Re: Boston College '12-'13 Part III: Save us Hobey-John Gaudreaubey; you're our only
http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/news/story?id=6197210
But to get a true sense of Logue's value to the program, consider BC head coach Jerry York's assessment. "He's almost like a quarterback coach," York says.
With one important distinction. While most D-I football programs employ between 10 and 11 paid coaches -- seemingly a coach for every position -- hockey programs have a head coach and two paid assistants. And rarely is one of those positions filled by the goalie coach. The job, frankly, is a labor of love.
"I'd love to make a couple bucks at this thing, but we're not quite there yet," says Healey, a commercial lender for TD Bank. "Right now, it's just fun giving back to the sport that gave me a lot."
BU's Parker, when asked why there are so few paid goalie coaches, says "It is kind of odd, in some ways, in that the goalie position is so important, you'd want to have that guy [the goalie coach] totally involved in the program."
Even many D-I goalies admit they were surprised to learn that most goalie coaches on the collegiate level are strictly volunteers. "I actually had no idea that the majority of goaltender coaches throughout the country were unpaid," Muse says. "I thought we had a unique situation here at BC. But it is a position that definitely needs a goalie coach, someone to help out."
"Goalies haven't gotten any respect for the last 50 years," Healey says, laughing. "Way back, the goalie was the fat lazy kid who couldn't skate who was thrown between the pipes. That mentality is still around, to some degree. Things have gotten better, and a lot of teams now respect and value what a goalie coach brings to the table, but I still don't think it's the equal [to position players]."
Healy says the coaching evolution hasn't caught up with the evolution in the position. That reality is reflected in the NCAA regulations regarding the number of permissible paid coaches, which don't recognize the singular requirements that goaltending demands. For example, D-I hockey programs are allowed the same number of paid coaches as D-I basketball programs. However, hockey teams have twice as many players, and there's no position as unique as the goaltender on a basketball team.
So even wealthy programs that could afford to pay a fourth coach to work specifically with the goalies can't, because the NCAA prohibits them from doing so. As a result hockey programs, which rely on paid assistants to recruit, must make do with volunteer goalie coaches.
"It's become the lot of the goalie coach," Bertagna says. "You're the specialist who comes in a limited number of times, so it's natural that you get the short straw financially."
The NCAA further limits the role of goalie coaches who make a living teaching the position. If they were affiliated with a specific program, they couldn't visit the players they instruct, for fear of recruitment violations.
"If you're a coach, you can't go out and watch other kids, because it counts as an evaluation. You've got to play by the NCAA rules," Dennehy says. "Brian Daccord's stable of goaltenders is increasing because he can go out and see them. That would be near to impossible if he was coaching."
Daccord, a former Bruins goalie coach, provides goaltending instruction for goalies from 6 to 60 in numerous settings -- from clinics to camps to private lessons -- through Stop It.
"At the end of the day, if it wasn't for the NCAA, I'd be coaching college hockey," he says. "There's two things that prohibit development coaches from coaching the goalies in college. One is the money. There is no money. Number two is that a volunteer coach is not allowed to recruit."
