RPI 2024 Off-Season: Was 2023 – 2024 Just a Bad Dream?

[DrDemento]

Wilkes won their opening game over King's College, 43-28. They can score - but they can also be scored upon.

Wilkes' teams are known as the Colonels. I tried to figure out why that name was chosen.

Wilkes University is located in Wilkes-Barre, which is named for two Englishmen, John Wilkes and Isaac Barre. I guess the college decided it didn't want a hyphenated name, so they just called themselves Wilkes. John Wilkes was a member of Parliament, but as far as I can find, he never held a colonel's commission. Perhaps the college adopted the nickname in honor of the Gone With the Wind character, Ashley Wilkes, to whom Margaret Mitchell assigned the rank of colonel in the Confederate Army.

I can't leave John Wilkes without mentioning one of the snappy comebacks for which he was well known.

To another MP, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, who said to Wilkes, "Sir, I do not know whether you will die on the gallows or of the pox," Wilkes replied, "That depends, my lord, on whether I embrace your lordship's principles or your mistress."

Great post. Love the snappy comeback, probably one of the best I have ever seen. One day I will have to post the best I ever heard that came from Jenny to a couple of very stuck up Princeton ladies while we were at Baker rink for a game back in the 1990's. It was during the Fridgen era when attending the games there was a lot of fun, especially when RPI came to play bringing a ton of followers and fans.

 

[rpi82]

A press box that can actually fit a 6’4” 225 pound part time play by play broadcaster would be nice

Back to the catwalk?

 

[tony/troy]

A press box that can actually fit a 6’4” 225 pound part time play by play broadcaster would be nice

Lost me with this combination of proportunes. Can think of anyone that fits both of them. Who is far heavier than they look or packed on some pounds in the past several months??? Or is it the ESPN+ hockey guy who I can't even envision as I don't think I have ever even seen him???

 

[jericho]

Back to the catwalk?

don’t think that will ever happen again. Great place to call a game from though.

 

[jericho]

Lost me with this combination of proportunes. Can think of anyone that fits both of them. Who is far heavier than they look or packed on some pounds in the past several months??? Or is it the ESPN+ hockey guy who I can't even envision as I don't think I have ever even seen him???

Far heavier than they look? I guess I’ll take that as a compliment?

 

[tony/troy]

Quick update from the rather subdued hype fest....

-It was a rather disjointed and too lengthy event with no one really acting as the MC
-Smith was not present.(Really). Official word was he was "up north" recruiting
-All three teams were present - Women, Men and Club
-Vines spoke briefly for the women's team and Lange spoke for the Men

-I stayed until 7:30 and there was no official mention of the HFH building study while I was there.

We did however ask AD Bowers what the update was on the study and planning. She eagerly shared the following. (Insert your own personal grains of salt as liberally as you feel the need to !) LOL

-$100 million project, fundraising campaign to follow. No details on timing that she could share.
-Project would be spread out over " 4 or 5 phases" so that the teams won't need to play elsewhere

Project Highlights as noted by Bowers, as I can recall (she was speaking pretty fast):

-North end (home bench side) gets a new 2 story building addition to house all new locker rooms, training and treatment rooms etc. for M's and W's teams on first floor and offices and meeting rooms, lounges on 2nd floor
-New building addition on SW corner of HFH to house new ticket office area, including reworked entrances and lobby
-Shirley's end zone mausoleum and offices get reworked into new two-story seating and specialty areas
-Ice surface gets replaced and sunken, to include seating up to the glass
- Upper tier of HFH gets reworked with an upper ring walkway, stanig areas, etc.
-East end gets reworked and expanded to accommodate seating and facility ops, Zamboinis etc.

Those are the high points of the things she rattled off. Anyone's guess when they might think about going public with the effort.
Talk amongst yourselves !! Ha ha

Any estimate on the size of the gathering excluding people required to be there for whatever reason??? Any indication based on the size of the gathering that the future average attendance may possibly exceed the 2200 to 2250 they have drawn in the two seasons after the fan ban of equal duration???

Yes, neither the dismal won loss records over the past two seasons nor the often vilified on this site coach were the reason for these puny crowds. It was a complete one year shutdown followed by a second year fan ban and nothing else, PERIOD!!! As of March 2020, fans had no other viable reason besides those two to leave and never return, PERIOD!!!

Enough of the rewriting of history. The last thing the now departed fans saw in very early 2020 (just before what amounted to a two year fan ban) was a team capable of winning every single time they set foot on the ice. It was a team that absolutely no one wanted any part of in any round of the playoffs that never happened. Fans were pouring through the doors to see it in very decent numbers. Certainly a lot more than 2200 to 2250.

Guess what??? Same coach as the one being roasted regularly on this thread. Same coach who built an extremely competitive roster that had a foreseeable future in terms of remaining eligibility. Same coach who truly inherited a complete train wreck and had it humming in the right direction by the second semester of just year 3. At the time I considered the turnaround nothing short of "Sabanesk". I still do and it's' because history is not rewritten here!!!

Enough of the rewriting of history. All this "terrible" coach could not overcome was an out and out ADMINISTRATIVE GENOCIDE performed on his program. First year it was complete shutdown of program, only one of eight programs to do so nationwide. With that much of the program's future in the form of players with remaining eligibility scattered anywhere and everywhere and there was certainly no shortage of programs willing to swoop up most of them. A number of those were latter seen on TV in both March-April of 2021 and March-April of 2022 playing in the NCAA tournament for other programs. Yet, another was still playing in March-April 2023 and all he did was assist on the game winning OT goal in the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME!!! But it's the coach who brought them all here who sucks. OK.

Enough of the rewriting of history. Ditto future recruits that never arrived. The year two let's' play hockey but ban the fans (to the best of my knowledge the only program that did so in 2021-2022) had to at least played a part in that. Two of those lost recruits did eventually play at the Fieldhouse as teammates on the opposing team just last season. One of them damned near ended his college career with 100 points, including potting OT game winners in BOTH rounds of the Beanpot last February. But it's the coach who at least initially got these guys to commit to RPI who sucks. OK.

Nonetheless, the main question is the first paragraph. I really do hope it is not the answer I think I am going to get (if anyone is willing to share it).

P.S. Time will tell if I am right or wrong, but, I think a TWO year fan ban was simply way too long and did irreversible damage. Fans may have actually looked past being banned for the 2020- 2021 season, especially since much of that was essentially government mandated in New York State. It's the second unmandated fan ban year that I suspect potentially permanently croaked RPI Hockey as a viable and relevant Capital District sports entertainment option win or lose. Virtually all forms of competing entertainment options in this area (and there are many) were open by that second year and were welcoming back paying customers with open arms. Obviously, during those two years (especially the second one) many of our former paying customers availed themselves to at least one of the area's many competing entertainment options which probably included just staying home watching digital cable with hundreds of channels. In the two years since RPI finally "welcomed"??? paying customers back to the Fieldhouse, it is painfully obvious that many of our former paying customers never reversed course and appear unlikely to ever do so. Losing did not cause any of this. The first year back to a Fieldhouse with open doors was not all that bad. Only 6 games under 500. No way was that bad enough to keep people away in the numbers we saw. It appears to me that people just had enough of RPI (not the coach) and just plain and simple did not come back, PERIOD???

 

[Ralph Baer]

In honor of Jack Brackett and Taryn Rathwell, today is 12 September 2024. There are 24 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 6 October 2024 for the start of next season.

 

[DrDemento]

Any estimate on the size of the gathering excluding people required to be there for whatever reason??? Any indication based on the size of the gathering that the future average attendance may possibly exceed the 2200 to 2250 they have drawn in the two seasons after the fan ban of equal duration???

Yes, neither the dismal won loss records over the past two seasons nor the often vilified on this site coach were the reason for these puny crowds. It was a complete one year shutdown followed by a second year fan ban and nothing else, PERIOD!!! As of March 2020, fans had no other viable reason besides those two to leave and never return, PERIOD!!!

Enough of the rewriting of history. The last thing the now departed fans saw in very early 2020 (just before what amounted to a two year fan ban) was a team capable of winning every single time they set foot on the ice. It was a team that absolutely no one wanted any part of in any round of the playoffs that never happened. Fans were pouring through the doors to see it in very decent numbers. Certainly a lot more than 2200 to 2250.

Guess what??? Same coach as the one being roasted regularly on this thread. Same coach who built an extremely competitive roster that had a foreseeable future in terms of remaining eligibility. Same coach who truly inherited a complete train wreck and had it humming in the right direction by the second semester of just year 3. At the time I considered the turnaround nothing short of "Sabanesk". I still do and it's' because history is not rewritten here!!!

Enough of the rewriting of history. All this "terrible" coach could not overcome was an out and out ADMINISTRATIVE GENOCIDE performed on his program. First year it was complete shutdown of program, only one of eight programs to do so nationwide. With that much of the program's future in the form of players with remaining eligibility scattered anywhere and everywhere and there was certainly no shortage of programs willing to swoop up most of them. A number of those were latter seen on TV in both March-April of 2021 and March-April of 2022 playing in the NCAA tournament for other programs. Yet, another was still playing in March-April 2023 and all he did was assist on the game winning OT goal in the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME!!! But it's the coach who brought them all here who sucks. OK.

Enough of the rewriting of history. Ditto future recruits that never arrived. The year two let's' play hockey but ban the fans (to the best of my knowledge the only program that did so in 2021-2022) had to at least played a part in that. Two of those lost recruits did eventually play at the Fieldhouse as teammates on the opposing team just last season. One of them damned near ended his college career with 100 points, including potting OT game winners in BOTH rounds of the Beanpot last February. But it's the coach who at least initially got these guys to commit to RPI who sucks. OK.

Nonetheless, the main question is the first paragraph. I really do hope it is not the answer I think I am going to get (if anyone is willing to share it).

P.S. Time will tell if I am right or wrong, but, I think a TWO year fan ban was simply way too long and did irreversible damage. Fans may have actually looked past being banned for the 2020- 2021 season, especially since much of that was essentially government mandated in New York State. It's the second unmandated fan ban year that I suspect potentially permanently croaked RPI Hockey as a viable and relevant Capital District sports entertainment option win or lose. Virtually all forms of competing entertainment options in this area (and there are many) were open by that second year and were welcoming back paying customers with open arms. Obviously, during those two years (especially the second one) many of our former paying customers availed themselves to at least one of the area's many competing entertainment options which probably included just staying home watching digital cable with hundreds of channels. In the two years since RPI finally "welcomed"??? paying customers back to the Fieldhouse, it is painfully obvious that many of our former paying customers never reversed course and appear unlikely to ever do so. Losing did not cause any of this. The first year back to a Fieldhouse with open doors was not all that bad. Only 6 games under 500. No way was that bad enough to keep people away in the numbers we saw. It appears to me that people just had enough of RPI (not the coach) and just plain and simple did not come back, PERIOD???

Tell us how you really feel. I may not have included all that you posted but I agree about 95% with it and have said so many times. This has been an unmitigated disaster but it was engineered from the top down. It is often easiest to lay blame elsewhere but truth be told, $hhit many times flows uphill. Your description of the direction of this program just before the forced shut down was spot on. They were in complete harmony and ascending to a rousing finish to the season in Lake Placid (we already had our tickets that went unused). And yes, we were left to only watch as many of our boys were able to reach the NCAA tournament but only by playing for other teams.
I am still hopeful that a turnaround can be scripted and I have no clue who should be credited if it does happen. But i sure know who to blame for the current situation. Well done and well stated.

 

[Ralph Baer]

In honor of Nick Strom and Aylah Cioffi, today is 13 September 2024. There are 23 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 6 October 2024 for the start of next season.

 

[DrDemento]

Reminder for the football folks - RPI at Wilkes begins at 6PM. As far as I can tell the only video is pay per view through the Wilkes site. There does not seem to be any audio broadcast. I may watch the video feed if jenny is willing to pay for it.

 

[DrDemento]

I stand corrected - WRPI is on the air with the game!

 

[AspyDad]

Any estimate on the size of the gathering excluding people required to be there for whatever reason??? Any indication based on the size of the gathering that the future average attendance may possibly exceed the 2200 to 2250 they have drawn in the two seasons after the fan ban of equal duration???

Yes, neither the dismal won loss records over the past two seasons nor the often vilified on this site coach were the reason for these puny crowds. It was a complete one year shutdown followed by a second year fan ban and nothing else, PERIOD!!! As of March 2020, fans had no other viable reason besides those two to leave and never return, PERIOD!!!

Enough of the rewriting of history. The last thing the now departed fans saw in very early 2020 (just before what amounted to a two year fan ban) was a team capable of winning every single time they set foot on the ice. It was a team that absolutely no one wanted any part of in any round of the playoffs that never happened. Fans were pouring through the doors to see it in very decent numbers. Certainly a lot more than 2200 to 2250.

Guess what??? Same coach as the one being roasted regularly on this thread. Same coach who built an extremely competitive roster that had a foreseeable future in terms of remaining eligibility. Same coach who truly inherited a complete train wreck and had it humming in the right direction by the second semester of just year 3. At the time I considered the turnaround nothing short of "Sabanesk". I still do and it's' because history is not rewritten here!!!

Enough of the rewriting of history. All this "terrible" coach could not overcome was an out and out ADMINISTRATIVE GENOCIDE performed on his program. First year it was complete shutdown of program, only one of eight programs to do so nationwide. With that much of the program's future in the form of players with remaining eligibility scattered anywhere and everywhere and there was certainly no shortage of programs willing to swoop up most of them. A number of those were latter seen on TV in both March-April of 2021 and March-April of 2022 playing in the NCAA tournament for other programs. Yet, another was still playing in March-April 2023 and all he did was assist on the game winning OT goal in the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME!!! But it's the coach who brought them all here who sucks. OK.

Enough of the rewriting of history. Ditto future recruits that never arrived. The year two let's' play hockey but ban the fans (to the best of my knowledge the only program that did so in 2021-2022) had to at least played a part in that. Two of those lost recruits did eventually play at the Fieldhouse as teammates on the opposing team just last season. One of them damned near ended his college career with 100 points, including potting OT game winners in BOTH rounds of the Beanpot last February. But it's the coach who at least initially got these guys to commit to RPI who sucks. OK.

Nonetheless, the main question is the first paragraph. I really do hope it is not the answer I think I am going to get (if anyone is willing to share it).

P.S. Time will tell if I am right or wrong, but, I think a TWO year fan ban was simply way too long and did irreversible damage. Fans may have actually looked past being banned for the 2020- 2021 season, especially since much of that was essentially government mandated in New York State. It's the second unmandated fan ban year that I suspect potentially permanently croaked RPI Hockey as a viable and relevant Capital District sports entertainment option win or lose. Virtually all forms of competing entertainment options in this area (and there are many) were open by that second year and were welcoming back paying customers with open arms. Obviously, during those two years (especially the second one) many of our former paying customers availed themselves to at least one of the area's many competing entertainment options which probably included just staying home watching digital cable with hundreds of channels. In the two years since RPI finally "welcomed"??? paying customers back to the Fieldhouse, it is painfully obvious that many of our former paying customers never reversed course and appear unlikely to ever do so. Losing did not cause any of this. The first year back to a Fieldhouse with open doors was not all that bad. Only 6 games under 500. No way was that bad enough to keep people away in the numbers we saw. It appears to me that people just had enough of RPI (not the coach) and just plain and simple did not come back, PERIOD???

As a resident of Cap Region, Troy.in particular, if they were competitive, folks would come back. The Townies are skeptical that the powers that be don't even care. We always knew Shirley didn't but folks are questioning Bowers and Marty. The smart play would be to build a new barn next to the EVAC and connect the two like Colgate. Still lots of potential with the Program. Murls is a top Hockey Influencer with Spittin Chicklets and could be leveraged as a major asset but I know that's not going happen with current staff. We still have two Natty's.hanging in the rafters. Gotta be better with all the entertainment choices as you rightly state. If they were a top 4 seed with a second round home bye HFH would be rocking.

 

[AspyDad]

Quick update from the rather subdued hype fest....

-It was a rather disjointed and too lengthy event with no one really acting as the MC
-Smith was not present.(Really). Official word was he was "up north" recruiting
-All three teams were present - Women, Men and Club
-Vines spoke briefly for the women's team and Lange spoke for the Men

-I stayed until 7:30 and there was no official mention of the HFH building study while I was there.

We did however ask AD Bowers what the update was on the study and planning. She eagerly shared the following. (Insert your own personal grains of salt as liberally as you feel the need to !) LOL

-$100 million project, fundraising campaign to follow. No details on timing that she could share.
-Project would be spread out over " 4 or 5 phases" so that the teams won't need to play elsewhere

Project Highlights as noted by Bowers, as I can recall (she was speaking pretty fast):

-North end (home bench side) gets a new 2 story building addition to house all new locker rooms, training and treatment rooms etc. for M's and W's teams on first floor and offices and meeting rooms, lounges on 2nd floor
-New building addition on SW corner of HFH to house new ticket office area, including reworked entrances and lobby
-Shirley's end zone mausoleum and offices get reworked into new two-story seating and specialty areas
-Ice surface gets replaced and sunken, to include seating up to the glass
- Upper tier of HFH gets reworked with an upper ring walkway, stanig areas, etc.
-East end gets reworked and expanded to accommodate seating and facility ops, Zamboinis etc.

Those are the high points of the things she rattled off. Anyone's guess when they might think about going public with the effort.
Talk amongst yourselves !! Ha ha

Thanks for this report WS. You beat me to the punch on posting something about the 20 million Shirley pleaged when Dave was hired, nice catch. I highly doubt significant improvements will be made and it would be prob foolhardy in this inflationary atmosphere. Put a 2500 seat barn next to EVAc and connect them and that would make sense ( See Colgate, Toscano at UCONN). We all have great memories of HFH but Program needs an upgrade.

 

[DrDemento]

For the football fans - the good news is RPI defeats Wilkes 32-25. The bad news (and there is quite a bit) we played a horrible game. We took 12 penalties for over 113 yards including 3 pass interference penalties. Even worse is our kicking game which missed two extra points and had two short field goal attempts blocked. If we do not correct the kicking situation we will pay dearly in the Liberty League games against the tougher competition. A win takes us to a 1-1 record but we most certainly have a lot to work on including some discipline on the field.

 

[Ralph Baer]

In honor of Meg Hildner, today is 14 September 2024. There are 22 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 6 October 2024 for the start of next season.

 

[DrDemento]

For the football fans - the good news is RPI defeats Wilkes 32-25. The bad news (and there is quite a bit) we played a horrible game. We took 12 penalties for over 113 yards including 3 pass interference penalties. Even worse is our kicking game which missed two extra pints and had two short field goal attempts blocked. If we do not correct the kicking situation we will pay dearly in the Liberty League games against the tougher competition. Awin takes us to a 1-1 record but we most certainly have a lot to work on including some discipline on the field.

In addition to the 3 pass interference penalties, we had a roughing the passer penalty on a play that nullified an interception we made that could have pretty much ended the game. Also we lost a player for the rest of the game and the first half of the next game for a 'Targeting' penalty. If you look up undisciplined in the dictionary, there is a picture of the RPI defense shown.
this week against an opponent we should have been able to handle easily, we looked undersized both on the lines and in the back field. Wilkes had 13 players listed over 290 pounds and we had 6. Our running game which did indeed get going late in the game had 5 yards rushing in the first half.

 

[Ralph Baer]

In honor of Gracyn Mackay, today is 15 September 2024. There are 21 days (3 weeks) until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 6 October 2024 for the start of next season.

 

[rpi82]

I love HFH as it’s been a place I’ve looked forward to going for most of my life. However, the more I think about possibly sinking $100M into a structure with a 70+ year old skeleton and significant design limitations, the less sense it makes. That money could build a beautiful new facility. Union is looking at a relatively small building for $50M. UConn and SHU spent about $75M during the heart of the Covid construction cost spiral (both saw costs come in $10M or so above original expectations).

I can think of only two reasons to go the renovation route: (1) The lack of a suitable temporary home; and (2) As Tony said or implied, the likelihood that they may fall short in fund-raising - it’s easier to drop “phases” of a renovation than make meaningful cost saving changes to a new project that is underway. Both are probably legitimate concerns, but if we spend a fortune on our old friend only to end up with a compromised result, will we be that much better off?

 

[Ralph Baer]

In honor of Nathan Sullivan , today is 16 September 2024. There are 20 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 6 October 2024 for the start of next season.

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

I love HFH as it’s been a place I’ve looked forward to going for most of my life. However, the more I think about possibly sinking $100M into a structure with a 70+ year old skeleton and significant design limitations, the less sense it makes. That money could build a beautiful new facility. Union is looking at a relatively small building for $50M. UConn and SHU spent about $75M during the heart of the Covid construction cost spiral (both saw costs come in $10M or so above original expectations).

I can think of only two reasons to go the renovation route: (1) The lack of a suitable temporary home; and (2) As Tony said or implied, the likelihood that they may fall short in fund-raising - it’s easier to drop “phases” of a renovation than make meaningful cost saving changes to a new project that is underway. Both are probably legitimate concerns, but if we spend a fortune on our old friend only to end up with a compromised result, will we be that much better off?

I'm not really of strong opinion either way....as long as the do SOMETHING.... AD Bowers mentioned the desire to NOT have to find another place to play for the teams as a strong factor. If you built in the lot above HFH, then you'd have essentially ZERO Staging area for materials and equipment during construction, not to mention event parking while games were still played at HFH. Again, seeing the consultant's study would be valuable in our discussions.