huskyfan
New member
Re: Michigan Tech Offseason Thread I: Not Winning and the ensuing drama.
paper or plastic?
paper or plastic?
USCHO Fan Forum
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
-
The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.
Michigan Tech Offseason Thread I: Not Winning and the ensuing drama.
- Thread starter Flashy Man
- Start date
- Status
technohusky
Banned
Re: Michigan Tech Offseason Thread I: Not Winning and the ensuing drama.
You were actually there? This made the news even in the UP.
You were actually there? This made the news even in the UP.
manurespreader
Still upright
Re: Michigan Tech Offseason Thread I: Not Winning and the ensuing drama.
Yep, saw it happen. I was at the pool discussing training issues and people started to yell, I looked over just in time to see her fall.
huskyfan
New member
Re: Michigan Tech Offseason Thread I: Not Winning and the ensuing drama.
Found this gem over on Tech's Facebook page. Probably a bit...too enthusiastic but I must admit I agree with it wholeheartedly. Anyways, there is some good stuff in here about the hockey program toward the end.
"April 8, 2011
To Suzanne Sanregret,
As a proud alumni of your university, class of 2009, I am writing to you to discuss what it means to be a Husky and the disquieting conduct of your athletes which undermines a wonderful tradition. My connection to the university goes back well before I ever made a tuition payment. At the age of seven, I spent a blustery, cold October weekend in Houghton to celebrate Michigan Tech athletes. The year was 1994, the twenty year anniversary of Michigan Tech football’s last undefeated season. A member of that team, a student athlete from 1973 to 1976, was the best man I’ve ever known, my father. He was the starting offensive tackle during that undefeated season, as a sophomore. He would start his junior and senior year as well, moving between every lineman position due to team injuries. He was only around 215 pounds, he was always at a size disadvantage; 50, 75, occasionally even 100 pounds. He was recruited out of high school as an All-State fullback but transitioned to lineman for the betterment of the team. The man who my father gave way to…he still holds the school record for career rushing yards. Sacrificing for teammates, respecting them, and asking them to get more out of themselves than they think is possible…that’s what great athletes do. More importantly, it is what great men and women do. During his career, the program was 28-9-1.
Several pictures of my father still hang in the Student Development Complex, 35 years after he left Houghton and, as of Saturday, March 26th, nine years after he passed away. It is a shame that many of Michigan Tech’s athletes have forgotten the example he set. As of last Sunday, your website, in bold, proclaimed, “Track and Field Teams Open in St. Paul.” The press release accompanying the headline was remarkably rosy. The story bragged, “The Michigan Tech men’s and women’s track and field teams opened the season with seven top-10 finishes at the Hamline Invite Saturday (April 2). “ Great accomplishments were made, “Jill Smith ran her way to a sixth place in finish in the 5,000. Her time of 18:34.88 was the sixth fastest in school history,” and “Molly Wiltzius posted the best women’s finish on the day with a fifth place finish in the discus. Her throw of 125-1 ranks seventh all-time in school history, and she now holds the 10 best throws in school history.” On the men’s side, “Dylan Anderson led the men’s team with a fourth place finish in the 800 (1:57.25),” and “Nathan Saliga was 10th in the 400 (50.95) and Wesley Jacobson was 10th in the 400 hurdles (1:00.23).”
I wish I saw the same things as the athletic department’s press writer. When I look at the results I see:
Women 5000 Meter Run
===============================================================================
1 Place, Morgan Minnesota-*Duluth 16:42.88
2 Hines, Bridget Minnesota-*Duluth 17:34.15
3 Salava, Alyssa Minnesota-*Duluth 18:05.29
4 Hines, Whitney Minnesota-*Duluth 18:20.33
5 Kociscak, Jessica Hamline 18:31.60
6 Smith, Jill Michigan Tech 18:34.88
I see a Michigan Tech athlete losing to four Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. Two of these fellow D-II competitors beat Ms. Smith by over one minute. The best the Michigan Tech track team has to offer in the 5,000 would pass for #5 at another program. The men’s team is no better:
Men 400 Meter Dash
==================================================================================
1 Gilmer, Domonique Concordia St Paul 48.78
2 Molitor, Tyson Hamline 49.68
3 Arnold, Joe Augsburg 49.78
4 Falzone, Frank Unattached 49.83
5 Weil, Dj Hamline 49.94
6 Swanberg, Christian Hamline 50.05
7 Koenig, Aaron Saint John's 50.46
8 Wolke, Rick Augsburg 50.51
9 Smith, Zach Minnesota Morris 50.89
10 Saliga, Nathan Michigan Tech 50.95
Augsberg, Saint John’s, why is Michigan Tech engaged in athletics with small, Minnesota Division III schools? Why is a Michigan Tech Husky, praised for his athletic effort in university wide press releases, the equivalent of the number three 400 runner for Hamline University? I asked a friend who qualified for states in track and field in high school whether running a 51 second 400 meter dash was common. His response was, “yeah, definitely, there are tons of high school kids who run 51 or faster.” In fact, the best Michigan Tech had to offer in 2010 at the GLIAC Conference meet were roughly comparable to my friends at Livonia Churchill when I played high school athletics. Tech’s best Men’s finishes were in the 800 and 100 meter races:
7 Gilkerson, Ken Michigan Tech 1:55.74
2 Parnell, Quinn Michigan Tech 10.98
The following time was posted in 2003. The boy who posted that time was only a high school junior and, due to the size of the meet, had to participate in preliminaries, semi finals and finals for his event. At 16, he finished within .15 seconds of your athlete on his third race of the day. He finished better than .8 seconds faster than the best 100 meter runner for Tech last Saturday:
1. Eric George(11) Livonia-Churchill 11.13
Eric George played football with me, graduated a year ahead of me. He never had a winning season in that sport. He was never recruited and never ran track in college. And in the 800, from 2004:
14 Livonia Churchill Horka, Joseph 1:57.40
Once again, run by a person from my high school as a junior. Joe graduated with me in 2005. He went on to run in college at…Madonna University, a NAIS school. Have I made my point or must I go through every event and show that 15, 16, and 17 year olds, from one public high school, are competing at what you claim is a great collegiate level? Your athletes should not be comparable to high school athletes. That is unacceptable.
The team results speak for themselves…
Ashland 208.50
Grand Valley State 197.50
Hillsdale 88
Findlay 84
Tiffin 69
Saginaw Valley State 64
Northwood 63
Lake Superior State 19
Michigan Tech 15
I’ve never lost 208.5 to 15…in anything. And the Women’s team was even worse:
Grand Valley State 291
Ashland 146
Hillsdale 136
Northern Michigan 70
Findlay 62
Saginaw Valley State 34
Ferris State 23
Tiffin 20
Northwood 19
Lake Superior State 14
Michigan Tech 3
There is no excuse for losing 291 to 3. It strains credulity to suggest that any group of Michigan Tech students could fare worse than our varsity track team. I wouldn’t need 5 athletes to get 18 points in a Division II meet. In fact, without strenuously examining the heat sheet I bet Grand Valley and Ashland each had athletes who individually tallied more points than all of Michigan Tech combined. But I concede that winning isn’t everything in sports. In fact, it isn’t even the most important thing. What it takes to be successful on a field or in a rink are the same qualities that it takes to be successful in a classroom or on the job or in finding the love of your life and raising a family. Even though Tech isn’t competitive as a team or individually, at least they are constantly improving. And the team can point to athletes bettering their PRs. Except, they aren’t. The captain of the team the year I graduated from Tech never got better. His results at conferences in 2007, 2008, and 2009 in the high jump were 6’6”, 6’7”, and 6’6.75”. Three-quarters of one inch in three years time, no improvement at all. If the captain never improves, why should anyone else? In 2007, Aaron Tetzloff finished in 19th in the 200 meter dash at conferences. In 2009, with two seasons to make strides against collegiate competition he finished in…22nd. No improvement there. Last year Amanda Halonen’s season best in the 800 meter dash was 2:28. Saturday…she ran 2:26. Men’s, women’s, field events, sprints, mid distance, current athletes, alumni. It doesn’t really matter where you look. All you see is stagnation and failure. I’m guessing that Tech’s All-American running back last year had more rushing yards this year than he did as a freshman. On top of that, the teams provide no revenues. They don’t host meets. You give scholarships when they have not been earned to athletes who don’t appreciate it.
Asking a student who is paying $12,000 a year in tuition, before room and board and books, to go deeper into debt to support losers, you cannot justify that. It becomes even more galling when you consider that most of the students who you are taking money from are much better academically than your athletes. “Both the men’s and women’s track and field teams at Michigan Tech were honored recently as All-Academic Teams by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The men’s squad finished with a 3.06 cumulative grade point average.” A 3.0 GPA is not something to brag about. I graduated in four years with honors, comfortably. I worked for three of those years, averaging between 15 and 20 hours per week on top of my schooling. I participated in extracurricular activities including a very prestigious program in the school of business. Out of sixteen students in that program, four had equal or better GPAs than I did. My college roommate graduated in mechanical engineering with above a 3.8 GPA. My brother dual majored at 21 from Purdue with honors. My mother and father both graduated with GPAs well above a 3.06. To three point requires little effort, and is well below the national average (the national average is now a 3.2, it’s 3.4 at supposedly enlightened Harvard thanks to grade inflation. They don’t call it a “Gentleman’s B” for nothing.) That isn’t my opinion, that is a scientific fact:
Found this gem over on Tech's Facebook page. Probably a bit...too enthusiastic but I must admit I agree with it wholeheartedly. Anyways, there is some good stuff in here about the hockey program toward the end.
"April 8, 2011
To Suzanne Sanregret,
As a proud alumni of your university, class of 2009, I am writing to you to discuss what it means to be a Husky and the disquieting conduct of your athletes which undermines a wonderful tradition. My connection to the university goes back well before I ever made a tuition payment. At the age of seven, I spent a blustery, cold October weekend in Houghton to celebrate Michigan Tech athletes. The year was 1994, the twenty year anniversary of Michigan Tech football’s last undefeated season. A member of that team, a student athlete from 1973 to 1976, was the best man I’ve ever known, my father. He was the starting offensive tackle during that undefeated season, as a sophomore. He would start his junior and senior year as well, moving between every lineman position due to team injuries. He was only around 215 pounds, he was always at a size disadvantage; 50, 75, occasionally even 100 pounds. He was recruited out of high school as an All-State fullback but transitioned to lineman for the betterment of the team. The man who my father gave way to…he still holds the school record for career rushing yards. Sacrificing for teammates, respecting them, and asking them to get more out of themselves than they think is possible…that’s what great athletes do. More importantly, it is what great men and women do. During his career, the program was 28-9-1.
Several pictures of my father still hang in the Student Development Complex, 35 years after he left Houghton and, as of Saturday, March 26th, nine years after he passed away. It is a shame that many of Michigan Tech’s athletes have forgotten the example he set. As of last Sunday, your website, in bold, proclaimed, “Track and Field Teams Open in St. Paul.” The press release accompanying the headline was remarkably rosy. The story bragged, “The Michigan Tech men’s and women’s track and field teams opened the season with seven top-10 finishes at the Hamline Invite Saturday (April 2). “ Great accomplishments were made, “Jill Smith ran her way to a sixth place in finish in the 5,000. Her time of 18:34.88 was the sixth fastest in school history,” and “Molly Wiltzius posted the best women’s finish on the day with a fifth place finish in the discus. Her throw of 125-1 ranks seventh all-time in school history, and she now holds the 10 best throws in school history.” On the men’s side, “Dylan Anderson led the men’s team with a fourth place finish in the 800 (1:57.25),” and “Nathan Saliga was 10th in the 400 (50.95) and Wesley Jacobson was 10th in the 400 hurdles (1:00.23).”
I wish I saw the same things as the athletic department’s press writer. When I look at the results I see:
Women 5000 Meter Run
===============================================================================
1 Place, Morgan Minnesota-*Duluth 16:42.88
2 Hines, Bridget Minnesota-*Duluth 17:34.15
3 Salava, Alyssa Minnesota-*Duluth 18:05.29
4 Hines, Whitney Minnesota-*Duluth 18:20.33
5 Kociscak, Jessica Hamline 18:31.60
6 Smith, Jill Michigan Tech 18:34.88
I see a Michigan Tech athlete losing to four Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. Two of these fellow D-II competitors beat Ms. Smith by over one minute. The best the Michigan Tech track team has to offer in the 5,000 would pass for #5 at another program. The men’s team is no better:
Men 400 Meter Dash
==================================================================================
1 Gilmer, Domonique Concordia St Paul 48.78
2 Molitor, Tyson Hamline 49.68
3 Arnold, Joe Augsburg 49.78
4 Falzone, Frank Unattached 49.83
5 Weil, Dj Hamline 49.94
6 Swanberg, Christian Hamline 50.05
7 Koenig, Aaron Saint John's 50.46
8 Wolke, Rick Augsburg 50.51
9 Smith, Zach Minnesota Morris 50.89
10 Saliga, Nathan Michigan Tech 50.95
Augsberg, Saint John’s, why is Michigan Tech engaged in athletics with small, Minnesota Division III schools? Why is a Michigan Tech Husky, praised for his athletic effort in university wide press releases, the equivalent of the number three 400 runner for Hamline University? I asked a friend who qualified for states in track and field in high school whether running a 51 second 400 meter dash was common. His response was, “yeah, definitely, there are tons of high school kids who run 51 or faster.” In fact, the best Michigan Tech had to offer in 2010 at the GLIAC Conference meet were roughly comparable to my friends at Livonia Churchill when I played high school athletics. Tech’s best Men’s finishes were in the 800 and 100 meter races:
7 Gilkerson, Ken Michigan Tech 1:55.74
2 Parnell, Quinn Michigan Tech 10.98
The following time was posted in 2003. The boy who posted that time was only a high school junior and, due to the size of the meet, had to participate in preliminaries, semi finals and finals for his event. At 16, he finished within .15 seconds of your athlete on his third race of the day. He finished better than .8 seconds faster than the best 100 meter runner for Tech last Saturday:
1. Eric George(11) Livonia-Churchill 11.13
Eric George played football with me, graduated a year ahead of me. He never had a winning season in that sport. He was never recruited and never ran track in college. And in the 800, from 2004:
14 Livonia Churchill Horka, Joseph 1:57.40
Once again, run by a person from my high school as a junior. Joe graduated with me in 2005. He went on to run in college at…Madonna University, a NAIS school. Have I made my point or must I go through every event and show that 15, 16, and 17 year olds, from one public high school, are competing at what you claim is a great collegiate level? Your athletes should not be comparable to high school athletes. That is unacceptable.
The team results speak for themselves…
Ashland 208.50
Grand Valley State 197.50
Hillsdale 88
Findlay 84
Tiffin 69
Saginaw Valley State 64
Northwood 63
Lake Superior State 19
Michigan Tech 15
I’ve never lost 208.5 to 15…in anything. And the Women’s team was even worse:
Grand Valley State 291
Ashland 146
Hillsdale 136
Northern Michigan 70
Findlay 62
Saginaw Valley State 34
Ferris State 23
Tiffin 20
Northwood 19
Lake Superior State 14
Michigan Tech 3
There is no excuse for losing 291 to 3. It strains credulity to suggest that any group of Michigan Tech students could fare worse than our varsity track team. I wouldn’t need 5 athletes to get 18 points in a Division II meet. In fact, without strenuously examining the heat sheet I bet Grand Valley and Ashland each had athletes who individually tallied more points than all of Michigan Tech combined. But I concede that winning isn’t everything in sports. In fact, it isn’t even the most important thing. What it takes to be successful on a field or in a rink are the same qualities that it takes to be successful in a classroom or on the job or in finding the love of your life and raising a family. Even though Tech isn’t competitive as a team or individually, at least they are constantly improving. And the team can point to athletes bettering their PRs. Except, they aren’t. The captain of the team the year I graduated from Tech never got better. His results at conferences in 2007, 2008, and 2009 in the high jump were 6’6”, 6’7”, and 6’6.75”. Three-quarters of one inch in three years time, no improvement at all. If the captain never improves, why should anyone else? In 2007, Aaron Tetzloff finished in 19th in the 200 meter dash at conferences. In 2009, with two seasons to make strides against collegiate competition he finished in…22nd. No improvement there. Last year Amanda Halonen’s season best in the 800 meter dash was 2:28. Saturday…she ran 2:26. Men’s, women’s, field events, sprints, mid distance, current athletes, alumni. It doesn’t really matter where you look. All you see is stagnation and failure. I’m guessing that Tech’s All-American running back last year had more rushing yards this year than he did as a freshman. On top of that, the teams provide no revenues. They don’t host meets. You give scholarships when they have not been earned to athletes who don’t appreciate it.
Asking a student who is paying $12,000 a year in tuition, before room and board and books, to go deeper into debt to support losers, you cannot justify that. It becomes even more galling when you consider that most of the students who you are taking money from are much better academically than your athletes. “Both the men’s and women’s track and field teams at Michigan Tech were honored recently as All-Academic Teams by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The men’s squad finished with a 3.06 cumulative grade point average.” A 3.0 GPA is not something to brag about. I graduated in four years with honors, comfortably. I worked for three of those years, averaging between 15 and 20 hours per week on top of my schooling. I participated in extracurricular activities including a very prestigious program in the school of business. Out of sixteen students in that program, four had equal or better GPAs than I did. My college roommate graduated in mechanical engineering with above a 3.8 GPA. My brother dual majored at 21 from Purdue with honors. My mother and father both graduated with GPAs well above a 3.06. To three point requires little effort, and is well below the national average (the national average is now a 3.2, it’s 3.4 at supposedly enlightened Harvard thanks to grade inflation. They don’t call it a “Gentleman’s B” for nothing.) That isn’t my opinion, that is a scientific fact:
Re: Michigan Tech Offseason Thread I: Not Winning and the ensuing drama.
“An unprecedented study that followed several thousand undergraduates through four years of college found that large numbers didn't learn the critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication skills that are widely assumed to be at the core of a college education.
Many of the students graduated without knowing how to sift fact from opinion, make a clear written argument or objectively review conflicting reports of a situation or event, according to New York University sociologist Richard Arum, lead author of the study. The students, for example, couldn't determine the cause of an increase in neighborhood crime or how best to respond without being swayed by emotional testimony and political spin.
…
Forty-five percent of students made no significant improvement in their critical thinking, reasoning or writing skills during the first two years of college, according to the study. After four years, 36 percent showed no significant gains in these so-called "higher order" thinking skills. Combining the hours spent studying and in class, students devoted less than a fifth of their time each week to academic pursuits.
…
Students also spent 50% less time studying compared with students a few decades ago, the research shows.”
If your athletes are rewarded for poor performance outside the classroom and they can get rewarded for grades that take “less than a fifth” of their time, why would you expect them to do more? Maybe you believe paternalism is the right thing to do so that no one will have their feelings hurt. This is wrong, any good man must stand up against it. The consequences are truly tragic. Robbing someone of ambition, draining them of a will to be their best will affect them for the rest of their lives. As C.S. Lewis once said, “Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.”
Given today’s economic conditions, will these results be rewarded? A women’s track team member, graduated last year, used to be a friend of mine. Two years ago, sitting in the den at her house, she looked me in the eye and said that she wished to be a doctor. When we were friends, she was an honor student. She was well on her way to that goal half way through her college life. She was an honor student in high school with an ACT score over 30. No one who has ever met her would say she is stupid. Yet, after only a year of being a Tech track athlete her grades had fallen to C’s. She graduated with a GPA a half point below mine and below all of our mutual friends because she made the mistake of joining your athletic department and was influenced by the character of people inhabiting it. I can tell you this, she sure isn’t in med school today. As a biomedical engineering student, she probably isn’t in a job in her field. I’d bet money on it. She gave away her career to lead a team that lost 291 to 3. You patted her on the back the entire way. If that was your daughter would you do the same? None of your athletes seemed to care either. And when you give her a scholarship and lump her in with a three time captain of your women’s basketball team, a national quarterfinalist as a player and now assistant coach to a national runner up who was an accomplished student while going to Tech, that diminishes the accomplishments of your basketball players. When you lump her in with the captain of an 8-2 football team which defeated the number one team in the country while earning a 3.7 in mechanical engineering, that diminishes the accomplishments of your football players. I graduated from your university and am now in finance after majoring in economics. Every one of my friends has gotten into the career they wanted for their life. Compare that to your athletes. It is no coincidence that that has happened and that she is the only one of my friends, current or ex, who was a Michigan Tech track member. I don’t think that program is worth saving. I implore you to end it.
You take credit for the success of a quality football program. My father was coached by a Kearly. Today’s Huskies are coached by a Kearly. The program was built back up by Bernie Anderson. The culture that leads to an 8-2 season was established well before you became Athletic Director. It is my opinion that that would continue no matter who was AD. The women’s basketball team lost five starters from a year ago and, rather than making excuses, faced adversity and decided on achievement. That raw squad of underclassmen lost to Notre Dame by 70 in the exhibition season. It would have been easy for that team to fold and say this just won’t be our year but that isn’t Husky women’s basketball. That team has won conferences 12 times and has been to the Final Four as early as 1993. All you have to do is stay out of the way, winning cultures take care of themselves.
Culture is the most important element of any program, more important than talent. I speak from experience. My high school football team won 20 games in the previous 15 years before my senior season. I was an assistant captain on a team that went to the state playoffs for the first time in 26 years, the only Churchill team in my lifetime to have a winning season. We made it to regionals, state quarterfinals. We lost to a Sterling Heights Stevenson squad captained by Frank Zombo, played longer than Brother Rice and T.J. Lang. I’ve pancake blocked Super Bowl champions and I’m only 23. I had to go toe to toe with future World champion starters before I could vote. To list the number of players on NFL rosters or who made an impact on Division 1 programs would take more than two hands. I was a lineman, like my father, and weighed around 195 pounds. I suffered from being “too small.” And when it was all said and done, the Detroit Free Press, at the time one of the five most circulated newspapers in the country, voted our team the biggest surprise in the entire state. We played our final game on WDFN AM, the then-flagship station of the Pistons that broadcasts from Flint to Cleveland, Ohio. It is a shame that many of your collegiate athletes can’t match the accomplishments of me or my friends.
Manuel Schubert is at U of M Ann Arbor attending Med School. He already has an bachelor’s and master’s from Lehigh as well as lettering in Division I wrestling. Hafeez Quereshi was a Division I wrestler at Central Michigan University. Mike Manoogian played for Northwood as an offensive guard and graduated in four years in business administration and now runs a Chase branch near my house. Ben Adams wrestled Division III and was an All American at John Carroll where he received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He is now studying at a seminary. He has decided that his calling in life is to be a Lutheran Minister. My twin brother is a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. He was the youngest graduate of his OCS class by nearly 18 months, he did it at just 22. He is a sharpshooter in pistol and rifle, graduated from the Basic School above the 90th percentile of his class, despite suffering two separated shoulders and a severely sprained right ankle. He has since graduated from artillery school, number two in his class out of 170. That is the 99th percentile in the best and most educated fighting force in the history of the world. He is the operations chief and Master of Fires where he is responsible for every round fired by an entire battery of artillery. Howitzer’s can hit targets as far as 18 miles away. Marine Corps regulations say that every shell must be within 50 meters of the target. Marines demand excellence. He has more responsibility than any man I know. I have passed the first part of the CFA, only a 34% pass rate. I’ve been published on a website that has been profiled in publications as disparate as the New Yorker and National Review, sourced in news stories by dailies as opposed ideologically as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. The article warned about inflation, over a year and half ago. I work as an analyst at a bank and have already been involved with mergers and acquisitions totaling approximately $400 million. I wrote a research paper last week that caused the bank to shy away from a $35 million dollar loan with Wayne County, the largest county in the State. I could continue, this is a brief and terribly incomplete list of what my friends do day in and day out. Every person mentioned in this paragraph went to a single public high school whose district covers approximately 12 square miles in suburban Detroit. We were not recruited, we were just lucky enough to live there. I don’t understand why your athletic department can’t match that record with all of the luxuries that a multimillion dollar budget allows. These accomplishments come from only one class of one team. If we switched sports or discussed all of the alumni of my school I could talk about Ryan Kesler who graduated two years ahead of me, among many others. If I get to brag about my city, I could mention the athletic achievements of Mike Modano, the best American born hockey player in history statistically speaking or Sheila Taormina, Olympic gold medalist and the only person in history to compete in three different Olympic sports. Paul Terek, Olympic decathlete graduated from Livonia Franklin. Being inducted into my high school’s hall of fame at just 22, that’s pretty special. I wish that that you would expect as much out of your athletes as was expected out of me.
“An unprecedented study that followed several thousand undergraduates through four years of college found that large numbers didn't learn the critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication skills that are widely assumed to be at the core of a college education.
Many of the students graduated without knowing how to sift fact from opinion, make a clear written argument or objectively review conflicting reports of a situation or event, according to New York University sociologist Richard Arum, lead author of the study. The students, for example, couldn't determine the cause of an increase in neighborhood crime or how best to respond without being swayed by emotional testimony and political spin.
…
Forty-five percent of students made no significant improvement in their critical thinking, reasoning or writing skills during the first two years of college, according to the study. After four years, 36 percent showed no significant gains in these so-called "higher order" thinking skills. Combining the hours spent studying and in class, students devoted less than a fifth of their time each week to academic pursuits.
…
Students also spent 50% less time studying compared with students a few decades ago, the research shows.”
If your athletes are rewarded for poor performance outside the classroom and they can get rewarded for grades that take “less than a fifth” of their time, why would you expect them to do more? Maybe you believe paternalism is the right thing to do so that no one will have their feelings hurt. This is wrong, any good man must stand up against it. The consequences are truly tragic. Robbing someone of ambition, draining them of a will to be their best will affect them for the rest of their lives. As C.S. Lewis once said, “Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.”
Given today’s economic conditions, will these results be rewarded? A women’s track team member, graduated last year, used to be a friend of mine. Two years ago, sitting in the den at her house, she looked me in the eye and said that she wished to be a doctor. When we were friends, she was an honor student. She was well on her way to that goal half way through her college life. She was an honor student in high school with an ACT score over 30. No one who has ever met her would say she is stupid. Yet, after only a year of being a Tech track athlete her grades had fallen to C’s. She graduated with a GPA a half point below mine and below all of our mutual friends because she made the mistake of joining your athletic department and was influenced by the character of people inhabiting it. I can tell you this, she sure isn’t in med school today. As a biomedical engineering student, she probably isn’t in a job in her field. I’d bet money on it. She gave away her career to lead a team that lost 291 to 3. You patted her on the back the entire way. If that was your daughter would you do the same? None of your athletes seemed to care either. And when you give her a scholarship and lump her in with a three time captain of your women’s basketball team, a national quarterfinalist as a player and now assistant coach to a national runner up who was an accomplished student while going to Tech, that diminishes the accomplishments of your basketball players. When you lump her in with the captain of an 8-2 football team which defeated the number one team in the country while earning a 3.7 in mechanical engineering, that diminishes the accomplishments of your football players. I graduated from your university and am now in finance after majoring in economics. Every one of my friends has gotten into the career they wanted for their life. Compare that to your athletes. It is no coincidence that that has happened and that she is the only one of my friends, current or ex, who was a Michigan Tech track member. I don’t think that program is worth saving. I implore you to end it.
You take credit for the success of a quality football program. My father was coached by a Kearly. Today’s Huskies are coached by a Kearly. The program was built back up by Bernie Anderson. The culture that leads to an 8-2 season was established well before you became Athletic Director. It is my opinion that that would continue no matter who was AD. The women’s basketball team lost five starters from a year ago and, rather than making excuses, faced adversity and decided on achievement. That raw squad of underclassmen lost to Notre Dame by 70 in the exhibition season. It would have been easy for that team to fold and say this just won’t be our year but that isn’t Husky women’s basketball. That team has won conferences 12 times and has been to the Final Four as early as 1993. All you have to do is stay out of the way, winning cultures take care of themselves.
Culture is the most important element of any program, more important than talent. I speak from experience. My high school football team won 20 games in the previous 15 years before my senior season. I was an assistant captain on a team that went to the state playoffs for the first time in 26 years, the only Churchill team in my lifetime to have a winning season. We made it to regionals, state quarterfinals. We lost to a Sterling Heights Stevenson squad captained by Frank Zombo, played longer than Brother Rice and T.J. Lang. I’ve pancake blocked Super Bowl champions and I’m only 23. I had to go toe to toe with future World champion starters before I could vote. To list the number of players on NFL rosters or who made an impact on Division 1 programs would take more than two hands. I was a lineman, like my father, and weighed around 195 pounds. I suffered from being “too small.” And when it was all said and done, the Detroit Free Press, at the time one of the five most circulated newspapers in the country, voted our team the biggest surprise in the entire state. We played our final game on WDFN AM, the then-flagship station of the Pistons that broadcasts from Flint to Cleveland, Ohio. It is a shame that many of your collegiate athletes can’t match the accomplishments of me or my friends.
Manuel Schubert is at U of M Ann Arbor attending Med School. He already has an bachelor’s and master’s from Lehigh as well as lettering in Division I wrestling. Hafeez Quereshi was a Division I wrestler at Central Michigan University. Mike Manoogian played for Northwood as an offensive guard and graduated in four years in business administration and now runs a Chase branch near my house. Ben Adams wrestled Division III and was an All American at John Carroll where he received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He is now studying at a seminary. He has decided that his calling in life is to be a Lutheran Minister. My twin brother is a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. He was the youngest graduate of his OCS class by nearly 18 months, he did it at just 22. He is a sharpshooter in pistol and rifle, graduated from the Basic School above the 90th percentile of his class, despite suffering two separated shoulders and a severely sprained right ankle. He has since graduated from artillery school, number two in his class out of 170. That is the 99th percentile in the best and most educated fighting force in the history of the world. He is the operations chief and Master of Fires where he is responsible for every round fired by an entire battery of artillery. Howitzer’s can hit targets as far as 18 miles away. Marine Corps regulations say that every shell must be within 50 meters of the target. Marines demand excellence. He has more responsibility than any man I know. I have passed the first part of the CFA, only a 34% pass rate. I’ve been published on a website that has been profiled in publications as disparate as the New Yorker and National Review, sourced in news stories by dailies as opposed ideologically as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. The article warned about inflation, over a year and half ago. I work as an analyst at a bank and have already been involved with mergers and acquisitions totaling approximately $400 million. I wrote a research paper last week that caused the bank to shy away from a $35 million dollar loan with Wayne County, the largest county in the State. I could continue, this is a brief and terribly incomplete list of what my friends do day in and day out. Every person mentioned in this paragraph went to a single public high school whose district covers approximately 12 square miles in suburban Detroit. We were not recruited, we were just lucky enough to live there. I don’t understand why your athletic department can’t match that record with all of the luxuries that a multimillion dollar budget allows. These accomplishments come from only one class of one team. If we switched sports or discussed all of the alumni of my school I could talk about Ryan Kesler who graduated two years ahead of me, among many others. If I get to brag about my city, I could mention the athletic achievements of Mike Modano, the best American born hockey player in history statistically speaking or Sheila Taormina, Olympic gold medalist and the only person in history to compete in three different Olympic sports. Paul Terek, Olympic decathlete graduated from Livonia Franklin. Being inducted into my high school’s hall of fame at just 22, that’s pretty special. I wish that that you would expect as much out of your athletes as was expected out of me.
Re: Michigan Tech Offseason Thread I: Not Winning and the ensuing drama.
On your watch, the volleyball team is now 5-21 and 3-16 in the conference. That is materially worse than when you began your tenure. Our hockey program is a laughingstock, made fun of everywhere, even on ESPN. After six years with you as athletic director the program is in disarray without a coach and only four wins last year. More importantly, neither you nor your players seem to understand what makes Michigan Tech, as a university, so special. I had a yearlong project with three hockey players my senior year. I tutored one of them for a different class (I guess I put my money where my mouth is when I say that your athletes are capable of more than just B’s). I got to know them pretty well. Never did I hear them talk with excitement about the program. My cousin played college hockey. He graduated in 2005 from Northern Michigan. He was a goaltender by the name of Craig Kowalski. He was a Hobey Baker nominee, US World Junior goaltender and was signed by the Carolina Hurricanes as a high schooler. He grew up in Michigan but Tech wasn’t his first choice, it was a UP school that competes mostly in Division II…His mother, the family lived near Gaylord, was within two hours’ driving distance of Lake State, Ferris, Western, MSU, and UM. She made it to every game. The one place Craig told her she should attend a game at was…not Yost, or Munn…it was the MacInnes Student Ice Arena. Athletes from other schools speak more fondly of Tech than you or your players, Mrs. Sanregret. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why that is. An alumni writes about athletic excellence in terms you yourself seem unable to define. It is impossible to “create the future” from last place.
Sincerely,
Grant Dossetto"
On your watch, the volleyball team is now 5-21 and 3-16 in the conference. That is materially worse than when you began your tenure. Our hockey program is a laughingstock, made fun of everywhere, even on ESPN. After six years with you as athletic director the program is in disarray without a coach and only four wins last year. More importantly, neither you nor your players seem to understand what makes Michigan Tech, as a university, so special. I had a yearlong project with three hockey players my senior year. I tutored one of them for a different class (I guess I put my money where my mouth is when I say that your athletes are capable of more than just B’s). I got to know them pretty well. Never did I hear them talk with excitement about the program. My cousin played college hockey. He graduated in 2005 from Northern Michigan. He was a goaltender by the name of Craig Kowalski. He was a Hobey Baker nominee, US World Junior goaltender and was signed by the Carolina Hurricanes as a high schooler. He grew up in Michigan but Tech wasn’t his first choice, it was a UP school that competes mostly in Division II…His mother, the family lived near Gaylord, was within two hours’ driving distance of Lake State, Ferris, Western, MSU, and UM. She made it to every game. The one place Craig told her she should attend a game at was…not Yost, or Munn…it was the MacInnes Student Ice Arena. Athletes from other schools speak more fondly of Tech than you or your players, Mrs. Sanregret. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why that is. An alumni writes about athletic excellence in terms you yourself seem unable to define. It is impossible to “create the future” from last place.
Sincerely,
Grant Dossetto"
technohusky
Banned
MinnesotaNorthStar
Minding the gap
Re: Michigan Tech Offseason Thread I: Not Winning and the ensuing drama.
I really don't know what his point was other than patting himself and his friends on the back for their accomplishments...
I also think we found Osorojo's identity.
I really don't know what his point was other than patting himself and his friends on the back for their accomplishments...
I also think we found Osorojo's identity.
The Troll mtu86
stuck below the bridge
Re: Michigan Tech Offseason Thread I: Not Winning and the ensuing drama.
Hey, Al Bundy lives!
A chick on the track team runs a personal best and a school record and gets some press and he's all bent outta shape because He Played High School Football (that's almost like being god) oh!, and not just any high school football mind you, he played in a game that was actually broadcast on the radio!! AND he knows someone in the Army -- Well isn't he just so special
Pointless drivel.
Hey, Al Bundy lives!
A chick on the track team runs a personal best and a school record and gets some press and he's all bent outta shape because He Played High School Football (that's almost like being god) oh!, and not just any high school football mind you, he played in a game that was actually broadcast on the radio!! AND he knows someone in the Army -- Well isn't he just so special
Pointless drivel.
The Troll mtu86
stuck below the bridge
Re: Michigan Tech Offseason Thread I: Not Winning and the ensuing drama.
“An unprecedented study that followed several thousand undergraduates through four years of college found that large numbers didn't learn the critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication skills that are widely assumed to be at the core of a college education.
He does prove this point though.
“An unprecedented study that followed several thousand undergraduates through four years of college found that large numbers didn't learn the critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication skills that are widely assumed to be at the core of a college education.
He does prove this point though.
Dirty
#BanBiddy
Re: Michigan Tech Offseason Thread I: Not Winning and the ensuing drama.
I highly doubt defensive lineman weighed 315 pounds in 1975, much less defensive lineman on teams that played Michigan Tech. They should take down the pictures of the dad and replace them with signs that say "The picture of [Dad's name] have been taken down because his son is a dick".
I highly doubt defensive lineman weighed 315 pounds in 1975, much less defensive lineman on teams that played Michigan Tech. They should take down the pictures of the dad and replace them with signs that say "The picture of [Dad's name] have been taken down because his son is a dick".
JohnsonsJerseys
Michigan Tech Fan
Re: Michigan Tech Offseason Thread I: Not Winning and the ensuing drama.
If anyone actually read that letter all the way to the end, let me know how it ended. I gave up right about the point where the writer mentioned that "there are tons of high school kids who run 51 or faster..." As someone who ran track and field, I don't think the author has ever been within 400m of a track meet. If there is a HS kid out there doing that, they're going to a D-I school on a full ride.
I'm guessing the author was recently passed over for a job that was given to someone who spent more than exactly 4 years and school and didn't have a 4.0, but likely left college with some valuable life experiances and a personallity. So now they're going to take it out on Tech's student athletes who clearly caused their epic failure. Reminds my of one of my Fluids profs at Tech who refused to give partial credit during grading for anything because his kid got fired from GM and unless you have the right answer you haven't learned anything.
According to the author, I would be a failure because my drumming wasn't twice as good after completing 18 quarters of Huskies Pep Band since the band was my "sport". And no, I never ran a 51 second 400m dash... ever... and yet I've managed to get a good job and have a successful life. How on Earth did that ever happen?
Mr. Dossetto - Relax and don't sweat the details. You'll live a lot longer.
Ryan J
If anyone actually read that letter all the way to the end, let me know how it ended. I gave up right about the point where the writer mentioned that "there are tons of high school kids who run 51 or faster..." As someone who ran track and field, I don't think the author has ever been within 400m of a track meet. If there is a HS kid out there doing that, they're going to a D-I school on a full ride.
I'm guessing the author was recently passed over for a job that was given to someone who spent more than exactly 4 years and school and didn't have a 4.0, but likely left college with some valuable life experiances and a personallity. So now they're going to take it out on Tech's student athletes who clearly caused their epic failure. Reminds my of one of my Fluids profs at Tech who refused to give partial credit during grading for anything because his kid got fired from GM and unless you have the right answer you haven't learned anything.
According to the author, I would be a failure because my drumming wasn't twice as good after completing 18 quarters of Huskies Pep Band since the band was my "sport". And no, I never ran a 51 second 400m dash... ever... and yet I've managed to get a good job and have a successful life. How on Earth did that ever happen?
Mr. Dossetto - Relax and don't sweat the details. You'll live a lot longer.
Ryan J
FadeToBlack&Gold
8647
Re: Michigan Tech Offseason Thread I: Not Winning and the ensuing drama.
Thank goodness I'm not big enough of a loser to write a 7-8 page essay about nothing in general and post it on Facebook.
Plus, no one cares about track or X-C except parents and teammates.
Thank goodness I'm not big enough of a loser to write a 7-8 page essay about nothing in general and post it on Facebook.
Plus, no one cares about track or X-C except parents and teammates.
crazytechfan
:)
.....doesn't Northern mostly compete in D2??
Re: Michigan Tech Offseason Thread I: Not Winning and the ensuing drama.
Ummmm... Grant baby, ummmm.... yeah, that was further out past the deep water buoy than what even I would swim out to.
Yep. *swims in from the buoy.*.....doesn't Northern mostly compete in D2??
Re: Michigan Tech Offseason Thread I: Not Winning and the ensuing drama.
Haha, I know that guy. I lived down the hall from him. For any of the current Tech students (like Ross), he is part of "The Team". And he is also kind of a bitch. He is also in the ROTC program if I remember correctly.
- Status