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Nescac 2011-2012

Re: Nescac 2011-2012

Amherst schedule has to be a mistake:

Nov. 18 7:00 PM at Hamilton *
Nov. 19 3:00 PM Hamilton *

Got to be both games @ Hamilton.
 
Re: Nescac 2011-2012

NHDad said:
If you look at each team's schedule, they each have one home and home series.
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Not Connecticut.

All the others are home and home with someone close, like Bowdoin & Colby, Wesleyan & Trinity.

Can they really have Amherst and Hamilton playing a night-day home & home? It's a 3.5 to 4 hour drive....

Wow!
 
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Re: Nescac 2011-2012

dontyelldad said:
Not Connecticut.

All the others are home and home with someone close, like Bowdoin & Colby, Wesleyan & Trinity.

Can they really have Amherst and Hamilton playing a night-day home & home? It's a 3.5 to 4 hour drive....

Wow!
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Superior and Finlandia used to do it...and that 5.5 hours plus a time change.
 
Re: Nescac 2011-2012

gojackets said:
Superior and Finlandia used to do it...and that 5.5 hours plus a time change.
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Yeah, but those are western teams, they don't know any better!!

(Just kidding. Kind of ... every trip is longer out there ...)

Just doesn't make sense in the context of the rest of the NESCAC schedule.
 
Re: Nescac 2011-2012

Williams and Middlebury? They're not exactly close either...
dontyelldad said:
Not Connecticut.

All the others are home and home with someone close, like Bowdoin & Colby, Wesleyan & Trinity.

Can they really have Amherst and Hamilton playing a night-day home & home? It's a 3.5 to 4 hour drive....

Wow!
Click to expand...
 
Re: Nescac 2011-2012

Slightly off topic but I didn't want to hunt down the original thread.....

Williams College has won the Directors Cup for overall Division III athletics success for the 13th straight year and 15th out of the last 16 years. As a sidenote, Middlebury was second and Amherst fourth, while Bowdoin and Tufts also finished in the top 25. Not bad for a conference limited by stringent academic standards.

The main purpose of my post, however, is to restate a question raised earlier this year about the Williams Women's Hockey Team. At a school perennially ranked #1 or #2 academically by US News, and possessed of an atheletic department devoted to winning as evidenced by their Directors Cup success, why do they struggle to succeed in Womens Ice Hockey? Why does a school so passionate about athletic success fail so miserably to attract a hockey coach that can make them competitive? You cannot win 13 Directors Cups in a row without a total commitment to success, and they are obviously succeeding wildly in most other sports. Its not as if they are in Arizona trying to sell ice hockey to potential recruits. They are in the center of a state that is one of the strongholds of women's ice hockey? Can anyone explain this?
 
Re: Nescac 2011-2012

spike said:
The main purpose of my post, however, is to restate a question raised earlier this year about the Williams Women's Hockey Team. At a school perennially ranked #1 or #2 academically by US News, and possessed of an atheletic department devoted to winning as evidenced by their Directors Cup success, why do they struggle to succeed in Womens Ice Hockey? Why does a school so passionate about athletic success fail so miserably to attract a hockey coach that can make them competitive? You cannot win 13 Directors Cups in a row without a total commitment to success, and they are obviously succeeding wildly in most other sports. Its not as if they are in Arizona trying to sell ice hockey to potential recruits. They are in the center of a state that is one of the strongholds of women's ice hockey? Can anyone explain this?
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Well, you might want to check your geography if you think that Williamstown is in the "center of a state" ... but that aside, you are correct: they are not in a location that is remote from quality hockey.

But the truth is, their record is not as bad as you make it out.

2009-10, they were 12-11-2. Granted, 4 of the past 5 years have been losing seasons, but that was after 7 seasons of winning records, including 20-6-1 in 00-01.

In perspective, their AD is a recent promotion from within, after a year as interim. They've had 4 coaches (now 5) since 05-06 ... it doesn't look like it's been a stable environment in their Athletic Dept, and certainly not in their women's hockey program.

Final analysis: I wouldn't trash them on their recent record; they've got new people in place, and would look to see what the new (admin) team does going forward.
 
Re: Nescac 2011-2012

dontyelldad said:
Well, you might want to check your geography if you think that Williamstown is in the "center of a state" ... but that aside, you are correct: they are not in a location that is remote from quality hockey.

But the truth is, their record is not as bad as you make it out.

2009-10, they were 12-11-2. Granted, 4 of the past 5 years have been losing seasons, but that was after 7 seasons of winning records, including 20-6-1 in 00-01.

In perspective, their AD is a recent promotion from within, after a year as interim. They've had 4 coaches (now 5) since 05-06 ... it doesn't look like it's been a stable environment in their Athletic Dept, and certainly not in their women's hockey program.

Final analysis: I wouldn't trash them on their recent record; they've got new people in place, and would look to see what the new (admin) team does going forward.
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Actually, I would change the location from the "middle of the state" to the "middle of nowhere". Having visited and toured Williams, it has everything Amherst has from the academic perspective. It just lacks being close to anything. Williamstown is a charming place, though.

I wouldn't characterize its athletics as harshly, as they are competitive in many sports in NESCAC. Ice hockey is a weak spot for many reasons. Their facility leaves much to be desired unless you like waiting for them to finish using the indoor tennis courts before they make the ice there. And I would say the AD has neglected to allow as many admissions tips to attract the quality of player necessary to lift the program up. In NESCAC the ADs tend to reward teams with better performance with a larger share of admissions tips. Tough to dig out of that hole.
 
Re: Nescac 2011-2012

All good points, although the proximity of the Albany airport puts Williamstown as close to "somewhere" as Middlebury and Hadley. I wasn't trashing the Williams hockey program. Clearly they have had some success relative to some other NESCAC women's programs. What I was attempting to point out is that the school has had the best record in overall athletic achievement in all of Division III since the mid-90's, and they've done it pretty much across the board in most sports. Why then do they have 5 coaches in 6 years? Don't blame it on the facility which is no worse than Orr. Their men's team has had at least the same level of success as the Amherst men in the last 3-4 years, so its clearly not the facility. There is no question in my mind that a top-tier coach could sell Williams as easily as Mandigo and Plumer sell their schools. So why can't the school attract a top-tier coach? Lack of support from the athletic department? that's my whole point. How can THIS athletic department be so successful yet fail to properly support a women's sport of which MA is an epicenter?
 
Re: Nescac 2011-2012

Why has women's hockey become the orphan of the Williams' athletic juggernaut? Clearly the program needs stability and support to become re-established and return to former glories. Granted those glories came in another era of NESCAC and women's DIII play (the Molly 2 Midd 1 NESCAC semi in '02, snapping Midd's 85 game home win streak, with the bare chested fans with M-O-L-L-Y spelled out in purple letters comes to mind). Back then a star and two lines was enough, but no longer. Will Gillis be the coach to achieve successful reconstruction? Meghan was a gamer on the ice for the Polar Bears, but she does not have vast experience as a coach. That said, would a high profile coach (and the name Mark Bolding kept popping up in speculation about Williams' vacancy these past two seasons) have had the patience needed to put this program back together? I hope Meghan gets the time, AD support and resources (and a little recruitung luck) necessary to turn things on the ice in Williamstown around!
 
Re: Nescac 2011-2012

spike said:
All good points, although the proximity of the Albany airport puts Williamstown as close to "somewhere" as Middlebury and Hadley. I wasn't trashing the Williams hockey program. Clearly they have had some success relative to some other NESCAC women's programs. What I was attempting to point out is that the school has had the best record in overall athletic achievement in all of Division III since the mid-90's, and they've done it pretty much across the board in most sports. Why then do they have 5 coaches in 6 years? Don't blame it on the facility which is no worse than Orr. Their men's team has had at least the same level of success as the Amherst men in the last 3-4 years, so its clearly not the facility. There is no question in my mind that a top-tier coach could sell Williams as easily as Mandigo and Plumer sell their schools. So why can't the school attract a top-tier coach? Lack of support from the athletic department? that's my whole point. How can THIS athletic department be so successful yet fail to properly support a women's sport of which MA is an epicenter?
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I agree that a good coach can sell a remote school, especially one with the reputation that Williams has. And the coaches may be good at selling Williams. However, if your team doesn't have many admissions tips (something the AD controls), you won't get many admitted to a school that is arguably harder to get admitted to than Harvard. And tips are limited across all programs at NESCAC schools, just like in Ivy. So I will go on the lack of support from the AD.

I've driven the backroads of VT and the route over the mountain from Albany to Williamstown. I'll take the Vermont backroads any day in the winter, thanks.
 
Re: Nescac 2011-2012

spike said:
All good points, although the proximity of the Albany airport puts Williamstown as close to "somewhere" as Middlebury and Hadley.
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I assume you meant Amherst, not Hadley (the town next to Amherst) ... but I would disagree with your statement. For a campus / off campus experience, there's a huge difference between Amherst and Williamstown. Amherst has a well developed downtown area, and is also home to 30,000 UMass students. It is also a free 20 minute bus ride from Northampton, a small, very well developed city ...

That said, if some folks didn't like being out in the woods/hills, Dartmouth wouldn't be able to attract students, either!
 
Re: Nescac 2011-2012

dontyelldad said:
I assume you meant Amherst, not Hadley (the town next to Amherst) ... but I would disagree with your statement. For a campus / off campus experience, there's a huge difference between Amherst and Williamstown. Amherst has a well developed downtown area, and is also home to 30,000 UMass students. It is also a free 20 minute bus ride from Northampton, a small, very well developed city ...

That said, if some folks didn't like being out in the woods/hills, Dartmouth wouldn't be able to attract students, either!
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Rather than debate the desirablity of being in the mountains of western MA, consider this: Williams could not have done well enough in all those other sports to win the Directors Cup 13 years in a row without some serious quality athletes. Evidently those kids didn't have a problem with the location.

I think we all agree that their athletic department doesn't do enough to help get female hockey players past the admissions office. I still pose my original question-Why not?
 
Re: Nescac 2011-2012

obserbear said:
Congratulations to the Michaela Calnan, a June grad at Bowdoin, on her selection as NESCAC candidate for the 2011 NCAA Woman of the Year!!!
http://nescac.com/news/2010-11/NCAA_WOTY_062311
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Congrats also to Laura Komarek of Trinity's Ice Hockey Team as Trinity's nominee as NCAA Women of the Year in addition to her recieving the Susan E. Martin Award as the College's top female scholar athlete.

http://athletics.trincoll.edu/sports/wice/2010-11/releases/Women-s_Ice_Hockey_81011
 
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