UAH Hockey 2012-13: Still breathing

[fangers]

Re: UAH Hockey 2012-13: Still breathing

Iuess it comes down to the good ole boy concept! Brophy and the president are good buddies and we know the new coach knew the president from New Jersey. This is what scares me, though, that they are all good friends what ever the president wants will be like Pharoah...."so let it be written so let it be done"! I hope this isn't the case and I hope they gave Luongo some kind of severance package to give him and his family a chance to find something new without going to the poor house!!!!! One other thing, where Brophy came from there was no hockey team, so I'm sure he didn't know squat about the sport and probably didn't care either. I hate to be down on these two people. Uh your first statement is a little off, you've been with the company 2 years you know what is wanted, but the big boss wants it one way and the second boss wants it the other way. So, you try to keep both happy, YOU DON'T LEAVE. I've been in retail for 35 years and that is not the way it is done!

This isn't retail. Guys know what they are getting into when they chose to get into coaching. It's not always fair, but that's the way it is in all higher level sports.

[tnlong]

Re: UAH Hockey 2012-13: Still breathing

... Brophy and the president are good buddies ...

Please elaborate. I had no idea that they even vaguely knew each other before the president arrived. Brophy is an Alabama boy who appears to have arrived through the "good ole boy concept" when Portera was beginning to kill the program. The following is from AL.com ( http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2...finalists.html ) when Brophy was interviewing. "Brophy, in his fifth year as athletics director at West Alabama, is a former baseball player at UAB and coached on the collegiate level as an assistant at Samford and Montevallo and was head coach at Wallace Community College in Selma. He returned to his alma mater as assistant athletic director of external affairs in 2005" While it appears that Brophy has never worked outside of Alabama, it appears that Altenkirch ( http://www.uah.edu/president/biography ) is a newcomer to the state. Plus, it doesn't appear that they have ever even worked in the same stratum.

[jyoung]

Re: UAH Hockey 2012-13: Still breathing

Dondowski, you've made a couple of comments in your posts which are at best speculation. I've seen no evidence of Brophy being affiliated with President Altenkirch prior to his arrival on campus. Nothing suggests that the new coach will be jumping ship abruptly in the near future. Now, Altenkirch has reportedly admitted that he knew Coach Kleinendorst, but that's not necessarily a bad thing and certainly doesn't necessarily mean it's a good-ole-boys club issue. What has not been revealed is why Dr. Altenkirch has made this decision. There's also no evidence yet presented, and some against, suggesting Lou was looking to leave.

I can make a number of guesses about all these things, but they'd be just guesses. Same as everyone else here, excepting those who have inside knowledge that they can't share (for good reason).

I liked Lou as a person, and I think the timing was really poor (not that there's a good time to give someone the boot) but Lou's success on the ice wasn't materializing and we need to succeed on the ice as well as in the classroom, particularly if we are going to get into a conference so that we can keep the sport. So, I'm perfectly willing to give Coach Kleinendorst a fair shot and not assume he's being brought in as some "yes man" or any number of other tropes that have been bantered about.

Finally, as Fangers pretty clearly stated, this is NOT retail, this is academia, and within academia it's an even more convoluted subset of collegiate sports. It is nothing at all like how retail functions and you've only got the broadest and most superficial similarities in how the entities function. (Besides, I spent enough time in retail to know there were times when getting out was the smarter option when management couldn't agree on a direction.)

[gfmorris]

Re: UAH Hockey 2012-13: Still breathing

If you think that this was EJ Brophy's call, you have another think coming.

GFM

[dondowski60]

Re: UAH Hockey 2012-13: Still breathing

Couldn't agree with you more, Geoff, this came from the top! I knew it wasn't Brophy. I'll stand behind whatever the new coach wants to do, because he is the new man.

[gfmorris]

Re: UAH Hockey 2012-13: Still breathing

The WCHA will be here the week of the Mankato games, and they will be at the Friday night game. Drag everyone you know to the VBC.

GFM

[MikeAnderson]

Re: UAH Hockey 2012-13: Still breathing

If you think that this was EJ Brophy's call, you have another think coming.

GFM

My biggest problem with everything that's happened so far is how disconnected the Athletic Director seems to be from all of it. The last two major developments in UAH hockey did not see E.J. Brophy out in front of the situation answering for it. When Portera killed the program, it was done with a press release from University PR. No one was made available for comments, folks basically hid in their offices hoping it would all just "go away."

And now, two weeks before the season starts, the coach gets canned an a new "name" guy is being brought in, and where is Brophy in all of this? Where is the press conference and the "meet the coach" opportunity? If this was a "fire in disgrace" situation, one would understand an assistant filling in on an interim basis, but that does not at all appear to be the case.

If University PR is involved again, then the President's office is involved, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Having studied/worked in a system where the President couldn't seem to care less about athletics (Franz), and now working in a system where the President is heavily invested in the athletics department, I can see the value in the President having a say in it. It certainly points to a dedication to the program.

Then I thought I might get all worked up about the timing again, but in all honesty, there's no reason to do that. 2012-13 is a lost season in UAH hockey. If you're going to fire the coach in a turnaround effort, I see no tangible downside to doing it now versus doing it back in May (assuming the new guy is coming in with his assistants in tow, or plans to maintain the current staff). So I'll take it as the step forward that it is, or could be, and be positive.

Let's go Chargers.

[dondowski60]

Re: UAH Hockey 2012-13: Still breathing

I do have one question for you, you said Lu's succes on the ice wasn't materializing, well excuse me since 2008 who has had success on the ice, "NOBODY" so give Lu a chance, at least 4 years. But oh well what do I know. All I'm saying is no one has had a winning season at UAH in a long while!!!!!!!

[UAHStatman]

Re: UAH Hockey 2012-13: Still breathing

And now, two weeks before the season starts, the coach gets canned an a new "name" guy is being brought in, and where is Brophy in all of this? Where is the press conference and the "meet the coach" opportunity? If this was a "fire in disgrace" situation, one would understand an assistant filling in on an interim basis, but that does not at all appear to be the case.

I don't see any mention of Brophy in any of these, but Kleinendorst did talk to the media in Huntsville on Wednesday:

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2...kurt_klei.html
http://whnt.com/2012/09/26/new-uah-h...right-to-work/
http://eplayer.clipsyndicate.com/emb...me=8&windows=1

[jyoung]

I do have one question for you, you said Lu's succes on the ice wasn't materializing, well excuse me since 2008 who has had success on the ice, "NOBODY" so give Lu a chance, at least 4 years. But oh well what do I know. All I'm saying is no one has had a winning season at UAH in a long while!!!!!!!

It doesn't matter that Cole also had problems starting in 2008. Furthermore in college athletics a four year grace period for a struggling program does not happen and certainly not "at least four". Coaches are paid to win and he didn't. Had Lou posted another dismal season, say 4 - 6 wins, I would have expected the axe to fall regardless of our personal fondness for the man.

You keep posting like you think the system is fair and we have the luxury of time with this program.

[tnlong]

Re: UAH Hockey 2012-13: Still breathing

Both Brophy and Lu were unknown quantities to Altenkirch. Given the history between Lu and Brophy, one had to go. Even if Lu had a .500 record, he would still probably have to be the odd man out. Kurt is a known quantity to Altenkirch and will undoubtedly be providing evaluation information on Brophy. If you check the Shelby County tax rercords (https://ptc.shelbyal.com/caportal_mainpage.aspx ), you'll see that Brophy (still wish someone would tell me how he got E. J. out William Earl) has yet to sell his home there and still apparently claims his homestead exemption on it. William is smart enough to know that he's the next one to go if progress isn't made. The community definitely raised the problem to a level that got Altenkirch's and the Board's attention.

I'll share a story that illustrates one of the problems that Lu faced. I bought a pair of tickets for "an Alabama football game" at the Hockey Dinner/Auction this year. They were to be provided by Altenkirch's office. During the past year, I've received several invitations from Dennis Toney (Director of Athletic Development) to join "LinkedIn" even though I've never met him. Having not received any communication about my tickets since I bought them, I decided that Dennis would be a good person to contact on the subject. I e-mailed him about noon on 8/20 and had a reply from Lu before 4:00 that afternoon telling me that Altenkirch's office hadn't received tickets yet and that he (Lu) would monitor the situation and handle getting the tickets to me when they became available. I apologized to Lu for his having to get involved and recognized that he definitely had a problem if he was expected to personally handle an administration action like that.

Following up on the story, Faye Hartman in the President's office did a great job of getting us tickets for this past weekend's game with U. of Miss. We had a great trip.

[Rtn2GoldCountry]

Re: UAH Hockey 2012-13: Still breathing

My only question to that. is why hire someone when you know they are only going to stay a year or two. It is terrible for the players to have to change coaches, philosophies and styles every other year, not to mention what kind of effect that has on recruiting. Somehow I don't think a lot of you care much about the players. At least it doesn't look that way to me!

St. Cloud State had a coach come in for only one year and it has helped their program in ways the could have never imagined. Not saying that UAH's new coach is on the same level as Herb, but if you get the right guy behind the bench, even if its just for a short time period, you can help launch the future success, or in the case of UAH be the savior, of the program.

[gfmorris]

Re: UAH Hockey 2012-13: Still breathing

My biggest problem with everything that's happened so far is how disconnected the Athletic Director seems to be from all of it. The last two major developments in UAH hockey did not see E.J. Brophy out in front of the situation answering for it. When Portera killed the program, it was done with a press release from University PR. No one was made available for comments, folks basically hid in their offices hoping it would all just "go away."

And now, two weeks before the season starts, the coach gets canned an a new "name" guy is being brought in, and where is Brophy in all of this? Where is the press conference and the "meet the coach" opportunity? If this was a "fire in disgrace" situation, one would understand an assistant filling in on an interim basis, but that does not at all appear to be the case.

If University PR is involved again, then the President's office is involved, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Having studied/worked in a system where the President couldn't seem to care less about athletics (Franz), and now working in a system where the President is heavily invested in the athletics department, I can see the value in the President having a say in it. It certainly points to a dedication to the program.

Then I thought I might get all worked up about the timing again, but in all honesty, there's no reason to do that. 2012-13 is a lost season in UAH hockey. If you're going to fire the coach in a turnaround effort, I see no tangible downside to doing it now versus doing it back in May (assuming the new guy is coming in with his assistants in tow, or plans to maintain the current staff). So I'll take it as the step forward that it is, or could be, and be positive.

Let's go Chargers.

I wondered what the "bang and then a squelching sound" bit was, but it turns out that Mike dropped a bomb and then dropped his mic on the way out.

I have pulled together a meet-the-coach opportunity on Tuesday night in SH. 7:30p in the Varsity Room.

Hit http://uahhockey.com/mailman/listinf..._uahhockey.com is you want emails about what the program is doing. Kleinendorst doesn't have the time to run the Blue Line Club right now, and the last time I looked, I was supposed to be in charge. I've admittedly failed the BLC for the last two seasons, but let's see if the third try's the charm.

GFM

[tnlong]

Re: UAH Hockey 2012-13: Still breathing

The WCHA will be here the week of the Mankato games, and they will be at the Friday night game. Drag everyone you know to the VBC.

GFM

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact....kcx-2Ifw%3D%3D

http://www.uah.edu/student-life/spec...dule-of-events

UAH homecoming organizers apparently want everyone to be on campus for events there instead. There's no mention of the game in either the alumni newsletter or the official list of homecoming events. Alumni Association members can get free tickets to Saturday's game however.

[davyd83]

Re: UAH Hockey 2012-13: Still breathing

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact....kcx-2Ifw%3D%3D

http://www.uah.edu/student-life/spec...dule-of-events

UAH homecoming organizers apparently want everyone to be on campus for events there instead. There's no mention of the game in either the alumni newsletter or the official list of homecoming events. Alumni Association members can get free tickets to Saturday's game however.

Are you sure there's "no mention." It looks like it on both of those links you provided. Even activity after the hockey game, according to those.