Union

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

Re: Union

If a coach, after nine seasons, has a 36-236-32 record, including a 0-28-6 final year, can not see that she should step down "on her own accord", then she'd be even a worse coach than she was. I don't think Title IX gave her any bargaining chips.
Happy New Year to the Union Women Hockey team. Enjoy the rest of the season. Play hard. Study harder.
Go U!

Corrected..Simply an extra 3.
Also interesting to note in that record is that only 9 conference wins in 9 years....

[shelfit]

Corrected..Simply an extra 3.
Also interesting to note in that record is that only 9 conference wins in 9 years....

That is hard to believe. However 200 more losses than wins is nearly impossible to even imagine much less believe but it's sadly true.

[giwan]

Re: Union

If a coach, after nine seasons, has a 36-236-332 record, including a 0-28-6 final year, can not see that she should step down "on her own accord", then she'd be even a worse coach than she was. I don't think Title IX gave her any bargaining chips.
Happy New Year to the Union Women Hockey team. Enjoy the rest of the season. Play hard. Study harder.
Go U!

I can easily see she should have stepped down earlier, didn't need to break their own losing record. Title IX may have come into play as a Union football coach was let go with much better numbers than she ever had obviously. So how do you let go of one coach which had some success but continue to let a coach with abysmal numbers stay? Again Title IX was raising its head, it was brought up, I know 3 players on that team and their parents there was more than just her stepping down on her own accord.

[HockeyEast33]

Re: Union

I can easily see she should have stepped down earlier, didn't need to break their own losing record. Title IX may have come into play as a Union football coach was let go with much better numbers than she ever had obviously. So how do you let go of one coach which had some success but continue to let a coach with abysmal numbers stay? Again Title IX was raising its head, it was brought up, I know 3 players on that team and their parents there was more than just her stepping down on her own accord.

There is little incentive for a coach to quit for performance related reasons, especially if they have a contract as was suggested last season with this coach. Being let go with a contract in place means that the institution has to pay some form of severance (assuming it is defined in the contract) or negotiate a final payment plan to the coach. What coach (or really anyone) in their right mind is going to give up a significant severance payment for no reason? Coaches have to support themselves and their families like anyone else. It is incumbent on the institution to initiate a performance based termination, not the coach to resign - don't blame her for not leaving sooner, blame Union for keeping her on (and continuing to give her contract extensions).

[giwan]

Re: Union

There is little incentive for a coach to quit for performance related reasons, especially if they have a contract as was suggested last season with this coach. Being let go with a contract in place means that the institution has to pay some form of severance (assuming it is defined in the contract) or negotiate a final payment plan to the coach. What coach (or really anyone) in their right mind is going to give up a significant severance payment for no reason? Coaches have to support themselves and their families like anyone else. It is incumbent on the institution to initiate a performance based termination, not the coach to resign - don't blame her for not leaving sooner, blame Union for keeping her on (and continuing to give her contract extensions).

Oh it's fully on Union. I believe if left alone she would have finished her contract

[shelfit]

Oh it's fully on Union. I believe if left alone she would have finished her contract

It was a tough situation for her because once she was there for a few years and no significant improvements in the win-loss record were taking place she would have realized it just wasn't working out for her there but then if she looked for another head coaching job somewhere else who was going to hire her? Not another D1 school so maybe a D3 school or a prep school but then she probably would have had to take a fairly big cut in salary so it was a catch-22 situation for her. She became literally stuck in a no win situation.

[giwan]

It was a tough situation for her because once she was there for a few years and no significant improvements in the win-loss record were taking place she would have realized it just wasn't working out for her there but then if she looked for another head coaching job somewhere else who was going to hire her? Not another D1 school so maybe a D3 school or a prep school but then she probably would have had to take a fairly big cut in salary so it was a catch-22 situation for her. She became literally stuck in a no win situation.

Agreed and where is she now? Really career change time.

[shelfit]

Agreed and where is she now? Really career change time.

Exactly. No win coaching situation forces a career change whether she wanted one or not. I have to admit I was one of her many critics going back to when she was first hired based on no previous head coaching experience but I do feel sorry for her.

[Skate79]

Re: Union

Exactly. No win coaching situation forces a career change whether she wanted one or not. I have to admit I was one of her many critics going back to when she was first hired based on no previous head coaching experience but I do feel sorry for her.

Claudia is not alone in being one and done (if that's the case). Ronn Tommasoni went from assistant to head coach of the Harvard men's program and when he was dismissed (or left by mutual agreement), he didn't resurface to my knowledge in any D-1 program. It happens.

Begs the question; what do people consider to be a good career track for an aspiring female hockey coach? Are there programs out there that will provide opportunities for newbies? Is high school or prep the way to go? How about a mentoring program? Just asking because I'm not familiar with anything formal.

[giwan]

Re: Union

Claudia is not alone in being one and done (if that's the case). Ronn Tommasoni went from assistant to head coach of the Harvard men's program and when he was dismissed (or left by mutual agreement), he didn't resurface to my knowledge in any D-1 program. It happens.

Begs the question; what do people consider to be a good career track for an aspiring female hockey coach? Are there programs out there that will provide opportunities for newbies? Is high school or prep the way to go? How about a mentoring program? Just asking because I'm not familiar with anything formal.

You would think logically it's being well involved as an asst women's coach, then moving to a head coach. Maybe DIII to DI?

Is the issue the route to take or how and who picks the next coach? Key attributes, organization, passion in the game and maybe in the women's game specifically, and want/willingness to really work at it. Biggest issue I see in coaching failures at any sport and level are not setting your players up to succeed. You run your system regardless of the players skill at that system. Coach unwilling to change their system to the players they have.

I would be willing to bet that you can change some top level team with a different coach. Run a forced system that does not match their skills and find you are not winning.

[pucko]

Re: Union

You would think logically it's being well involved as an asst women's coach, then moving to a head coach. Maybe DIII to DI?

Is the issue the route to take or how and who picks the next coach? Key attributes, organization, passion in the game and maybe in the women's game specifically, and want/willingness to really work at it. Biggest issue I see in coaching failures at any sport and level are not setting your players up to succeed. You run your system regardless of the players skill at that system. Coach unwilling to change their system to the players they have.

I would be willing to bet that you can change some top level team with a different coach. Run a forced system that does not match their skills and find you are not winning.

I'm willing to bet that the top end coaches find and choose players who fit into their system, not just pick a bunch of players and then try to run a system. If a coach wants a team of fast skaters, they'll look for fast players. If a coach likes big and physical, but maybe a bit on the slower side, that's who he/she will look to have on their team. I think the coaches that are not successful are the ones who don't understand what they are looking for and/or don't know how to differentiate that particular skill among the players.

[shelfit]

Re: Union

I'm willing to bet that the top end coaches find and choose players who fit into their system, not just pick a bunch of players and then try to run a system. If a coach wants a team of fast skaters, they'll look for fast players. If a coach likes big and physical, but maybe a bit on the slower side, that's who he/she will look to have on their team. I think the coaches that are not successful are the ones who don't understand what they are looking for and/or don't know how to differentiate that particular skill among the players.

Ya, you can't have a run & gun approach if you don't have the team speed to go with that "system" of play. Similarly, if you can't keep up with the team speed of the majority of your opponents then you need to recruit faster skaters, obviously. Practicing your defensive zone coverage 85% of the time in games isn't going to get you many wins in a season. Being outshot by a 2 to 1 margin most of the time tells you your team just can't keep up with the other teams. I can't imagine any coach at that level not recognizing what their team's deficit areas are when it comes to the overall skill level of his/her players individually and all together as a team.

[ecachawkeyfan]

Re: Union

It appears that Barcomb is now an assistant coach at Kimball Union, under former Dartmouth coach Mark Hudak. The other assistant on that staff is Jamie Smith, who played at Union under Barcomb.

http://www.kua.org/page/overview-and...el=2016+-+2017

[Skate79]

Re: Union

I'm willing to bet that the top end coaches find and choose players who fit into their system, not just pick a bunch of players and then try to run a system. If a coach wants a team of fast skaters, they'll look for fast players. If a coach likes big and physical, but maybe a bit on the slower side, that's who he/she will look to have on their team. I think the coaches that are not successful are the ones who don't understand what they are looking for and/or don't know how to differentiate that particular skill among the players.

Agree. Two examples come to mind. Bill Cleary ran a system at Harvard that focused on speed and skill at the expense of size. Lot of great players came through and came out better players as a result. Mike Schaefer at Cornell recently admitted that his system of physical, defensive play is fast becoming outdated and that he needs to recruit a different kind of player - one who is smaller and faster. Whether he can make the adjustment remains to be seen.

Katey Stone runs a system that depends on speed and skill but has had recruiting issues the past few seasons that has resulted in a train wreck of a season so far. There are a variety of reasons why a program succeeds or fails. Claudia obviously had problems at Union and for whatever reason, could not recruit top end talent to make the program a winner. We'll see about her successor.

[giwan]

Re: Union

Agree. Two examples come to mind. Bill Cleary ran a system at Harvard that focused on speed and skill at the expense of size. Lot of great players came through and came out better players as a result. Mike Schaefer at Cornell recently admitted that his system of physical, defensive play is fast becoming outdated and that he needs to recruit a different kind of player - one who is smaller and faster. Whether he can make the adjustment remains to be seen.

Katey Stone runs a system that depends on speed and skill but has had recruiting issues the past few seasons that has resulted in a train wreck of a season so far. There are a variety of reasons why a program succeeds or fails. Claudia obviously had problems at Union and for whatever reason, could not recruit top end talent to make the program a winner. We'll see about her successor.

Aren't all coaches looking for speed and skill?

I think its some of the other things you have to look for, how aggressive they are, how well do they move into a position.

You simply can not win playing a defensive style though many coaches still do. Look at the game at any level for that. You still of course need a good defense and its all not offense. Again I think its how the player fits the system. You want D that pinch down hard, aggressive, or prefer they float on top to get shots on net more. Do you put more responsibility on the D or F to move the puck out of the zone, etc etc

And I think if you are being out shot 2-1 on a regular basis ore worse it has to do a lot more with system than speed