Re: LSSU Lakers 2014 off season thread
Listen JNACC ... it's Friday and I'm in a decent mood, however, your hateful tone and snarkiness is bringing me down. I'll do my best to address your issues in a respectful manner. First of all, I'd like to talk about Roque's likeability among players - both past and present. True, you are going to have an occasion guy who doesn't like the coach. But for the most part, Roque is well liked. I can think of two players on this year's roster who would beg to differ. Both saw very little, if any, ice time. So it stands to reason that they would feel negatively toward him. But, barring the occasional disgruntled player (and they are usually the loudest and first to tell you they don't like the guy!), Roque has had good relationships with his players - very evident because these relationships have been maintained well after graduation. Many attend the various golf outings and reunion events, etc.
The other issue I wanted to mention regards the roll out of Lake Superior State joining the WCHA. You've totally misunderstood what I was getting at with regard to the AD's involvement. Sure, she and the prez made sure that the Lakers had a league to play in, but that NEW league needed to be promoted, advertised, hyped-up, etc. ... basically rolled out to the public that the Lakers were in a fantastic new league! The logos needed to be ordered for the boards, ice, in the arena, on apparel, merchandise, etc. Press releases and advertising needed to be conducted to build excitement about the new league. A big splash should have been made .... and none of this happened! The AD didn't remember to order the logos for the ice and boards, and the coach was left scrambling to get this done in the few weeks before the first home series. Nothing was on the radio or in the newspaper. As a matter of fact, I remember seeing one billboard down by the Chinese food place on Ashmun that was up for a few weeks advertising season tickets with NO MENTION of the WCHA! Don't you think more of an effort should have been made by the AD to generate exposure of the new league and excitement for the upcoming season? Sadly none of this happened. It was like the WCHA snuck in under the cover of night.
With regard to money withheld from the hockey budget. True, this is just something I heard in passing, so it may or may not be true. But given the AD's disdain for the hockey program, I found it to be plausible. I have a feeling that the new coach will get a few more dollars than the $80k that Roque was getting. Not sure where it's coming from .... so who knows?
In my opinion, the AD is supposed to market all the sports at the university, see to it that they're as competitive as possible, and go to bat for her coaches. I'm not sure that she does this. She has her 'pet favorites' as far as sports and coaches go ..... and she certainly hasn't gone to bat for Roque. Of course all you snarky posters are going to say she did by keeping him for 9 seasons, but I'm talking about on a more consistent day to day, situation to situation basis. A good AD stands up for her coaches. I can't say that this was the case regarding Roque's tenure at the university.
Sorry, JNACC that I didn't give you my case for why Roque should have stayed. I think in my past posts I've talked about his virtues, and at this point, there is NO POINT in beating a dead horse. His contact has not been renewed, time to move on ..... I just hope they find who they're looking for. Given the set of circumstances the university is dealing with, I am highly doubtful this will happen.
