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RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

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Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

Again people are putting on this thread that this team and program are under funded today its about the lack of a full time Secretary and a full time Strength Coach. Really is that the issue with this team the past 4+ years. The players work out with a Strength Coach every day. The same strength coach every day, what more full time then that do they need. A secretary, how does that help the players on the ice? The coaches were on the ice every day with the players unless they were out recruiting. How about the coaches doing more coaching during practices. How about the coaches spending more time doing video and analytics with the players. How about using their Director of Hockey Operations to do more with respect to video and analytics. I don't think a strength coach or a secretary find this duties as part of their responsibilities. Coaches are supposed to coach and work on skill development on and off the ice. Ask this crop of players and those that went through the doors the past 4+ years if that happened.

This team would and will improve by leaps and bounds if the coaches utilize better time management skills and utilize video and analytics with the players. It doesn't cost anymore money to do that. Those resources are already in place, just not utilized.
 
Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

Again people are putting on this thread that this team and program are under funded today its about the lack of a full time Secretary and a full time Strength Coach. Really is that the issue with this team the past 4+ years. The players work out with a Strength Coach every day. The same strength coach every day, what more full time then that do they need. A secretary, how does that help the players on the ice? The coaches were on the ice every day with the players unless they were out recruiting. How about the coaches doing more coaching during practices. How about the coaches spending more time doing video and analytics with the players. How about using their Director of Hockey Operations to do more with respect to video and analytics. I don't think a strength coach or a secretary find this duties as part of their responsibilities. Coaches are supposed to coach and work on skill development on and off the ice. Ask this crop of players and those that went through the doors the past 4+ years if that happened.

This team would and will improve by leaps and bounds if the coaches utilize better time management skills and utilize video and analytics with the players. It doesn't cost anymore money to do that. Those resources are already in place, just not utilized.

And how much of the coach's time is spent answering calls, e-mails, and other "administrative" tasks?
 
Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

Personally, I need an explanation on this. I was OK with firing Appert after the season we just went through, but how in the world do you do that, then make a hire that makes everyone scratch their heads on how the team begins improving from here? And if he's only being had on the cheap... wouldn't it have just been cheaper to pay one guy instead of two?

Fair questions. I'm not sure we'll ever know for sure how we wound up with this outcome. As others have noted, there are - what - four current HC vacancies (and maybe more to come)? Seems like it might be a bit of a buyers' market for coaches right now. The public concerns aired by the hockey alumni (appropriate, IMHO) might have scared off some potential candidates. We do know that unless multiple sources are wrong McElroy will step in front of microphones tomorrow or Wednesday to introduce Smith and both will tell everyone how excited they are and what a terrific opportunity it is and it's a new era for RPI hockey.

For now I'm trying to be optimistic by thinking about questionable hires that have worked out. Northeastern is an example. In 2011 they hired Jim Madigan, who had only been a player and assistant there in the mid-late 80s, and whose only other experience was many years scouting for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Madigan was primarily an administrator (he had worked in Northeastern's physical plant and on the academic side of things), and some really questioned hiring a guy with zero HC experience and no coaching experience of any kind in 18 years. But it's worked out well for them.

For the record, if it's Smith, it looks like he'd be the first sitting D-I coach to come on board here since Addesa in 1979.
 
Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

And how much of the coach's time is spent answering calls, e-mails, and other "administrative" tasks?

And how many hours do the administrative tasks take? Players are in the class room M,T, TH & FR mornings until 1pm. They don't take classes on Wednesdays. The team skates in the morning on Wednesdays. So Friday's are game days, and there are 20 hours a week that the players aren't around, how many hours are needed for administrative tasks? Its a hypothetical question but honestly would a secretary working 37 hours a week vs 25 hours a week make that much of a difference? What's the excuse for not doing video or analytics with the players. That's what Hockey Ops and AC's are for. From what I hear from a parent of a Canisius player his son spent a lot of time on video and analytics and Canisius is substantially underfunded in comparison to RPI. They have a part time volunteer Hockey Ops position and no secretary for the hockey staff.

I'm not saying that the extra expense is warranted but its an excuse for these other developmental tools not to be used.
 
Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

Again people are putting on this thread that this team and program are under funded today its about the lack of a full time Secretary and a full time Strength Coach. Really is that the issue with this team the past 4+ years. The players work out with a Strength Coach every day. The same strength coach every day, what more full time then that do they need. A secretary, how does that help the players on the ice? The coaches were on the ice every day with the players unless they were out recruiting. How about the coaches doing more coaching during practices. How about the coaches spending more time doing video and analytics with the players. How about using their Director of Hockey Operations to do more with respect to video and analytics. I don't think a strength coach or a secretary find this duties as part of their responsibilities. Coaches are supposed to coach and work on skill development on and off the ice. Ask this crop of players and those that went through the doors the past 4+ years if that happened. This team would and will improve by leaps and bounds if the coaches utilize better time management skills and utilize video and analytics with the players. It doesn't cost anymore money to do that. Those resources are already in place, just not utilized.

Seems it's not just on the thread but the articles refer to that as well. Is it a coincidence that the better funded teams and better programs? How's that recruiting budget for example?
 
Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

And how many hours do the administrative tasks take? Players are in the class room M,T, TH & FR mornings until 1pm. They don't take classes on Wednesdays. The team skates in the morning on Wednesdays. So Friday's are game days, and there are 20 hours a week that the players aren't around, how many hours are needed for administrative tasks? Its a hypothetical question but honestly would a secretary working 37 hours a week vs 25 hours a week make that much of a difference? What's the excuse for not doing video or analytics with the players. That's what Hockey Ops and AC's are for. From what I hear from a parent of a Canisius player his son spent a lot of time on video and analytics and Canisius is substantially underfunded in comparison to RPI. They have a part time volunteer Hockey Ops position and no secretary for the hockey staff.

I'm not saying that the extra expense is warranted but its an excuse for these other developmental tools not to be used.

They take longer than you'd think, especially given the position. And who's to say that they didn't do video analytics?
 
Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

For the record, if it's Smith, it looks like he'd be the first sitting D-I coach to come on board here since Addesa in 1979.
Addesa was not a sitting D-I coach because HC did not play D-I when he arrived. Jim Salfi was the coach for Penn before RPI. Penn dropped its program.
 
Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

And how many hours do the administrative tasks take? Players are in the class room M,T, TH & FR mornings until 1pm. They don't take classes on Wednesdays. The team skates in the morning on Wednesdays. So Friday's are game days, and there are 20 hours a week that the players aren't around, how many hours are needed for administrative tasks? Its a hypothetical question but honestly would a secretary working 37 hours a week vs 25 hours a week make that much of a difference? What's the excuse for not doing video or analytics with the players. That's what Hockey Ops and AC's are for. From what I hear from a parent of a Canisius player his son spent a lot of time on video and analytics and Canisius is substantially underfunded in comparison to RPI. They have a part time volunteer Hockey Ops position and no secretary for the hockey staff.

I'm not saying that the extra expense is warranted but its an excuse for these other developmental tools not to be used.

The Dir of Hockey Ops position was left open for about a year when Kevin Anderson left. Also, the Director of Hockey Ops is shared by both the men's and women's team; unheard of for top programs. I would say Canisius is to Atlantic Hockey to what RPI is to the ECAC. Coach Smith had 8 losing years out of 12 in his conference and one was a tie numerical. When Mike Sadghpour, Joe Juneau, Tony Henja etc. states its underfunded and understaffed they would know.
 
Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

My opinion of Smith being hired will greatly improve if he convinces Bailey Conger to play for RPI and loses no one else.
 
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Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

Addesa was not a sitting D-I coach because HC did not play D-I when he arrived. Jim Salfi was the coach for Penn before RPI. Penn dropped its program.

Salfi did coach for Penn before he came to RPI and Penn did ultimately drop its program, but that didn't happen until several years after Salfi opted to come to Troy. Bob Crocker and Bob Finke served as Penn head coaches before the program was dropped after the 1977-78 season.

Crocker may be remembered for recruiting a guy near and dear to RPI fans' hearts to play for the Quakers during the mid-1970's - a young fellow named Paul Stewart. ;)
 
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Again people are putting on this thread that this team and program are under funded today its about the lack of a full time Secretary and a full time Strength Coach. Really is that the issue with this team the past 4+ years. The players work out with a Strength Coach every day. The same strength coach every day, what more full time then that do they need. A secretary, how does that help the players on the ice? The coaches were on the ice every day with the players unless they were out recruiting. How about the coaches doing more coaching during practices. How about the coaches spending more time doing video and analytics with the players. How about using their Director of Hockey Operations to do more with respect to video and analytics. I don't think a strength coach or a secretary find this duties as part of their responsibilities. Coaches are supposed to coach and work on skill development on and off the ice. Ask this crop of players and those that went through the doors the past 4+ years if that happened.

This team would and will improve by leaps and bounds if the coaches utilize better time management skills and utilize video and analytics with the players. It doesn't cost anymore money to do that. Those resources are already in place, just not utilized.
.
You are correct re: strength coaching. I confirmed what I knew to be accurate with a former athlete in another sport. The hockey team has daily interaction with strength and fitness staff... the team also had an outside performance consultant that SA brought in ..whose name escapes me.

RPI uses video analytics...not sure why folks are operating on the assumption that they don't. Even on road trips, Video review is done with each player on plays from the Friday game as well as scouting review of the Sat evening opponents.
 
Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

.
You are correct re: strength coaching. I confirmed what I knew to be accurate with a former athlete in another sport. The hockey team has daily interaction with strength and fitness staff... the team also had an outside performance consultant that SA brought in ..whose name escapes me.
RPI uses video analytics...not sure why folks are operating on the assumption that they don't. Even on road trips, Video review is done with each player on plays from the Friday game as well as scouting review of the Sat evening opponents.

Head strength coach was not hired till late in the year.

Just how much time WAS spent on the analytics? Enough? Maybe not.

So if the team HAD all these things, and great recruits as some stated, they weren't winning, because?
 
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Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

Head strength coach was not hired till late in the year.

Just how much time WAS spent on the analytics? Enough? Maybe not.

So if the team HAD all these things, and great recruits as some stated, they weren't winning, because?
I think he just won :D......continuuuuuuuuue.
 
Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

Today is 4 April 2017. There are 180 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 1 October 2017 for the start of next season.
 
Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

My opinion of Smith being hired will greatly improve if he convinces Bailey Conger to play for RPI and loses no one else.

Ralph, you got this one right. His first test will be keeping the recruits. Since I haven't seen anything new on Conger, I guess we still have a shot to keep him.
But the real test will be how he coaches the team on the ice. I hope he can get these guys ready when the game starts and calms them down when we have "big" games. We always seem to play nervous hockey in games like the Freakout and early ECAC playoff rounds. SA never seemed to get the players on the right level going into those games.
There is a lot of talk about money and support for the hockey team, but we seem to have talented players, now we need a talented coach.
 
Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

Ralph, you got this one right. His first test will be keeping the recruits. Since I haven't seen anything new on Conger, I guess we still have a shot to keep him.
But the real test will be how he coaches the team on the ice. I hope he can get these guys ready when the game starts and calms them down when we have "big" games. We always seem to play nervous hockey in games like the Freakout and early ECAC playoff rounds. SA never seemed to get the players on the right level going into those games.
There is a lot of talk about money and support for the hockey team, but we seem to have talented players, now we need a talented coach.

Greg Carvel was announced as the UMass coach on 3/29/16 and BC didn't commit to us until October. It could take just as long this time if he elects to sit our another year. I don't know why he should waste another year, but ...
 
Re: RPI 2017 Off-Season: We March 4th into the Future

Greg Carvel was announced as the UMass coach on 3/29/16 and BC didn't commit to us until October. It could take just as long this time if he elects to sit our another year. I don't know why he should waste another year, but ...

Wouldn't that require the school to break this year's contract? And have we heard anything different from them about their upholding of the contract? Once the new coach is instated, we'll see if he convinces the AD to change their mind about Conger.
 
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