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Re: UNH Wildcats - Marty Scarano
OK so et me put some stuff out there. I'm OK with taking some criticism - it's not the first time, and it probably won't be the last time either. I'll also want to remind some posters (especially the most recent *mole* immediately prior to this) that I'm not the person who started this thread. For what it's worth, I've never worked as an AD, but as a HS coach (not hockey), I've reported to one, and I have a huge amount of respect and appreciation for what it means to work in that position, with FAR less resources than are available to UNH. And coaching has given me a much better appreciation for the work the coaches do at the next level. It's not been lost on most posters on this forum I know that the longer I've been doing what I'm doing, the less inclined I've become to cast aspersions on Coach Umile (and others). The higher up the competitive pyramid you get, the tougher it is to have success, and then to sustain that success.
I can honestly say that until the events with Coach McCloskey came up late last year, the worst charge I could level at the UNH AD's offices was an overall sense of complacency. Hence the "Blue Skies" moniker. We have all seen the stagnation of the Men's Hockey program over the recent years (for me, it's been a gradual downhill slide for about a decade now). The Men's Basketball program speaks for itself with its unparallelled lack of accomplishments, and while the Women's Hoops program is noticeably better, it's not really significantly progressed anytime recently either. And we've all gotten a "crash course" over the last few months of the more pronounced slide with the Women's Hockey program.
If there is any area of the UNH Athletics program that's stood out in a good way, it's been the Football team ... yet they are still playing in what is at best a decrepit outdated facility that most local HS programs look down on. Sure - there has been some recent noise about plans to upgrade that ... but ten years into a streak of excellent on-field results, which took things to a new higher level just this past season ... and there is STILL no guarantee that anything is going to get done? Isn't part of the AD's job - and a HUGE part of it, I would say - to head up effective fundraising to get capital improvements like improved football facilities done?
But all in all, during the current AD's tenure, I do not objectively see any evidence of "amazing" or even "great" progress. I see nothing but unending status quo and complacency. And let's keep in mind that UNH's two most successful coaches, by far - Coaches Umile and McDonnell - were carryovers from previous administration. The current AD's only high-profile (?) hiring has been Coach Herrion, and while most of us were optimistic about that one at the outset, there has been little evidence of any progress in the years that followed.
So now on to the present ... we have a badly bungled discharge of a high profile, long-time head coach due to his alleged mishandling of disciplinary issues with a player - a player, mind you, who appears to have been retained by the program (against the wishes of Coach McCloskey) due to prior disciplinary issues, in order to assist the AD's offices with Title IX compliance issues. Especially given that backdrop, it would seem Coach's punishment (for cause discharge) was more than a little too harsh, considering the level of the alleged transgression. Throw in the libelous bit where everyone was left to assume the worst about Coach's conduct ... you get the picture, and it's not a nice one. All the earmarks of an AD with serious "buyer's remorse" over a recently-extended, well-compensated coach. Throw in some "Big Brother" revisionism AND self-serving edicts that "none shalt spake publicly" ... and the Women's Hockey program (which has been described to me by more than one person since the firing as "inmates running the asylum") pays the price, on AND off the ice.
So then this latest incident surfaces, and ordinarily I would not disagree with the idea that an AD is not all-powerful and all-knowing ... except when this particular AD has been reminding everyone about his 35 year tenure in college sports administration, all the while not letting people provide their contrasting accounts of the Coach McCloskey incident, restricting media access, and other really petty control-freak-run-amok behavior. So what we have is an AD who can't wait to be BMOC when things are going well, and when there is credit to be taken ... but when the crap hits the fan, then it's his sycophantic moles coming out of the woodwork with the predictable "Gosh, it's such a BIG job, he can't possibly do everything". Help me out here - is the AD an "amazing" force of nature, or a wallflower??
From what I've seen and heard from President Huddleston, he fancies himself as a leader and a visionary. People like that need others around to share the "vision thing" with him, and to advance those agendas. Passengers need not apply. And based on the status quo vibe all around the Athletics department, it's hard to make the case for the current AD being a "visionary" transformational force. I'll be the first to admit that the timing of this most recent episode is probably dreadfully unlucky for the AD, who is now putting out more fires than Smokey the Bear (and that's not even including a decision on the continuation of Coach Herrion's well-compensated future). But considering the AD could not find the ability to show even the slightest bit of support and empathy for Coach McCloskey about 90 days ago, he is now going to have to depend on Huddleston finding those very same qualities he himself (BB35) was/is so lacking in to keep him in the AD's position. Karma, as they say, can sometimes be a b!tch.
But worry not, BB35 devotees ... if your boss doesn't get brought back, and decides it's time to take the circus on the road again after 14 "great" and "amazing" years (really???
- I can't get much past "pretty decent" myself), you can bet it won't be with the same lack of compassion he kicked Coach McCloskey to the curb with. JMHO.
OK so et me put some stuff out there. I'm OK with taking some criticism - it's not the first time, and it probably won't be the last time either. I'll also want to remind some posters (especially the most recent *mole* immediately prior to this) that I'm not the person who started this thread. For what it's worth, I've never worked as an AD, but as a HS coach (not hockey), I've reported to one, and I have a huge amount of respect and appreciation for what it means to work in that position, with FAR less resources than are available to UNH. And coaching has given me a much better appreciation for the work the coaches do at the next level. It's not been lost on most posters on this forum I know that the longer I've been doing what I'm doing, the less inclined I've become to cast aspersions on Coach Umile (and others). The higher up the competitive pyramid you get, the tougher it is to have success, and then to sustain that success.
I can honestly say that until the events with Coach McCloskey came up late last year, the worst charge I could level at the UNH AD's offices was an overall sense of complacency. Hence the "Blue Skies" moniker. We have all seen the stagnation of the Men's Hockey program over the recent years (for me, it's been a gradual downhill slide for about a decade now). The Men's Basketball program speaks for itself with its unparallelled lack of accomplishments, and while the Women's Hoops program is noticeably better, it's not really significantly progressed anytime recently either. And we've all gotten a "crash course" over the last few months of the more pronounced slide with the Women's Hockey program.
If there is any area of the UNH Athletics program that's stood out in a good way, it's been the Football team ... yet they are still playing in what is at best a decrepit outdated facility that most local HS programs look down on. Sure - there has been some recent noise about plans to upgrade that ... but ten years into a streak of excellent on-field results, which took things to a new higher level just this past season ... and there is STILL no guarantee that anything is going to get done? Isn't part of the AD's job - and a HUGE part of it, I would say - to head up effective fundraising to get capital improvements like improved football facilities done?
But all in all, during the current AD's tenure, I do not objectively see any evidence of "amazing" or even "great" progress. I see nothing but unending status quo and complacency. And let's keep in mind that UNH's two most successful coaches, by far - Coaches Umile and McDonnell - were carryovers from previous administration. The current AD's only high-profile (?) hiring has been Coach Herrion, and while most of us were optimistic about that one at the outset, there has been little evidence of any progress in the years that followed.
So now on to the present ... we have a badly bungled discharge of a high profile, long-time head coach due to his alleged mishandling of disciplinary issues with a player - a player, mind you, who appears to have been retained by the program (against the wishes of Coach McCloskey) due to prior disciplinary issues, in order to assist the AD's offices with Title IX compliance issues. Especially given that backdrop, it would seem Coach's punishment (for cause discharge) was more than a little too harsh, considering the level of the alleged transgression. Throw in the libelous bit where everyone was left to assume the worst about Coach's conduct ... you get the picture, and it's not a nice one. All the earmarks of an AD with serious "buyer's remorse" over a recently-extended, well-compensated coach. Throw in some "Big Brother" revisionism AND self-serving edicts that "none shalt spake publicly" ... and the Women's Hockey program (which has been described to me by more than one person since the firing as "inmates running the asylum") pays the price, on AND off the ice.
So then this latest incident surfaces, and ordinarily I would not disagree with the idea that an AD is not all-powerful and all-knowing ... except when this particular AD has been reminding everyone about his 35 year tenure in college sports administration, all the while not letting people provide their contrasting accounts of the Coach McCloskey incident, restricting media access, and other really petty control-freak-run-amok behavior. So what we have is an AD who can't wait to be BMOC when things are going well, and when there is credit to be taken ... but when the crap hits the fan, then it's his sycophantic moles coming out of the woodwork with the predictable "Gosh, it's such a BIG job, he can't possibly do everything". Help me out here - is the AD an "amazing" force of nature, or a wallflower??
From what I've seen and heard from President Huddleston, he fancies himself as a leader and a visionary. People like that need others around to share the "vision thing" with him, and to advance those agendas. Passengers need not apply. And based on the status quo vibe all around the Athletics department, it's hard to make the case for the current AD being a "visionary" transformational force. I'll be the first to admit that the timing of this most recent episode is probably dreadfully unlucky for the AD, who is now putting out more fires than Smokey the Bear (and that's not even including a decision on the continuation of Coach Herrion's well-compensated future). But considering the AD could not find the ability to show even the slightest bit of support and empathy for Coach McCloskey about 90 days ago, he is now going to have to depend on Huddleston finding those very same qualities he himself (BB35) was/is so lacking in to keep him in the AD's position. Karma, as they say, can sometimes be a b!tch.
But worry not, BB35 devotees ... if your boss doesn't get brought back, and decides it's time to take the circus on the road again after 14 "great" and "amazing" years (really???
- I can't get much past "pretty decent" myself), you can bet it won't be with the same lack of compassion he kicked Coach McCloskey to the curb with. JMHO.
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