Hoiberg today. Hoiberg said he would be happy to talk to Sam about the situation and give him any advice or insight as to what to expect.

Hoiberg’s NBA career was cut short because of a heart defect. His surgeon — Dr. Hartzell Schaff at Mayo — will also perform Sam’s surgery on June 26.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 7:31 pm and is filed under All, Gophers football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.