Jensen: Quakers coach whistles while he works
Penn coach Steve Donahue has done some things in his basketball life, yet he really stands out in his profession, top of the pack, for a singular trait.
Penn coach Steve Donahue has done some things in his basketball life, yet he really stands out in his profession, top of the pack, for a singular trait.
The man can whistle.
Whistling while he works? All the time. Pay attention at the Palestra during Quakers games. You don't really have to listen for it. It's there even when the place gets loud. Some coaches wear whistles at practice. No need here. Penn gatherings often start with the head coach wordlessly calling everyone toward him.
"They're almost trained like dogs. They hear the whistle and look over," Penn director of operations Brad Fadem said of Quakers players.
Fadem, who began with Donahue as a manager at Boston College, said he's been in the atrium of Hutchinson Gym next to the Palestra and heard the whistle next door.
Players try to imitate it, can't quite nail it.
"The one that sticks out to me, when we were at B.C., I believe it was a home game, we were playing Virginia," Fadem said. "A fan started imitating him. Anytime he did it, the fan would mimic him like a parrot. It was confusing our players a little bit."
In a loud place, no doubt it helps. Donahue can get a player to look over, to change a defense on the fly, for instance. "Typically when the guys are at the other end, a coach has no influence," Donahue said.
He actually works at being judicious with it, since he doesn't want them less confident because they're wondering, "What the hell is he whistling about?"
He's seen older fans especially get annoyed by the power of it.
"I try not to abuse it," Donahue said. "I get that."
Donahue said he remembers the moment when he knew he had a gift. Appropriately, he was in a gym before he got thrown out of it. Seventh grade, Lakeview gym in Ridley Park, an all-star team in Ridley-Interboro biddy basketball. He'd been trying to whistle for a while. "I'm getting close here," Donahue remembers thinking.
It happened to be in the middle of a practice that it came together for him. In his memory, the whistle came out strong and clean - and his coach tossed him out.
You get a reputation, people take you on.
"I've been in a lot of whistling contests. 'You think you can whistle?' " Donahue said of challengers coming up. "Louder, longer, do a song. The whole bit."
Ever lost?
"There's been stiff competition where we've debated," Donahue said. "There have been girls who had really high-pitched whistles that have given me issues because they really get it up there screeching. Mine, I've got some loudness to it, but I don't really have that higher pitch."
Longest one?
"Yeah, I can go pretty long, over a minute," Donahue said.
It comes in handy when you have children, he mentioned. "You whistle at an amusement park, they're looking."
Within Donahue's profession, "it's iconic," Fadem said.
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