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2014 UNH Wildcats: Ending Strong and Starting Fresh
- Thread starter DC78-82
- Start date
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
Re: 2014 UNH Wildcats: Ending Strong and Starting Fresh
Simple question for today's consideration ... who is "minding the store" at UNH Women's Hockey?
Flush from the quasi-success of the Men's Hockey team in advancing to the HE Finals in their first March trip to Boston in three seasons, and apparently basking in the afterglow and heavy media attention
generated by the Gymnastics team's EAGL title and progress into the NCAA's, our boy BS35 seems to have forgotten there is a Women's Hockey team languishing in turmoil, and veering scarily towards the precipice of total irrelevance and even possible extinction.
Tomorrow will mark the one-month anniversary of the end of the season for the Women's Hockey team. Three months before that, the events which spurred the original creation of this thread unfolded, with the dismissal of long-time Women's Head Hockey Coach (and former Men's Assistant Coach) Brian McCloskey, in an action that raised many as-yet-unanswered questions as to the motives behind the controversial decision to cut ties abruptly with a respected and successful coach who had become a fixture on the UNH campus for the better part of two decades. Today's post is NOT meant to revisit whether that was a good or bad decision - opinions have varied, and for what it's worth, mine remains that it was an absolutely opportunistic move driven by extreme "buyer's remorse" from an AD who had just extended said coach's contract for three more seasons - but to explore the aftermath, and what is being done to repair the undeniable damage which has been visited upon the program. And that brings us back to today's question ...
Who is "minding the store" at UNH Women's Hockey?
BS35 appointed assistant coaches Jamie Wood and Stephanie Jones as "Interim Co-Head Coaches" (isn't that a mouthful?) shortly after the decision to separate from Coach McCloskey. To say both Coach Wood and Coach Jones found themselves thrown into the "deep end" of a challenging situation would be an understatement. Coach Wood played for and captained Middlebury back in the early '90's, then graduated with a law degree from University of New Brunswick in 1999 before embarking on a coaching career that took him from UNB to Elmira College, and finally to a successful stint as an assistant with the University of Minnesota before coming to UNH in 2010, while Coach Jones starred as a captain and leading goal scorer with the 'Cats in the early part of the last decade, before coming back to UNH as an assistant to Coach McCloskey a year later after spending her first post-grad season as an assistant with Colgate.
Not surprisingly, despite everyone's best efforts and intentions, the 'Cats struggled post-McCloskey. Hovering just under .500 at the time of McCloskey's dismissal, the 'Cats forged a very credible 3-3-0 record in the immediate aftermath of the change in leadership, but then the roof caved in, as UNH finished the season in the midst of an 11 game losing streak, while the distractions in the aftermath of the controversial decision to part ways with the previous head coach mounted. It is not unreasonable to conclude that with some sharp divisions of opinion in the locker room over the decision to part ways with Coach McCloskey, and whether all voices were truly heard as part of the University's "investigation", those divisions ultimately proved to be the undoing of this year's team.
With the "interim" tags still attached to their titles, Coaches Wood and Jones face the future (long-term or otherwise) with questions, and precious few answers. There have been no statements of outward or even implied support from Athletic Department leadership (perhaps an oxymoron there?), and so two promising young assistants who encountered a series of obstacles not of their own making, wait without assurances to learn of decisions as to their fates with the UNH program ... figuratively twisting in the wind.
Again ... just who is "minding the store" at UNH Women's Hockey?
And while the situation with the coaching staff remains muddled and undetermined, word has reached me over the last 24 hours from multiple sources that no less than a half-dozen returning Women's Hockey scholar-athletes have asked for - and apparently have been granted - releases from the program in the last 30 days, free to seek out "better" options and greener pastures elsewhere. Reports of players having repeatedly asked for meetings with the AD's office, and even the President's office - and basically being ignored - have forced them to re-assess their futures, rather than just wait around to see what people they don't trust OR have any faith in eventually get around to doing with the program. And who can reasonably blame them after the events of the last few months?
Again ... exactly WHO is "minding the store" at UNH Women's Hockey?
There are currently 21 players listed on the UNH Women's Hockey roster, but the fact of the matter is that by the time the season was winding down, that number was effectively down to about 15 players, due to injuries and assorted "other" reasons, which in fairness to the co-interim coaches, was apparently well underway before the events of the Ohio State weekend. Three of those players graduate in a couple months, and have obviously played their last games for UNH. With half of next year's returning team now in limbo, exploring their options elsewhere as a simple equation of being frustrated at continuously being ignored, and with reports of potential incoming players now rethinking their commitments ... the cupboard for UNH Women's Hockey is looking decidedly bare. Frighteningly bare even.
BS35 announced not so long ago how proud he was that UNH had landed the plum award of the 2016 Women's Frozen Four, to be hosted at the Whittemore Center for the 3rd time in its history. It's a great privilege, and the idea of a UNH Women's team competing in such an event as the host team would seemingly be a great potential recruiting point. Except we don't know yet who will be recruiting the players ... or if committed players currently on the team OR coming to the team will be here come September ... or daresay whether the program will even have enough players for the 2014/2015 season, putting the whole "host" status for the 2016 FF in jeopardy??????
Begging the question ... who is "minding the store" at UNH Women's Hockey? 
The silence from BS35's perpetually sunny, what-me-worry corner of the UNH universe is deafening ...
Simple question for today's consideration ... who is "minding the store" at UNH Women's Hockey?
Flush from the quasi-success of the Men's Hockey team in advancing to the HE Finals in their first March trip to Boston in three seasons, and apparently basking in the afterglow and heavy media attention
generated by the Gymnastics team's EAGL title and progress into the NCAA's, our boy BS35 seems to have forgotten there is a Women's Hockey team languishing in turmoil, and veering scarily towards the precipice of total irrelevance and even possible extinction.Tomorrow will mark the one-month anniversary of the end of the season for the Women's Hockey team. Three months before that, the events which spurred the original creation of this thread unfolded, with the dismissal of long-time Women's Head Hockey Coach (and former Men's Assistant Coach) Brian McCloskey, in an action that raised many as-yet-unanswered questions as to the motives behind the controversial decision to cut ties abruptly with a respected and successful coach who had become a fixture on the UNH campus for the better part of two decades. Today's post is NOT meant to revisit whether that was a good or bad decision - opinions have varied, and for what it's worth, mine remains that it was an absolutely opportunistic move driven by extreme "buyer's remorse" from an AD who had just extended said coach's contract for three more seasons - but to explore the aftermath, and what is being done to repair the undeniable damage which has been visited upon the program. And that brings us back to today's question ...
Who is "minding the store" at UNH Women's Hockey?
BS35 appointed assistant coaches Jamie Wood and Stephanie Jones as "Interim Co-Head Coaches" (isn't that a mouthful?) shortly after the decision to separate from Coach McCloskey. To say both Coach Wood and Coach Jones found themselves thrown into the "deep end" of a challenging situation would be an understatement. Coach Wood played for and captained Middlebury back in the early '90's, then graduated with a law degree from University of New Brunswick in 1999 before embarking on a coaching career that took him from UNB to Elmira College, and finally to a successful stint as an assistant with the University of Minnesota before coming to UNH in 2010, while Coach Jones starred as a captain and leading goal scorer with the 'Cats in the early part of the last decade, before coming back to UNH as an assistant to Coach McCloskey a year later after spending her first post-grad season as an assistant with Colgate.
Not surprisingly, despite everyone's best efforts and intentions, the 'Cats struggled post-McCloskey. Hovering just under .500 at the time of McCloskey's dismissal, the 'Cats forged a very credible 3-3-0 record in the immediate aftermath of the change in leadership, but then the roof caved in, as UNH finished the season in the midst of an 11 game losing streak, while the distractions in the aftermath of the controversial decision to part ways with the previous head coach mounted. It is not unreasonable to conclude that with some sharp divisions of opinion in the locker room over the decision to part ways with Coach McCloskey, and whether all voices were truly heard as part of the University's "investigation", those divisions ultimately proved to be the undoing of this year's team.
With the "interim" tags still attached to their titles, Coaches Wood and Jones face the future (long-term or otherwise) with questions, and precious few answers. There have been no statements of outward or even implied support from Athletic Department leadership (perhaps an oxymoron there?), and so two promising young assistants who encountered a series of obstacles not of their own making, wait without assurances to learn of decisions as to their fates with the UNH program ... figuratively twisting in the wind.
Again ... just who is "minding the store" at UNH Women's Hockey?
And while the situation with the coaching staff remains muddled and undetermined, word has reached me over the last 24 hours from multiple sources that no less than a half-dozen returning Women's Hockey scholar-athletes have asked for - and apparently have been granted - releases from the program in the last 30 days, free to seek out "better" options and greener pastures elsewhere. Reports of players having repeatedly asked for meetings with the AD's office, and even the President's office - and basically being ignored - have forced them to re-assess their futures, rather than just wait around to see what people they don't trust OR have any faith in eventually get around to doing with the program. And who can reasonably blame them after the events of the last few months?
Again ... exactly WHO is "minding the store" at UNH Women's Hockey?
There are currently 21 players listed on the UNH Women's Hockey roster, but the fact of the matter is that by the time the season was winding down, that number was effectively down to about 15 players, due to injuries and assorted "other" reasons, which in fairness to the co-interim coaches, was apparently well underway before the events of the Ohio State weekend. Three of those players graduate in a couple months, and have obviously played their last games for UNH. With half of next year's returning team now in limbo, exploring their options elsewhere as a simple equation of being frustrated at continuously being ignored, and with reports of potential incoming players now rethinking their commitments ... the cupboard for UNH Women's Hockey is looking decidedly bare. Frighteningly bare even.
BS35 announced not so long ago how proud he was that UNH had landed the plum award of the 2016 Women's Frozen Four, to be hosted at the Whittemore Center for the 3rd time in its history. It's a great privilege, and the idea of a UNH Women's team competing in such an event as the host team would seemingly be a great potential recruiting point. Except we don't know yet who will be recruiting the players ... or if committed players currently on the team OR coming to the team will be here come September ... or daresay whether the program will even have enough players for the 2014/2015 season, putting the whole "host" status for the 2016 FF in jeopardy??????
Begging the question ... who is "minding the store" at UNH Women's Hockey?
The silence from BS35's perpetually sunny, what-me-worry corner of the UNH universe is deafening ...
Blackbeard
Well-known member
Re: 2014 UNH Wildcats: Ending Strong and Starting Fresh
For what it's worth and to fill out Wood's resume a bit, after Elmira he was Head Coach of the Warner School Hockey Program in Warner, Alberta for four years then went back to New Brunswick for a year in some capacity with a hockey body from what I remember and then to UM as an assistant coach.
For what it's worth and to fill out Wood's resume a bit, after Elmira he was Head Coach of the Warner School Hockey Program in Warner, Alberta for four years then went back to New Brunswick for a year in some capacity with a hockey body from what I remember and then to UM as an assistant coach.
ClOuD 9
New member
Re: 2014 UNH Wildcats: Ending Strong and Starting Fresh
Suggesting that the program faces "possible extinction" is careless imo. I've generally agreed with much of your line over the past few months Chuck, but that is a very serious claim to be throwing out there without backing it.
Suggesting that the program faces "possible extinction" is careless imo. I've generally agreed with much of your line over the past few months Chuck, but that is a very serious claim to be throwing out there without backing it.
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Re: 2014 UNH Wildcats: Ending Strong and Starting Fresh
Not a frivolous claim Cloud9 when near half the team has asked for their release and instead of an emergency meeting by Administration to set their fear aside, nothing has been done to quell their worst fears! Why would anyone who first chose to come here to play for this rich program, decide to leave if not for the preceding events? Let's ask why is this happening? Why won't Admin. Simply meet with the players to allay their fears? Do a Coach search, obey what Legal tells you too, but don't ignore and disregard these athletes who have committed themselves to you!! Respect them enough to simply talk with them....frivolous? Not in the least....
Not a frivolous claim Cloud9 when near half the team has asked for their release and instead of an emergency meeting by Administration to set their fear aside, nothing has been done to quell their worst fears! Why would anyone who first chose to come here to play for this rich program, decide to leave if not for the preceding events? Let's ask why is this happening? Why won't Admin. Simply meet with the players to allay their fears? Do a Coach search, obey what Legal tells you too, but don't ignore and disregard these athletes who have committed themselves to you!! Respect them enough to simply talk with them....frivolous? Not in the least....
Re: 2014 UNH Wildcats: Ending Strong and Starting Fresh
I wouldn't think the UNH program is going anywhere as there are too many people who are passionate about it and care even if the AD doesn't seem to. Let's hope people keep caring!
I am baffled that the school has not selected a head coach/coaching staff a month since the end of the season. In regard to players leaving: 1) I can't see more than a couple doing so 2) some may have asked for their release as a form of protest over the way they have been spoken to and treated and 3) can you really blame the players or some of them for wanting out based on all that has gone on and the poor state the program is in based on all the negativity surrounding it!?!
Correct me if I am wrong but it is going to take a number of years for the program to dig out of this hole. I do hope it can recover and recover quickly.
I wouldn't think the UNH program is going anywhere as there are too many people who are passionate about it and care even if the AD doesn't seem to. Let's hope people keep caring!
I am baffled that the school has not selected a head coach/coaching staff a month since the end of the season. In regard to players leaving: 1) I can't see more than a couple doing so 2) some may have asked for their release as a form of protest over the way they have been spoken to and treated and 3) can you really blame the players or some of them for wanting out based on all that has gone on and the poor state the program is in based on all the negativity surrounding it!?!
Correct me if I am wrong but it is going to take a number of years for the program to dig out of this hole. I do hope it can recover and recover quickly.
Re: 2014 UNH Wildcats: Ending Strong and Starting Fresh
Having a very good idea who has requested releases, I have my fingers crossed that they are, indeed, making the only statement they have available, and that their love for UNH and what it has to offer, including a women's hockey program with a long and nearly all positive tradition, will be such that the grass is greenest in Durham, NH.
The non graduation players can form a strong and solid core for this team. This was a Murphy's Law season from start to finish, between injuries and the coaching upheaval. It really is time to give these student athletes something to believe in, and to be proud of. Time for the administration to put their oft repeated mantra into action, and actual;ly demonstrate "having the best interests of the student-athletes first in mind." Right now, it seems like this particular group has been cast adrift.
Having a very good idea who has requested releases, I have my fingers crossed that they are, indeed, making the only statement they have available, and that their love for UNH and what it has to offer, including a women's hockey program with a long and nearly all positive tradition, will be such that the grass is greenest in Durham, NH.
The non graduation players can form a strong and solid core for this team. This was a Murphy's Law season from start to finish, between injuries and the coaching upheaval. It really is time to give these student athletes something to believe in, and to be proud of. Time for the administration to put their oft repeated mantra into action, and actual;ly demonstrate "having the best interests of the student-athletes first in mind." Right now, it seems like this particular group has been cast adrift.
Re: 2014 UNH Wildcats: Ending Strong and Starting Fresh
I'll agree with you Stick Boy that the program isn't going away, however it'd be nice if it wasn't totally decimated. As always it's seems that the coverup is worse than the crime, so to speak...given that the current condition of the team and players is due to how the Adminiistration has handled the entire situation post firing of Coach Mac! Currently, at a time when most teams are formulating next years bonds and plans for creating a solid unit, using off-ice conditioning and meetings, we have a program where no player or coach has any notion of what is going on with next year. Apparently having been told that they would be part of the new coach selection process, it's been a month since any player has been asked for their opinion! Why say that you'd be asked and then not...then try and imagine how your 2 Coaches are doing! Talk about being in limbo...how are they supposed to function in putting together a team? Do we have players, and if so which players? Will the new Coach bring in their own staff or will I have a job? And will they be able to work with the players that have been recruited here? And what of the 2, maybe 3 player camps that have evolved during this debacle....will the new Coach respect them? How will those that have created this whole incident be treated? What if the new Coach doesn't think they are D-1 capable, do they have to keep them or then worry about a lawsuit? So yea Stick Boy it isn't going to disappear but pretty close....
I reiterate my ongoing question in asking where are the Trustees? Having them sit back and watch how someone is destroying this program is reprehensible....who is in charge and doing this damage? Certainly no one that is based out of the Whitt trusts or respects.....
I'll agree with you Stick Boy that the program isn't going away, however it'd be nice if it wasn't totally decimated. As always it's seems that the coverup is worse than the crime, so to speak...given that the current condition of the team and players is due to how the Adminiistration has handled the entire situation post firing of Coach Mac! Currently, at a time when most teams are formulating next years bonds and plans for creating a solid unit, using off-ice conditioning and meetings, we have a program where no player or coach has any notion of what is going on with next year. Apparently having been told that they would be part of the new coach selection process, it's been a month since any player has been asked for their opinion! Why say that you'd be asked and then not...then try and imagine how your 2 Coaches are doing! Talk about being in limbo...how are they supposed to function in putting together a team? Do we have players, and if so which players? Will the new Coach bring in their own staff or will I have a job? And will they be able to work with the players that have been recruited here? And what of the 2, maybe 3 player camps that have evolved during this debacle....will the new Coach respect them? How will those that have created this whole incident be treated? What if the new Coach doesn't think they are D-1 capable, do they have to keep them or then worry about a lawsuit? So yea Stick Boy it isn't going to disappear but pretty close....
I reiterate my ongoing question in asking where are the Trustees? Having them sit back and watch how someone is destroying this program is reprehensible....who is in charge and doing this damage? Certainly no one that is based out of the Whitt trusts or respects.....
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Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
Re: 2014 UNH Wildcats: Ending Strong and Starting Fresh
The subsequent posters have elaborated on the serious nature of the situation as it now stands, ClOuD 9. And in the time since I posted on this last week, my sources tell me nothing has changed.
There seems to be a level of "blind faith" going on here, and it's on two levels. One, BS35 seems to have "blind faith" the current players will all stay put, and/or the new permanent coach(es) have others already lined up less than five (5) months before the Fall Semester 2014 starts. Two, some fans of the UNH Women's program seem to have "blind faith" that UNH Admin can't possibly screw things up any worse, the sun will come up tomorrow, and to say otherwise is "careless".
All I know for sure is that roughly half of the already decimated roster of "returning" players have asked for and been granted releases ... and the remaining coaching staff both still bear the "interim' label with no apparent assurances of any kind, which in turn I'm sure fills whatever incoming recruits they may have been counting on with just SO much reassurance that all will be just fine and dandy when they matriculate at UNH. That feels like recruiting in quicksand.
Hosting the NCAA Women's Frozen Four while putting out a pseudo-club level team may not be "extinction" per se, but it's not exactly putting your best foot forward either is it? Because unless someone steps up and turns this thing around quickly, UNH is going to have a club-level team on the ice next season. Time is not something UNH Women's Hockey has in abundance at this point, and the problems the program is currently grappling with won't magically solve themselves in time for August.
The subsequent posters have elaborated on the serious nature of the situation as it now stands, ClOuD 9. And in the time since I posted on this last week, my sources tell me nothing has changed.
There seems to be a level of "blind faith" going on here, and it's on two levels. One, BS35 seems to have "blind faith" the current players will all stay put, and/or the new permanent coach(es) have others already lined up less than five (5) months before the Fall Semester 2014 starts. Two, some fans of the UNH Women's program seem to have "blind faith" that UNH Admin can't possibly screw things up any worse, the sun will come up tomorrow, and to say otherwise is "careless".
All I know for sure is that roughly half of the already decimated roster of "returning" players have asked for and been granted releases ... and the remaining coaching staff both still bear the "interim' label with no apparent assurances of any kind, which in turn I'm sure fills whatever incoming recruits they may have been counting on with just SO much reassurance that all will be just fine and dandy when they matriculate at UNH. That feels like recruiting in quicksand.
Hosting the NCAA Women's Frozen Four while putting out a pseudo-club level team may not be "extinction" per se, but it's not exactly putting your best foot forward either is it? Because unless someone steps up and turns this thing around quickly, UNH is going to have a club-level team on the ice next season. Time is not something UNH Women's Hockey has in abundance at this point, and the problems the program is currently grappling with won't magically solve themselves in time for August.
Re: 2014 UNH Wildcats: Ending Strong and Starting Fresh
With the Lady Cats season ending banquet this coming Sunday it might be time to put the lid on this thread and move onward or wait another week or so to start a new one when the Coaching staff is selected. Even though there will be a couple player departures it is time to start moving this team forward somehow.
With the Lady Cats season ending banquet this coming Sunday it might be time to put the lid on this thread and move onward or wait another week or so to start a new one when the Coaching staff is selected. Even though there will be a couple player departures it is time to start moving this team forward somehow.
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
Re: 2014 UNH Wildcats: Ending Strong and Starting Fresh
Let's hope there is some clarification tomorrow regarding the future direction of the program ...
Let's hope there is some clarification tomorrow regarding the future direction of the program ...
So as noted above, today I attended the women's senior banquet....although the perverbial "elephant" was in the room, it was great to see the team players dressed to the max, smiling, having fun and enjoying their fellow mates....it's been awhile unfortunately. As these lunches go, it was nice to recollect the season, some of the highlight games and goals, and to remember that even in the worst of times, we manage to rally and be the person we were raised to be...only the best of times were brought up, saluting those athletes that managed to excel under tremendous pressure. As Captain Nicole Gifford noted, to measure the season simply by the number of goals attained, or wins the program had, would be terribly short-sighted in that as in life, it's how we react to adversity and then recover rather than know of its existence! For example, I was truly impressed by Sarah Carlson achieving a 3.77 GPA this season; for any year that would be of note, but to do it this year given all the trials and tribulations is phenomenal!!
So I'm grateful to say that our seniors managed to enjoy their banquet....as for said "elephant", it's really gaining weight! I'm sure most of the attendees felt the unease when both Coaches Wood and Jones spoke....pretty much the entire room believes that the team should be theirs as of now, to right the ship and be able to coordinate the 2014-15 edition of Wildcat hockey! However that is not the case....while rumors are rampant about there being a candidate who has been offered the job, they are just that....what happens now is when the speculation game begins,,,what if they take the job, what if they don't....Coaches Wood and Jones? Do they get their chance? Recruits to come in or not, players to stay or not....yea, just a few issues to resolve....
and the feeling here was if only the Administration had cared enough to have these questions answered weeks ago, everyone in the room today would've left the banquet satisfied and satiated, as always in being a Wildcat!
So I'm grateful to say that our seniors managed to enjoy their banquet....as for said "elephant", it's really gaining weight! I'm sure most of the attendees felt the unease when both Coaches Wood and Jones spoke....pretty much the entire room believes that the team should be theirs as of now, to right the ship and be able to coordinate the 2014-15 edition of Wildcat hockey! However that is not the case....while rumors are rampant about there being a candidate who has been offered the job, they are just that....what happens now is when the speculation game begins,,,what if they take the job, what if they don't....Coaches Wood and Jones? Do they get their chance? Recruits to come in or not, players to stay or not....yea, just a few issues to resolve....
and the feeling here was if only the Administration had cared enough to have these questions answered weeks ago, everyone in the room today would've left the banquet satisfied and satiated, as always in being a Wildcat!
Re: 2014 UNH Wildcats: Ending Strong and Starting Fresh
What ever the future holds for UNH Women's Hockey, I hope for the best!! The UNH posters on this forum are some of the most passionate.
What ever the future holds for UNH Women's Hockey, I hope for the best!! The UNH posters on this forum are some of the most passionate.
HockeyEast33
New member
ClOuD 9
New member
Re: 2014 UNH Wildcats: Ending Strong and Starting Fresh
Not quite Chuck, it was attached to a very specific suggestion. Twist those words.
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Re: 2014 UNH Wildcats: Ending Strong and Starting Fresh
Or cared enough about the team to send a representative to the banquet. The team and the coaching staff were impressive yesterday in taking the high ground, remembering the laughter and success without dwelling on the adversity and challenges, of which there were many.
Also of note In Ms. Gifford's speech was her tribute to Coach McCloskey and how he developed her game and made her challenge herself to become a better player and person. She set a great example for what it takes and what it means to be a leader.
Or cared enough about the team to send a representative to the banquet. The team and the coaching staff were impressive yesterday in taking the high ground, remembering the laughter and success without dwelling on the adversity and challenges, of which there were many.
Also of note In Ms. Gifford's speech was her tribute to Coach McCloskey and how he developed her game and made her challenge herself to become a better player and person. She set a great example for what it takes and what it means to be a leader.
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
... Starting Fresh or Status Quo?
... Starting Fresh or Status Quo?
Kudos again to Captain Gifford for defining leadership and "grace under pressure". Impressive.
Not having attended any of these events in the past ... I'm not sure if the AD's offices usually attends these events (one would think it's appropriate?) or not. But if so, then their absence yesterday would appear to speak volumes. Showing up would likely have at the very least sent a message of some level of continued support of the current leadership. But it's hard to read ANY support of the current leadership (not to mention the players themselves) into their no-show.
Would it have been a comfortable event for BS35 or his designee(s) to attend? Heck no. I get that.
But true leadership isn't about carefree blue skies moments ... it's about leading in times of adversity.
If you folks ever wondered what the "BS" part of BS35 stands for, I hope yesterday answered it for you.
Sounds like he could learn a few things from Captain Gifford.
In the meantime, we move towards mid-April with no real clarification of "who's minding the store?"
... Starting Fresh or Status Quo?
Kudos again to Captain Gifford for defining leadership and "grace under pressure". Impressive.
Not having attended any of these events in the past ... I'm not sure if the AD's offices usually attends these events (one would think it's appropriate?) or not. But if so, then their absence yesterday would appear to speak volumes. Showing up would likely have at the very least sent a message of some level of continued support of the current leadership. But it's hard to read ANY support of the current leadership (not to mention the players themselves) into their no-show.
Would it have been a comfortable event for BS35 or his designee(s) to attend? Heck no. I get that.
But true leadership isn't about carefree blue skies moments ... it's about leading in times of adversity.
If you folks ever wondered what the "BS" part of BS35 stands for, I hope yesterday answered it for you.
Sounds like he could learn a few things from Captain Gifford.
In the meantime, we move towards mid-April with no real clarification of "who's minding the store?"
HockeyEast33
New member
Re: ... Starting Fresh or Status Quo?
Re: ... Starting Fresh or Status Quo?
I would suggest (based on the comments of the folks in attendance) that the absence of the administration allowed the players and coaches to enjoy the event. If the admin had been there, it may have shown support, but it more likely would have been VERY uncomfortable for the players and coaches and prevented them from enjoying their last event as a team. Perhaps in this specific instance, absence was the best approach as it appears that they weren't missed by those who matter - the players and coaches.
Re: ... Starting Fresh or Status Quo?
I would suggest (based on the comments of the folks in attendance) that the absence of the administration allowed the players and coaches to enjoy the event. If the admin had been there, it may have shown support, but it more likely would have been VERY uncomfortable for the players and coaches and prevented them from enjoying their last event as a team. Perhaps in this specific instance, absence was the best approach as it appears that they weren't missed by those who matter - the players and coaches.
UCONN FAN
New member
Re: ... Starting Fresh or Status Quo?
Re: ... Starting Fresh or Status Quo?
I agree! I feel for those girls having been through something similar.
Re: ... Starting Fresh or Status Quo?
I agree! I feel for those girls having been through something similar.
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
Re: ... Starting Fresh or Status Quo?
Re: ... Starting Fresh or Status Quo?
I totally understand that ... but with the "interim" tags still sitting on the current co-head coaches, you would think at least two of the folks at the event (and their families, and even their players) would have been disappointed not to have a little extra clarity going forwards? Just reading the tea leaves, taking on board bits and scraps of information from sources, etc. I can only conclude Coaches Wood and Jones have only been given assurances that IF a new coach should come on board, they will be offered the courtesy of an interview for a place on that person's staff, and nothing else.
Not going beyond that. It's a tough situation for everyone, but for some more than others.
Re: ... Starting Fresh or Status Quo?
I totally understand that ... but with the "interim" tags still sitting on the current co-head coaches, you would think at least two of the folks at the event (and their families, and even their players) would have been disappointed not to have a little extra clarity going forwards? Just reading the tea leaves, taking on board bits and scraps of information from sources, etc. I can only conclude Coaches Wood and Jones have only been given assurances that IF a new coach should come on board, they will be offered the courtesy of an interview for a place on that person's staff, and nothing else.
Not going beyond that. It's a tough situation for everyone, but for some more than others.