Originally posted by Fishman'81
View Post
For a number of years, assistant coach Brian McCloskey was our "Standbrook" and was responsible for bringing in most of the offensive talent that featured during the height of the Umile era. You can trace the slow downfall of the UNH Men's program from his departure in '02/'03 to become HC of the UNH Women's program (McCloskey's final game with the Men was a certain 7-2 loss out in St. Paul in April '02 you might recall?). The quality of the recruits that came after were never quite up to the McCloskey standard, and that initiated UNH's slow decline.
Umile did manage to hold his RS own against guys like Walshy, York and Parker, all in the midst of their primes, but with only a small smattering of exceptions, his teams struggled with the biggest of their postseason games. Umile seemed to enjoy a few big wins over Parker ('98 NCAA's, '03 HEA Finals) and Walsh ('02 HEA Finals and the "White out the Whitt" RS games), but Walsh and (especially) York always seemed to have his number when it mattered most.
Umile would be remembered down here far more fondly if he'd managed to win the '99 or '03 title, and if he hadn't selfishly allowed the program to gradually slide into irrelevance, especially at the very end. Which is sad, he deserves better, but he's pretty much been the architect of his own demise ...
Comment