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DIII Coaching Changes

Oswego hires Danielle Slominski as their new assistant coach. Slominski was a +30 defender with only 3 career penalties for UW-Eau Claire in 2 seasons as an underclassman who did not play after the shortened 2020-21 season, though USCHO's career stats page shows 2 penalty minutes but 0 games played in 2021-22...
 
Dani Slominski played 3 seasons at D for UWEC (one was the shortened 2020-21 season); she played in 28 games in 2021-22 and had 7 goals and 7 assists, with a +14 and 2 penalty minutes. Dani was a freshman on the 2019-20 team that had just beaten UW River Falls for the WIAC tournament crown and was set to host them in the first round of the NCAA tourney when COVID forced its cancellation. She's a very intelligent young woman who graduated from UWEC in three years, leaving two seasons of eligibility on the table.
 
UMB has confirmed that Moe Bradley '15, their 2022-23 assistant, has been named the head coach. Bradley replaces Danielle Blanchard, the 7 time DIII national champion (2 as a player, 5 as an assistant coach).

There isn't anything I can find out there as to where Blanchard is headed.
 
Greg Haney is reportedly leaving SUNY Potsdam after three seasons to take the head coaching gig at Elmira.

This creates a new opening at Potsdam and the most prominent DIII openings are now:

Head Coach at Suffolk
Assistant Coach at Middlebury
Head Coach at SUNY Potsdam
Head Coach at King's
Assistant Coach at Wilkes
Head Coach at Hilbert



Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk
 
Scott_TG said:
He may very well be, but what happened here to a premier DIII women's program is super sketchy. From what I heard he was preparing to blow up most of the roster and bring in a ton of players to remake Elmira in his own image hence the transfers I'm hearing about (including some I was asked to keep to myself).

He may very well be the next great women's hockey coach but in the context of Elmira trying to survive as a school the administration would have been better served with a stabilizing presence. It's not like the program needs a great tactician, it's a self propelling machine. They lost a HC after the first weekend of the season a few years back and kept on chugging, just like they did with the late-offseason change last year.

I think they would have been better served pursuing an alumna like Ashley Magill or Rachael Grampp but maybe they did and neither wanted to make that move...
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not sketchy ha, most coaches want their own type of players... especially when half the current ones dont listen
 
bobthomasiselite said:
not sketchy ha, most coaches want their own type of players... especially when half the current ones dont listen
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From my post on the Gophers thread:

Bobrowski leaves one of the historically best D3 teams in the country after one year to go coach high school hockey with her (Darwitz)?! I think I said at the time Elmira hired him that they were making a big mistake. It didn't make sense at all. He had no connection to being out east or anything. It was a very weird hiring decision especially considering their alums they could have chosen instead. Why Elmira hasn't invested in it's women's hockey alums to coach that team I'll never know. It's become a revolving door there. Reports are that he has possibly caused irreparable damage to Elmira with many players from this year leaving for other opportunities. Elmira's record was 21-6-0 overall and 17-0-0 and top spot in the regular season in their conference, but then lost in their conference championship game 2-0 (with an empty netter) to Norwich after outshooting Norwich 38-20 according to the uscho boxscore and going 0 for 3 on their PP. When a team fails to win a championship game in that way, I blame the coach. That team obviously had the talent to advance to the NCAAs and do well there. I wouldn't want to be the next Elmira coach. Their days as a top D3 team might be numbered or maybe already over depending on how much damage Bobrowski did there. How much does a high school co-head coach position pay? It must be an amazing salary for two full-time college coaches to both want to share the job. There's something about that relationship they have that just seems weird. Good riddance to them both. The college game is better off without them.
 
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I'm wondering if things at Elmira as a whole are a whole lot worse than things seem in regards to the rumored financial instability. If Elmira's rumored collapse as an institution is imminent none of this ultimately matters.

Short term, I agree that this is the most precarious position I've seen the program since I've been following this league: a large graduating class and a coach who gave a lot of girls the boot only to leave.

If all of the rumored players show up, the replacement coach is competent and he commits to them, and the recruits are of Elmira's usual caliber then they are probably going to be fine.

If the coach isn't up to par, or his style of coaching doesn't gel with what Bobrowski made the roster and Haney decides he also needs to blow up the roster and bring his own players we could see things fall apart as shelfit mentions.

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Scott_TG said:
Greg Haney is reportedly leaving SUNY Potsdam after three seasons to take the head coaching gig at Elmira.

This creates a new opening at Potsdam and the most prominent DIII openings are now:
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Deja vu all over again.

A number of years ago, Aaron Saul left the Potsdam men head coaching job to take up the role at Elmira. In both cases, the coaches were moving Potsdam in the right direction.
 
Russell Jaslow said:
Deja vu all over again.

A number of years ago, Aaron Saul left the Potsdam men head coaching job to take up the role at Elmira. In both cases, the coaches were moving Potsdam in the right direction.
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Except if I'm looking at things correctly it looks like Potsdam made the conference playoffs two seasons ago but missed their playoffs this season. Two years of head coaching experience at all and going the wrong direction in year two. Lol. Were there no better candidates than a guy that's bounced around every few years as an assistant coach and only has two years of experience as a head coach?!!. Did Elmira's men's assistant coach not want the job?! Elmira just made a hiring mistake but I guess it doesn't matter if the school is failing financially.
 
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shelfit said:
Except if I'm looking at things correctly it looks like Potsdam made the conference playoffs two seasons ago but missed their playoffs this season. Two years of head coaching experience at all and going the wrong direction in year two. Lol. Were there no better candidates than a guy that's bounced around every few years as an assistant coach and only has two years of experience as a head coach?!!. Did Elmira's men's assistant coach not want the job?! Elmira just made a hiring mistake but I guess it doesn't matter if the school is failing financially.
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The Potsdam women where heading in a good direction despite missing the playoffs last year. They were average before Haney, and I think he was doing good things there to get better.
 
Scott_TG said:
University of Dubuque hires Madyson Moore, who has been Utica's assistant since 2021, as their inaugural head coach. Interesting that they aren't going with final Finlandia HC Mike Kuruc despite hoping to inherit the Finlandia roster...

https://udspartans.com/news/2023/5/17/moore-named-head-womens-hockey-coach.aspx
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Dubuque has hired Mike Kuruc as associate head coach. They recently held a Hockey Media Day with the men's and women's coaching staffs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4wlDS0bSlI
 
I wonder if he's moving to one of the other openings or doing something outside DIII WIH?

Right now the head coaching vacancies are:

- Hilbert
- King's
- Suffolk
- SUNY Potsdam
- UNE
 
Word on the street is Mollie Fitzpatrick stepping down at Plymouth State. Pursuing opportunities outside of hockey.
 
The best candidate out there (imo) for the few head coaching vacancies appears to be off the market as it looks like Danielle Blanchard is returning to DI by taking the open Merrimack assistant coaching gig.

Looks like the following openings are out there for Head Coaches:

Suffolk
SUNY Potsdam
Plymouth State
University of New England
Marian
King's
Hilbert

I honestly was expecting Blanch to get snapped up by Suffolk (as she was already in Boston) or Potsdam (shuddering at that thought, but returning to a SUNY would mean she could resume working toward a NYS state employee pension)...
 
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