What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

Hockey Parents. You know them. You love them.

Bulldozer parents are a cancer, but this sounds like a story more nuanced than that. It's strange to see the gist of the article being quotes from the fired coach offering not much more than "I had fun. And let's see if they can win without me," and the only external data cited being win-loss record. I don't think that's all that matters. I know people who know Larry, and I've always heard he's a really nice guy. But being a great player in the NHL doesn't make you a great coach, and he was an inexperienced coach in the girls game who clearly delivered an experience for some kids that wasn't positive. Maybe it's all just crazy parents. Maybe there's more to it. And I realize Jess sought out comments from the parents. Even so, I wish this had been reported with a bit more jouranlistic balance.
 
PuckLover said:
Bulldozer parents are a cancer, but this sounds like a story more nuanced than that. It's strange to see the gist of the article being quotes from the fired coach offering not much more than "I had fun. And let's see if they can win without me," and the only external data cited being win-loss record. I don't think that's all that matters. I know people who know Larry, and I've always heard he's a really nice guy. But being a great player in the NHL doesn't make you a great coach, and he was an inexperienced coach in the girls game who clearly delivered an experience for some kids that wasn't positive. Maybe it's all just crazy parents. Maybe there's more to it. And I realize Jess sought out comments from the parents. Even so, I wish this had been reported with a bit more jouranlistic balance.
Click to expand...

Agree with everything you wrote. And I would also add I don't think the coach's email seemed sarcastic at all. It sounds like a legit resignation.

However, I know of several situations that coaches were treated far worse than this. One family hired a lawyer, blaming the coach that the player didn't go D1. The HS coach black balled her, so that's the reason no one would pick her up. Sure.

But the Orono coach was willing to talk about it. The other ones just disappear.

Does this trickle to the college coaches? I think it does. There are a few families who seem to think they have the right to tell college head coaches what to do. Play my daughter or we leave. And I'll take her sister with me.

The Twitter reaction is quite interesting. The article has been re tweeted a lot, but some folks with a lot of followers. The comments are interesting too. Wonder how the parents involved are feeling now?
 
3816927 said:
Bulldozer parents are a cancer, but this sounds like a story more nuanced than that. It's strange to see the gist of the article being quotes from the fired coach offering not much more than "I had fun. And let's see if they can win without me," and the only external data cited being win-loss record. I don't think that's all that matters. I know people who know Larry, and I've always heard he's a really nice guy. But being a great player in the NHL doesn't make you a great coach, and he was an inexperienced coach in the girls game who clearly delivered an experience for some kids that wasn't positive. Maybe it's all just crazy parents. Maybe there's more to it. And I realize Jess sought out comments from the parents. Even so, I wish this had been reported with a bit more journalistic balance.
Click to expand...

How much more balance were you expecting? Perhaps he could have done more to promote his girls to D-1 college coaches but the list of 'grievances' by the parents was off the charts ridiculous. The team went to the state finals. They were undefeated after the calendar turned and without corroboration from the players, it makes the parents look foolish and petty. He seems like a good guy who treated his players fairly and set reasonable expectations for them.
 
This didn't strike me as very balanced:

"By whatever metric you choose to measure, his first season was an amazing success." You mean other than the 5 families that wanted you gone, and the one that was ready to leave rather than being coached by you?

Again, no idea whether this is just another crazy parent situation, or he had some real flaws as a coach. I just think the author chose his conclusion ahead of time and made only a token effort to consider the other side.
 
PuckLover said:
This didn't strike me as very balanced:

"By whatever metric you choose to measure, his first season was an amazing success." You mean other than the 5 families that wanted you gone, and the one that was ready to leave rather than being coached by you?

Again, no idea whether this is just another crazy parent situation, or he had some real flaws as a coach. I just think the author chose his conclusion ahead of time and made only a token effort to consider the other side.
Click to expand...

I don't know what the reporter was to do. They interviewed the coach; they tried to interview the parents. The parents went silent. He had texts and emails; he quoted them. The idea of an article having to be balanced no matter the information and facts in front of the reporter is odd to me. In fact, I think had the reporter attempted to inject something into it, they would have been adding balance that was thoroughly unsupported by the hard information in front of them.

"Emails obtained by The Rink Live reveal a small but vocal parent group convinced that Olimb’s style was a problem, in spite of the on-ice success, and a change was required."

"The Rink Live reached out to four of the parents who sent emails to Olimb and requested interviews with them for this story. Multiple messages went unanswered."

If they wanted their side of the story told, they could have told it.
 
Puckluck89 said:
Agree with everything you wrote. And I would also add I don't think the coach's email seemed sarcastic at all. It sounds like a legit resignation.
Click to expand...

Yes I completely agree. When I read the article I did not at all get that the resignation was sarcastic. He could have meant it in a fit of rage but then realized he screwed up and was back pedaling on it. At any rate that was a tactical mistake.
 
If I were a parent with a potential d1 player, i would rely on no one but me to promote my daughter to d1 coaches. To this point you've probably dumped many thousands of dollars into their career already, don't take anything to chance this close to the finish line.
 
Timothy A said:
If I were a parent with a potential d1 player, i would rely on no one but me to promote my daughter to d1 coaches. To this point you've probably dumped many thousands of dollars into their career already, don't take anything to chance this close to the finish line.
Click to expand...

I agree with you, but many coaches go out of their way to help get their players to play in colleges. HS coaches may know college coaches personally, so they reach out. It makes college coaches' lives easier, because someone they trust is telling them about players. In today's world, HS coaches are a big influence. As a recruit, you can't just sit back and hope to get someone's attention.

And I definitely agree that coaches advocate to get their players awards, which gets college coaches' attention also. You think it was a fluke that 5 girls from the same HS team made the U18 National team and their coach was an evaluator? (And the National team had its worst finish ever)

However, and this is a big however, not all coaches do these things, and they shouldn't be expected to do them. So I completely disagree with the parents if they were demanding and expecting this from the coach. It's a bonus if you have a coach who is trying to help get your daughter to play in college.
 
Not exactly the way it works, if you don't make it out of your state and advance to the USA hockey development camps, they don't want to talk to you. This happens in the Spring. If you get passed over you are looking at an uphill battle to get noticed.
 
Timothy A said:
If I were a parent with a potential d1 player, i would rely on no one but me to promote my daughter to d1 coaches. To this point you've probably dumped many thousands of dollars into their career already, don't take anything to chance this close to the finish line.
Click to expand...
There is a growing industry of "advisors"/"recruiting coaches" who parents can pay to help figure that out.

Former Badger Carla Pentimone has multiple employees under her at her outfit now.

Agent/advisor Austyn Quarters made a couple of hires to expand his advising business into the women's hockey sphere from just men's.

That's just two I'm aware of in terms of visibility, I'm sure there are more out there.

I think relying on the junior/hs/prep coach in 2023 puts anyone who does that at a disadvantage.
 
In the context where this question arose in this thread, a player for Orono HS, nobody who was playing on that team was going to get "missed" by college coaches. Orono made it to the state semis in 2022 before its runner-up finish in 2023. Even at the single A level, the Minn. State HS Tournament is heavily scouted. Once watching them, coaches can tell who is a D-I or a D-III player. The complication here is that we are still in the Covid Era, so some number of kids who would normally find a spot on a college roster don't. Maybe for European players or kids who have predominantly played on boys teams it is more important to have somebody promoting you, but for the majority of girls in the US and Canada, the recruit pool continues to be fairly small.
 
I appreciate the perspectives on a coach's role with getting a young lady noticed by college teams.

I think Olimb's inexperience in coaching in today's landscape did him a lot of harm.
 
Reddington said:
Not exactly the way it works, if you don't make it out of your state and advance to the USA hockey development camps, they don't want to talk to you. This happens in the Spring. If you get passed over you are looking at an uphill battle to get noticed.
Click to expand...

I'm not quite sure I know what you are saying. But if you think the actual best players make it to camp, I think you're dead wrong. At least at the U 18 level. Not only is it politics, I think players get overlooked, evaluators aren't always paying attention, and if a HS Head Coach is an evaluator, you better believe she or he is making sure their players move on. It looks good for the program. It helps them recruit.

And yep, you can't advance to USA hockey development camps if you don't make it out of the first rounds. And who decides that?
 
Timothy A said:
I appreciate the perspectives on a coach's role with getting a young lady noticed by college teams.

I think Olimb's inexperience in coaching in today's landscape did him a lot of harm.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I think the best 5-10% of players will get noticed on their own. No problem. But college rosters are filled with the other 90% of players who had to get noticed somehow. Sometimes it's the high school coach. Sometimes it's a summer showcase. Sometimes it's a current player telling the coach about someone. Sometimes it's a College coach seeing someone in a high school game.

But you can't make the HS Coach do it. I think they are getting paid about $3,500 for a head coaching job. Broken down per hour, probably one of the worst paying jobs out there. They are doing it out of love for the game.
 
David "Izzy" Marvin, head coach of the Warroad girls high school team, filed a defamation lawsuit against a group of parents that have tried to run him out of the program. Will be interesting to see the outcome.
 
If I'm Jason Gregoire at Concordia I'd be wearing a police body camera at all times while interacting with the team. He has a few Warroad girls, including the daughter of the Lanctots who appear to be the primary defendants in Marvin's suit
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top