Re: Penn State Womens Hockey
In fairness to Brandwene, he does have 18 years of coaching experience, although certainly not at the NCAA D-1 level. Whether men or women (or boys and girls), he's coached a lot of hockey, to include university teams (Delaware, Michigan-Dearborn, and West Virginia), and was a Team USA assistant coach for the 2003 World University Games, to go along with his prep school and high school coaching. Having also been the ACHA president from 1997-2004, he knows the admin side, too. I sure hope he wasn't hired for any sense of loyalty to the Penn State administration, even if his Penn State pedigree got his foot in the door. He's been admin himself, at the ACHA, so I wouldn't think he sees Penn State admin as anything all too lofty. Having played for Battista doesn't hurt, but that was 20 years ago.
I sure do remember last season, and having to hope that a hockey parent would be at an away game with a way to Twitter game updates. Then we'd have to wait for days sometimes just to see an official box score from the game. GoPSUsports was usually trumped by the school newspaper with any coverage of women's games, and maybe it had something to do with the women's team captain working at the school paper (I only say that half-jokingly). Take nothing away from the men's team - they've earned every bit of coverage they get, and they have an impressive history. But if you also have a women's team, why be so blatant in not covering them, too? You can't generate demand for a program if you never give them any media exposure. I hope that changes when D-1 starts for both programs, but I'm realistic about it, too. I'm already getting a sense of how the official school site is going to handle the women's team (same as always), but that's why there's a PennStateWomensHockey.com.
Thanks for posting that - I wasn't trying to say that Brandwene was a bad coach or unworthy of the job (I happen to like him a lot), but it was definitely a hire that made a lot of people scratch their heads after hearing (for example) that PSU was interested in Mike Sisti. He has a nice track record of rebuilding down and out ACHA programs. Delaware just won the national championship to cap off a decade of unprecedented success that started with his tenure. He's filled a lot of different types of roles well, which is good preparation for the multifaceted position of DI coach.
Still, I wouldn't downplay the Battista-Brandwene connection. The two have remained close...in my day, PSU would schedule alumni weekend around Delaware's visit so that Brandwene (and John O'Connor, his assistant and former PSU teammate) would be in town. I'm not saying that makes Brandwene a hand puppet or anything like that, but I'm sure there's a certain vision for the men's and women's programs together that requires the head coach's buy-in (remember, they plan on having the two programs together break even, which could very well result in the women's getting penny-pinched down the line, even with all those endowed scholarships), and you're more likely to get that from Brandwene than from a Shannon Miller.
The hard reality is that the best way to a successful women's program is to have a successful men's program. The top-drawing CHA team last year, Mercyhurst, pulled 690 fans per game. The others were 253 (Niagara, RIP), 244 (Syracuse), 202 (Robert Morris) and 156 (Lindenwood). RIT drew 670 in DIII. They have the America One deal, whatever that pays out. But basically, there's a glass ceiling on what the women's program can pull in, fill in your view on women's sports in our society to complete that thought. The men's team on the other hand, could sell out the PIA (6,000) if it's popular and well-marketed or it could draw 3,000 per game if it isn't. If you're a decision maker in the athletic department, you're doing right by
both programs to try and influence a swing of a couple thousand people buying more expensive tickets to men's games versus dumping everything you have into trying to go from your baseline of ~500 to chase a four-figure average, something only four programs pulled off last year.
I'll even take it a step further. If you look at the fundraising stuff that goes out, none of it says "hey, support the women's program!" It'll say something like "The monies raised through the [Ice Campaign] will create an endowment for Ice Hockey." That's the actual language from a brochure I have for naming opportunities on lockers in the PIA. It's a little harsh to say it this way, but they're basically trying to trick people into supporting the women's program, if in fact we're right about the destination of the Pegula money.
None of that is meant to make excuses for how the team was covered last year. There was no excuse for that. All 31 teams deserve baseline coverage, and after taking down the Lady Icers' website, the athletic department didn't even provide that. Also, I could be remembering it wrong, but even the Collegian stopped covering the team after December-ish, other than the Sacred Heart win. Lucky for them Ms. Chroman was too busy with her honors thesis to walk over to the sports department and yell!
But like you said, that's why you're here! If you feel like the team deserves more, go out and give it to them, right? Keep up the great work!
