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LSSU Lakers 2014 off-season thread (part 2)

Re: LSSU Lakers 2014 off-season thread (part 2)

DopeyBaker said:
Random hockey fans didn't attend because it was a PRESS CONFERENCE. These are intended for news and TV reporters.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/press+conference?s=t
Click to expand...

Actually if you were active back in the day, the PRESS CONFERENCES for Jeff Jackson and Frank Anzalone II were standing room only. If you watched the recent press conference you would notice two indicators.
1. At the beginning when AD Dunbar was sitting at the front table alone she says to somebody that walks up to her "I hope some people come".
2. There were at least 100 chairs set up for attendees. That's a pretty good indication that guests were welcome.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2014 off-season thread (part 2)

DM2SM said:
I will say it again, if you are not from SSM then you really don’t know what is going on here.

Bill, your posts indicate that you feel the success of Laker Hockey is even a thought to the people of SSM. There are very few who even care about the program. Why do you think Jim Roque stayed on for so long? It didn’t matter to anyone if he was here or not. To locals, Laker hockey is expensive and political. When students are not in town attendance is comparable to the Eagles and Sault High.

Neil is a big supporter of Laker hockey and has a vested interest but as he said a few posts back, the people he talks to don’t really care who the coach is. More accurately Neil, they don’t care about Laker Hockey period.

To comment on your post, Bill. It’s not that me or Perky or SM2PK or anyone else’s candidate didn’t get selected. It’s that an opportunity to create even a little interest in the program was wasted. Neil is a supporter and as he put it, “if the Lakers win, people will come back”. By hiring someone such as Fogarty or yes Shawhan it would have created at least a little excitement in the program and probably showed immediately in revenue.

Finally, do people think Damon Whitten is coach at LSSU without Rick Comley? Not a chance but you are wrong to suggest people “blame” Rick Comley or to imply people even care if a committee selected the coach or the AD appointed one. Very few know or care who Damon Whitten or Rick Comley or Ron Mason are.
What people do know is that the coach that was hired may have been the least qualified and no-one is upset about that, it simply makes it that much more difficult to create needed excitement in the program.

There were six people that I counted outside the team at the press conference for the new coach at LSSU. The only question asked by one of the six was the status of the current assistants. There was absolutely no interest from the community in this hire. I think a huge opportunity was missed to hire someone that would generate excitement. It has nothing to do with “spin” Bill. It has to do with selling tickets, gaining support from the local community and donations from a rejuvenated alumni base.
Click to expand...

The Soo is a depressed, distrusting town anyways, so it comes as no surprise to me that locals think Laker hockey is too "political", but expensive?? Either you are wrong in claiming that to be the case, or the natives you claim to be speaking for are incredibly ignorant. Laker tickets cost what? $10-12 bucks?? A 24 oz. Soda at Taffy is $1.50, popcorn is $1.00...I paid $7.50 for a pop that was the same size last week at Comerica Park. There is literally probably no cheaper place to watch one of the "big four" American sports at the NCAA Division 1 level than Laker Hockey. No; anyone who claims Laker Hockey is too expensive needs to get real.

I don't see how you can claim that Whitten "may have been the least qualified" of the finalist candidates, assuming you are being rational, and using objective criteria, no one had D1 head coaching experience so the next closest thing would be D-1 assistant experience, which Whitten had, and it was current. Fogarty had past D1 assistant experience, but he has spent the better part of the last decade coaching at the D3 level, so technically he was probably the least qualified....not that any of this matters, this was a fruitless point that you tried to make anyways, I just wanted to display how off base your notion was.

I don't see how you can say with a straight face that LSSU should have hired a coach with consideration to firing up the locals in mind...you hire what you think is the best man for the job, and if they are successful, the local interest and attendance will take care of itself in time. Hiring someone just to draw attention and interest from the locals is at best a short term band-aid to a long term injury I.E., having 3000+ in the seats the first 2 homestands would matter in the grand scheme of things if the team finished 9-25. The only business that runs with your criteria in mind is a circus, thus the reason it is a traveling business by nature. Also I don't understand why you seem to think Fogarty would be such an attention grabber anyways, he didn't play for LSSU, coach for LSSU, and isnt from the Soo?? I am perfectly fine with LSSU playing the "long game" which would yield bigger rewards if succesful, than hiring just to pander to the appeasement of some disgruntled locals.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2014 off-season thread (part 2)

NMU and Minnesota State recently released their schedules. All the WCHA conference games are known. The only mystery is the non-conference games.

October 4-5 Michigan Tech (Saturday-Sunday series, Sunday game at 5:07pm)
October 10-11 @ Robert Morris (should be)
October 17-18
October 24-25 NMU (Great Lake State Weekend)
October 31-Nov1 @ Alaska Anchorage
November 7-8
November 14-15 @ Alabama Huntsville
November 21-22 Alaska
November 28-29 Minnesota State Mankato
December 5-6 @ North Dakota
December 12-13 @ Ferris State
December 28 Cornell @ Estero December 29 Notre Dame or Miami @ Estero
January 2-3
January 9-10 @ Minnesota State Mankato
January 16-17 Bemidji State
January 23-24 @ Bowling Green State
January 30-31
February 6-7 @ Alaska
February 13-14 Alabama Huntsville
February 20-21
February 27-28 @ NMU
March 6-7 Ferris State
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2014 off-season thread (part 2)

AnchorsAway said:
Either you are wrong in claiming that to be the case, or the natives you claim to be speaking for are incredibly ignorant. Laker tickets cost what? $10-12 bucks?? A 24 oz. Soda at Taffy is $1.50, popcorn is $1.00...I paid $7.50 for a pop that was the same size last week at Comerica Park. There is literally probably no cheaper place to watch one of the "big four" American sports at the NCAA Division 1 level than Laker Hockey. No; anyone who claims Laker Hockey is too expensive needs to get real.
Click to expand...

Alright, if you want to say attendance totals at or below 1,000 people on any given night has nothing to do with cost I’m not going to argue but please tell me another single activity that costs more than $14/ticket plus parking and snacks for a family of 4. No argument.

AnchorsAway said:
I don't see how you can claim that Whitten "may have been the least qualified" of the finalist candidates, assuming you are being rational, and using objective criteria, no one had D1 head coaching experience so the next closest thing would be D-1 assistant experience, which Whitten had, and it was current. Fogarty had past D1 assistant experience, but he has spent the better part of the last decade coaching at the D3 level, so technically he was probably the least qualified....not that any of this matters, this was a fruitless point that you tried to make anyways, I just wanted to display how off base your notion was.
Click to expand...

Tell me what you would consider when hiring a D1 head hockey coach? I would consider successful head coaching experience at a collegiate level highly important. I would consider running your own program highly important. In considering an assistant coach for a head coaching job I would think you would consider the overall success of the programs where the candidates came from. I would look at the impact the candidate had on that success at each school worked at. I would look at the individuals the candidate recruited and the success of those recruits at the collegiate level and beyond. Lastly I would probably look at similarities in the environments between my school and where my candidates had success so I had a pretty good idea that he could repeat.
Looking at these common sense criteria is why I made the statement I made.

I’m not going to go in depth but no one is close to Fogarty if you combine is head coaching experience and the success he had in ten years as a D1 assistant coach.
Barr is second running away having been part of building two separate programs from below .500 records to NCAA tournament teams. His Bio is loaded with successful recruits.
To me, Christian is next because he has recruited several players to LSSU that developed into NHL caliber players. He showed he could bring that level talent to SSM. His draw back was Anzalone and Roque.
Whitten and Metro are a toss-up as neither has ever been a paid coach on a hockey team that had a winning season. Metro coached professionally in France but it was for a team that his father in law owned. He at least has head coaching experience and had to manage a team.
Whitten has never been part of coaching a winning team in fact the teams he has worked for have averaged 24 losses per year in his seven years and are over 80 games under .500.

AnchorsAway said:
I don't see how you can say with a straight face that LSSU should have hired a coach with consideration to firing up the locals in mind...you hire what you think is the best man for the job, and if they are successful, the local interest and attendance will take care of itself in time. Hiring someone just to draw attention and interest from the locals is at best a short term band-aid to a long term injury I.E., having 3000+ in the seats the first 2 homestands would matter in the grand scheme of things if the team finished 9-25. The only business that runs with your criteria in mind is a circus, thus the reason it is a traveling business by nature. Also I don't understand why you seem to think Fogarty would be such an attention grabber anyways, he didn't play for LSSU, coach for LSSU, and isnt from the Soo?? I am perfectly fine with LSSU playing the "long game" which would yield bigger rewards if succesful, than hiring just to pander to the appeasement of some disgruntled locals.
Click to expand...

This comment is just plain stupid. You know I was not recommending hiring an unqualified coach just because I think he could sell some tickets. My comment was pretty direct in that there were “better candidates available that were the best man for the job” that could have been chosen that would have created at least a little buzz. Have you done any research on Ron Fogarty. When Hammer came on here a while back talking about this guy in Adrian I started to listen. This guy hardly loses. He started a program from scratch into one of the top three annually. A little P.R. and the word would have gotten out. What's done is done. My belief is an opportunity was lost.
A hire should bring excitement. The community is absolutely turned off to Laker Hockey. Not mad. There is a total lack of interest. The worse I have ever seen. I don’t think anyone was brought back and in fact a few were lost. Now we have to win to create any atmosphere in the Taffy.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2014 off-season thread (part 2)

If you look at schools who have been successful over a long time, you must consider the entire coaching staff as a team. Each guy brings with him certain strengths. The Head Coach must have the respect of everyone and be a good time manager & delegater. At least one of the assistants must be a first class recruiter and love to travel. The second assistant stays on campus mostly and is responsible for keeping
track of players grades with thier advisers and tutors, coordinate practices, and many times focus on PK or the PP. The HC then serves as "closer" when a prospect makes his official visit. Michigan had one of the
best coaching staff's before Mel Pearson left for Michigan Tech. Red is an icon and Billy Powers loves to recruit. Whitten is not new to the D1 landscape and I'm sure has his eyes on potential assistants.knowing thier
individual strengths and weaknesses. He should do well and I expect will blend in well on campus both with the Administration and the students. He's a very likeable guy!!!!
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2014 off-season thread (part 2)

DM2SM said:
Alright, if you want to say attendance totals at or below 1,000 people on any given night has nothing to do with cost I’m not going to argue but please tell me another single activity that costs more than $14/ticket plus parking and snacks for a family of 4. No argument.



Tell me what you would consider when hiring a D1 head hockey coach? I would consider successful head coaching experience at a collegiate level highly important. I would consider running your own program highly important. In considering an assistant coach for a head coaching job I would think you would consider the overall success of the programs where the candidates came from. I would look at the impact the candidate had on that success at each school worked at. I would look at the individuals the candidate recruited and the success of those recruits at the collegiate level and beyond. Lastly I would probably look at similarities in the environments between my school and where my candidates had success so I had a pretty good idea that he could repeat.
Looking at these common sense criteria is why I made the statement I made.

I’m not going to go in depth but no one is close to Fogarty if you combine is head coaching experience and the success he had in ten years as a D1 assistant coach.
Barr is second running away having been part of building two separate programs from below .500 records to NCAA tournament teams. His Bio is loaded with successful recruits.
To me, Christian is next because he has recruited several players to LSSU that developed into NHL caliber players. He showed he could bring that level talent to SSM. His draw back was Anzalone and Roque.
Whitten and Metro are a toss-up as neither has ever been a paid coach on a hockey team that had a winning season. Metro coached professionally in France but it was for a team that his father in law owned. He at least has head coaching experience and had to manage a team.
Whitten has never been part of coaching a winning team in fact the teams he has worked for have averaged 24 losses per year in his seven years and are over 80 games under .500.



This comment is just plain stupid. You know I was not recommending hiring an unqualified coach just because I think he could sell some tickets. My comment was pretty direct in that there were “better candidates available that were the best man for the job” that could have been chosen that would have created at least a little buzz. Have you done any research on Ron Fogarty. When Hammer came on here a while back talking about this guy in Adrian I started to listen. This guy hardly loses. He started a program from scratch into one of the top three annually. A little P.R. and the word would have gotten out. What's done is done. My belief is an opportunity was lost.
A hire should bring excitement. The community is absolutely turned off to Laker Hockey. Not mad. There is a total lack of interest. The worse I have ever seen. I don’t think anyone was brought back and in fact a few were lost. Now we have to win to create any atmosphere in the Taffy.
Click to expand...

I don't know Fogarty from Adam but if he was such a can't miss prospect, why did he leave the D1 level to begin with, and why has he not returned? I'm sure that he is a fine coach and man, but I think his reputation has become a tad overinflated on this thread....anyone who was that much of a slam dunk would've made it back to the D1 level by now.

You wanted to see impact from the assistant on their program, and in a similar environment to LSSU? Whitten was in charge of the penalty kill with the Huskies, here is the trends of their PK percentage over Whitten's time there:
2009-2010 (Last year before Whitten arrived): 71.8%
2010-2011 : 74.5%
2011-2012: 81.7%
2013-2013: 80.5%
2013-2014: 82.4%

Whitten was also heavily involved in recruiting at MTU; and progress was clearly being made by the players he was bringing in: in '09-10,the last year pre-Whitten the Huskies were 5-30-7, averaged 2.00 goals/game, allowed 4.11 goals/game and had only 2 players break the 20 point marker.

Last year MTU finished 14-19-7, averaged 2.48 goals/game, allowed 2.7 goals/game and had 6 players break the 20 point marker, all of which were underclassmen.

Was it a complete "worst-to-first" type turn around for the Huskies over DW's tenure? Of course not, but big strides had been made, and their program continues to be on the rise and clearly DW played a role in that. Not to mention he did so at a school that (1) LSSU was spawned from, (2) is very close to LSSU in terms enrollment (at least in the grand scheme of things) (3) plays in the same league and (4) has the unfortunate geographical luck of being one of the 3 teams in college hockey tucked away in the UP, and is even farther away from civilization, gets more snow and deals with harsher winters than LSSU. So in terms of looking for someone coming from an environment close to LSSU's I don't think there is a more apples-to-apples comparison out there than Michigan Tech.
 
DM2SM said:
. If you watched the recent press conference you would notice two indicators.
1. At the beginning when AD Dunbar was sitting at the front table alone she says to somebody that walks up to her "I hope some people come".
2. There were at least 100 chairs set up for attendees. That's a pretty good indication that guests were welcome.
Click to expand...
Good to see the enthusiasm in the Soo for the new coach.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2014 off-season thread (part 2)

DM2SM said:
No. I think people attend because they're interested.
I think no one attends because they are uninterested.
Thanks for making my point.
Click to expand...

I was at the second Anzalone press conference. It was a good crowd. Maybe 60-70 people.

I watched the Whitten press conference online. It said 102 people were watching it. So, looks like more people were interested in Whitten's press conference than Frank's, seeing his wasn't available online, so if you wanted to watch it, you had to be there.

As for the people I talk to not being interested in Laker Hockey, I guess that confuses me a bit, seeing the reason the conversation starts up to begin with is because of, well, Laker Hockey.

I know there is a particular group in the Soo that would love for nothing more than to see the conversation concerning local sports focus more on Sault High football,or Laker basketball. Sorry, that won't ever happen, even with some of the powers-that-be at LSSU and Sault High doing their ****edest to make it so.
 
AnchorsAway said:
I don't know Fogarty from Adam but if he was such a can't miss prospect, why did he leave the D1 level to begin with, and why has he not returned? I'm sure that he is a fine coach and man, but I think his reputation has become a tad overinflated on this thread....anyone who was that much of a slam dunk would've made it back to the D1 level by now.

You wanted to see impact from the assistant on their program, and in a similar environment to LSSU? Whitten was in charge of the penalty kill with the Huskies, here is the trends of their PK percentage over Whitten's time there:
2009-2010 (Last year before Whitten arrived): 71.8%
2010-2011 : 74.5%
2011-2012: 81.7%
2013-2013: 80.5%
2013-2014: 82.4%

Whitten was also heavily involved in recruiting at MTU; and progress was clearly being made by the players he was bringing in: in '09-10,the last year pre-Whitten the Huskies were 5-30-7, averaged 2.00 goals/game, allowed 4.11 goals/game and had only 2 players break the 20 point marker.

Last year MTU finished 14-19-7, averaged 2.48 goals/game, allowed 2.7 goals/game and had 6 players break the 20 point marker, all of which were underclassmen.

Was it a complete "worst-to-first" type turn around for the Huskies over DW's tenure? Of course not, but big strides had been made, and their program continues to be on the rise and clearly DW played a role in that. Not to mention he did so at a school that (1) LSSU was spawned from, (2) is very close to LSSU in terms enrollment (at least in the grand scheme of things) (3) plays in the same league and (4) has the unfortunate geographical luck of being one of the 3 teams in college hockey tucked away in the UP, and is even farther away from civilization, gets more snow and deals with harsher winters than LSSU. So in terms of looking for someone coming from an environment close to LSSU's I don't think there is a more apples-to-apples comparison out there than Michigan Tech.
Click to expand...
Fogarty left the D-1 level for a D-3 head coaching position. Very similar to Norm Bazin leaving Colorado College as an assistant to take a D-3 head coaching position. It seems to heve worked out pretty well for Norm since taking the top job moving back up to D-1 at UMass Lowell.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2014 off-season thread (part 2)

Randy Russon is reporting (on his hockeynewsnorth blog) that Doug Laprade will not be back as assistant coach.
 
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Bill said:
Randy Russon is reporting (on his hockeynewsnorth blog) that Doug Laprade will not be back as assistant coach.
Click to expand...

Not surprising that Whitten wants his own staff, though given the time taken thus far, I would say he's probably given both Christian and Laprade a fair shake. When Pearson was interviewing assistants, it was rumored that he initially courted Brian Renfew as his second assistant, before keeping Whitten.
 
LSSULaker889294 said:
NMU and Minnesota State recently released their schedules. All the WCHA conference games are known. The only mystery is the non-conference games.

October 4-5 Michigan Tech (Saturday-Sunday series, Sunday game at 5:07pm)
October 10-11 @ Robert Morris (should be)
October 17-18
October 24-25 NMU (Great Lake State Weekend)
October 31-Nov1 @ Alaska Anchorage
November 7-8
November 14-15 @ Alabama Huntsville
November 21-22 Alaska
November 28-29 Minnesota State Mankato
December 5-6 @ North Dakota
December 12-13 @ Ferris State
December 28 Cornell @ Estero December 29 Notre Dame or Miami @ Estero
January 2-3
January 9-10 @ Minnesota State Mankato
January 16-17 Bemidji State
January 23-24 @ Bowling Green State
January 30-31
February 6-7 @ Alaska
February 13-14 Alabama Huntsville
February 20-21
February 27-28 @ NMU
March 6-7 Ferris State
Click to expand...

Does anyone want to play NC games in Sault? Its frustrating.
Something has to be done.
 
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FRICKER said:
. Whitten is not new to the D1 landscape and I'm sure has his eyes on potential assistants.knowing thier
individual strengths and weaknesses. He should do well and I expect will blend in well on campus both with the Administration and the students. He's a very likeable guy!!!!
Click to expand...

The Lakers hired the right guy. I can't wait for the announcement of his AC's. He will put people in to the Taffey, Damon will get the right kids to play in the Soo. Get those season tickets.
 
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