UNH- How Far West Do We Go?

[HockeyRef]

Could I ask a small favor of the august UNH posters (at least those who actually post about hockey games)? The name of the rink at Merrimack is "Lawler", not "Lawlor". It is named for the late Merrimack Coach J. Thom Lawler who was there during the Warriors DII heyday (my years on campus). He was a wonderful guy, and shouldn't be confused with Tom Lawlor, the American wrestler and retired MMA artist, nicknamed "Filthy"
If it ever comes to pass that they rename the Whitt after the current coach, I promise never to refer to it as "Souzer Arena".

As a certain someone says, Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Oh, and as regards this weekend, I see a split. Merrimack is still shaky on the road.

Thanks for the info on the correct spelling of Lawler Arena...'see you there'!

We could use a W at the 'whit we've been abit shaky at home..lol Souzer Arena indeed.

 

[Darius]

Could I ask a small favor of the august UNH posters (at least those who actually post about hockey games)? The name of the rink at Merrimack is "Lawler", not "Lawlor". It is named for the late Merrimack Coach J. Thom Lawler who was there during the Warriors DII heyday (my years on campus). He was a wonderful guy, and shouldn't be confused with Tom Lawlor, the American wrestler and retired MMA artist, nicknamed "Filthy"
If it ever comes to pass that they rename the Whitt after the current coach, I promise never to refer to it as "Souzer Arena".

As a certain someone says, Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Oh, and as regards this weekend, I see a split. Merrimack is still shaky on the road.

Much misspelling on the boards. Terriors/Terriers. UHN/UNH. Not all cleverness, some misinformedness? Egads.

 

[theprofromdover]

I miss Bobo.

 

[FlagUp17]

I’m gonna go full on optimist mode for this weekend and predict a sweep. UNH should be angry after their recent performance's, and hungry for some wins, as it has been nearly a month since they last won vs Colgate.

Fri: UNH 2 MC 1
Sat: UNH 3 MC 2

Two close games but UNH finds their strong defense that led to the sweep up in Orono, and they block 20+ shots in both contests. The sweep gets them out of the HEA basement - hopefully for good!

I will say though, this is dependent on them improving on their play from last weekend vs BC. If they revert back to how they played NU, this could be an easy sweep the other way for MC, and likely more chants to oust MS7 from the student section…

Call me crazy, but I gotta stay optimistic. Let’s start the good times that get us to Boston!!!

 

[HockeyRef]

JB would have more finite details, but from what I remember the Friends of UNH Men's Hockey money was allocated strictly to the men's team. They used to make a killing on merch sales and the 50/50 when the place was packed. Marty and his infinite wisdom thought they could mimic this success and then the money would be spread across the athletic department. The slowly pushed the friends out by various means, and here we are today.

It was an abrupt end..leaving many stunned. Coach U left and that was that but prob was coming. There's plenty of lurkers that have a more descriptive view of it..maybe they speak up. Can't blame them if they don't want to it was very hurtful.

I will say this when it did go down the next season the former President of the Friends was more than happy to give his side of the story quite openly if asked. At least they still have the golf tournament...(UNH)
I haven't bought a 50/50 since it disbanded and I used to spend 20 bucks a game..

There is the University side of it regarding compliance etc. From what I remember here is my short list of what the FOH provided

*1 full scholarship per season
*locker room improvements like carpet
*50/50 proceeds
*laptops and other tech equipment for athletic trainers / other personnel
*Meals for the team during Winter break
* Big time banquet where the team could be feted / awards given. Do they still give those out? I never hear hope they still do.
*Former FOH please add to/ correct if I am wrong on the above.

And the most valuable? Getting to hear the coaches after a game..meeting the team..and of course the social side. Really miss all of that. Knowing you were doing something good for the team. FOH provided a positive culture that is sorely missed if you ask me.

Of course you can just donate to the 603 and other projects without all of that fun stuff above...but somehow it doesn't feel the same.

HR out (drops mic and gets off soapbox)

 

[norbert]

I’m gonna go full on optimist mode for this weekend and predict a sweep. UNH should be angry after their recent performance's, and hungry for some wins, as it has been nearly a month since they last won vs Colgate.

Fri: UNH 2 MC 1
Sat: UNH 3 MC 2

Two close games but UNH finds their strong defense that led to the sweep up in Orono, and they block 20+ shots in both contests. The sweep gets them out of the HEA basement - hopefully for good!

I will say though, this is dependent on them improving on their play from last weekend vs BC. If they revert back to how they played NU, this could be an easy sweep the other way for MC, and likely more chants to oust MS7 from the student section…

Call me crazy, but I gotta stay optimistic. Let’s start the good times that get us to Boston!!!

I wish you would be correct but I don't see it. They should be practicing in Rochester or Dover with a rink the size of MC, but they practiced all week at the Whit, which makes a difference

Tomorrow will be a 3 goal spread 5-2 or 4-1. Saturday will be a dog fight maybe 4-3 but the home record is not good.

 

[Chuck Murray]

Greg, DC, Comicbook…

Good to see JB frequently posting again.

It's funny ... sometimes it's the folks you think have moved on who really haven't ... but yeah, many out there aren't on here anymore.

I'm thinking Greg Ambrose, 'Watcher, C-H-C, Gibber, Da Big Bad Cow (now a prominent D-1 Women's coach), SteveS, olddog (RIP my friend and WIS collaborator) and his son Matt, and of course my old buddies-in-mischief Bobo and NickUNH. Plenty of others, whom I do a disservice to by not mentioning them, no offense please as the years mount. Thankful every day for the old guard like Snives, Darius, JB and the next wave of Ref, Whalers, Felger, Rob Balin, Norbie and Emily the Flunky, who has now ascended to peak of recognition by all-around board barnacle potty, and has embraced it with a wonderful new logo (well done, kiddo!) ...

And to think, with all the attrition we've seen on the boards (despite our promising and growing contingent of newbies), it's way more than tenfold that much not in the stands at The Whitt any longer, which is infinitely worse for the long-term success of the program.

That certain apologists just whitewash those issues in favor of pressing for the adoption of disastrous tax-and-spend policies from other states, and minimize the enormous loss of the Friends of UNH Hockey and their considerable positive impact on Men's Hockey in the past - the biggest "own goal" UNH has foisted on itself, along with losing a world class Men's Soccer coach who was a townie and an alum - well, that's just plain dumb. As in, chasing parked cars dumb.

This weekend, and I hope to God I am wrong about this, but the Wrath of Scotty B will see the Warriors put the 'Cats to the sword on both evenings.

If short term pain equals long term gain, one can only hope such a catastrophic pair of results pushes the program closer to searching for new solutions behind the bench, which as anyone with the slightest hint of a clue about how to win in sports at this level knows has to be the first step towards recovery.

 

[Chuck Murray]

If it ever comes to pass that they rename the Whitt after the current coach, I promise never to refer to it as "Souzer Arena".

As a certain someone says, Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Don't worry about me on this, I still think of it as the good ol' Volpe "Complex" (?), and revel in its overall high school level vibes and simplicity.

"Thank you for your attention to this matter" has a nice ring to it, I'm sure fellow UNH oldie e.cat would be in total agreement.

 

[Chuck Murray]

And the most valuable? Getting to hear the coaches after a game, meeting the team, and of course the social side. Really miss all of that. Knowing you were doing something good for the team. FOH provided a positive culture that is sorely missed if you ask me.

Of course, you can just donate to the 603 and other projects without all of that fun stuff above...but somehow it doesn't feel the same.

It's all about control when it comes to our former (and likely current) AD, MS7, and academia in general. UNH had a great thing going, for so long, until they seized upon Coach Umile's departure to push the FoH out of the picture. So many people, doing so much for so little ... but doing it independently, and not controlled by the U. This "offense" simply could not be allowed to stand. And "folks from away" like potty think this is the way to go, and want more of it ...

 

[Chuck Murray]

Regardless of who posted it first, you happily repeat it, no?

You mean, when I refer to current AD Ali Rich as the "AD f/k/a SB"? Other than (maybe?) spelling it out once in the heated debate after one of our colleagues unleashed the term on the UNH landscape, that's as far as I've gone in furthering the term. And I'm guessing 95+% of our posters either don't know or have forgotten what the last part of that title stands for ... just like 99% of the current posters don't know/have forgotten what "WIS" stands for, or where "Bandwagon Nation" comes from, or who the "orono little league" or "Downeast Dark Prince" were/are. "Captain Turtleneck" was (still is) easy to solve for anyone who has been around the UNH program for at least a decade. Yet I sometimes still have to explain who "Nigel" is, and ditto "Luce". But everyone knows who "MS7" is, and most know who "Blue Skies" was.

All good clean fun, and part of how we communicate on the boards, no? As the great Sgt. Hulka once said in Stripes ... "Lighten up, Francis"

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Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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[walrus]

It's funny ... sometimes it's the folks you think have moved on who really haven't ... but yeah, many out there aren't on here anymore.

I'm thinking Greg Ambrose, 'Watcher, C-H-C, Gibber, Da Big Bad Cow (now a prominent D-1 Women's coach), SteveS, olddog (RIP my friend and WIS collaborator) and his son Matt, and of course my old buddies-in-mischief Bobo and NickUNH. Plenty of others, whom I do a disservice to by not mentioning them, no offense please as the years mount. Thankful every day for the old guard like Snives, Darius, JB and the next wave of Ref, Whalers, Felger, Rob Balin, Norbie and Emily the Flunky, who has now ascended to peak of recognition by all-around board barnacle potty, and has embraced it with a wonderful new logo (well done, kiddo!) ...

And to think, with all the attrition we've seen on the boards (despite our promising and growing contingent of newbies), it's way more than tenfold that much not in the stands at The Whitt any longer, which is infinitely worse for the long-term success of the program.

That certain apologists just whitewash those issues in favor of pressing for the adoption of disastrous tax-and-spend policies from other states, and minimize the enormous loss of the Friends of UNH Hockey and their considerable positive impact on Men's Hockey in the past - the biggest "own goal" UNH has foisted on itself, along with losing a world class Men's Soccer coach who was a townie and an alum - well, that's just plain dumb. As in, chasing parked cars dumb.

This weekend, and I hope to God I am wrong about this, but the Wrath of Scotty B will see the Warriors put the 'Cats to the sword on both evenings.

If short term pain equals long term gain, one can only hope such a catastrophic pair of results pushes the program closer to searching for new solutions behind the bench, which as anyone with the slightest hint of a clue about how to win in sports at this level knows has to be the first step towards recovery.

I'm glad to hear Cow moved up , came to Maine as asst coach for a year or 2. Good guy, cool they he has had success.

 

[JB]

It's all about control when it comes to our former (and likely current) AD, MS7, and academia in general. UNH had a great thing going, for so long, until they seized upon Coach Umile's departure to push the FoH out of the picture. So many people, doing so much for so little ... but doing it independently, and not controlled by the U. This "offense" simply could not be allowed to stand. ...

The problem with the death of the FoH is I have never heard one explanation that made sense as to the why.

Last weekend I got a new one, I honestly don't remember how the FoH came up in the conversation. The guy I was talking to has been around UNH hockey since he was a pre-teen helping around the rink/team in the pre Rube Bjorkman days. I think it came up about money to the hockey program as he said the $500k-$1M a year the FoH raised would be nice to have. I noted it would have been nice if Marty and Souza hadn't killed that organization.

What I got back just killed me... (rough quote) "The NC 2A made rule against single sport booster clubs and the FoH had an exemption as long as Richie was coach". So a couple things about that rough quote. Not many call Umile, Richie. You would occasionally get Jack Parker or Mike McShane in some interview refer to Dick Umile as Richie, so that caught me by surprise. On the other hand I do not believe for one second that the NCAA would make an exception for Dick Umile so this sounds to me like BS from BS.

What I know is for years BlueSkies had been pulling things back from the FoH to under his control. BlueSkies wanted that money so he could give it out as he saw fit, not as the FoH saw fit. The FoH worked with Umile/Kullen/Holt to figure out what the team needed and then gave the money to that.

What I think happened, and why you never get a straight story that makes any sense. BlueSkies wanted that money. NCAA probably made things in compliance harder and harder (as was the trend until very recently). Umile had more "juice" than BlueSkies at UNH and so the AD just had to suck it up a deal with the compliance monitoring and the coach having power of that money. Once Umile retired MS7 was to weak to stop BlueSkies... it didn't hurt that MS7 wants to hide under a rock, not face accountability, not do the extra selling and politics that position really requires so a win/win from a (short term) certain point of view.

Like Ref this entire mess really turned me off. I still have season tickets. Beyond the seats and occasional beer, no more money from me, no 50/50, no/limited merch, no higher end FoH membership, no additional annual gift... I know many others in the same boat that BlueSkies just turned off.

P.S. very weird that last week during the BC game Bjorkman and FoH came up in conversations and then echoed on here

 

[2013hockeyfan]

You mean, when I refer to current AD Ali Rich as the "AD f/k/a SB"? Other than (maybe?) spelling it out once in the heated debate after one of our colleagues unleashed the term on the UNH landscape, that's as far as I've gone in furthering the term. And I'm guessing 95+% of our posters either don't know or have forgotten what the last part of that title stands for ... just like 99% of the current posters don't know/have forgotten what "WIS" stands for, or where "Bandwagon Nation" comes from, or who the "orono little league" or "Downeast Dark Prince" were/are. "Captain Turtleneck" was (still is) easy to solve for anyone who has been around the UNH program for at least a decade. Yet I sometimes still have to explain who "Nigel" is, and ditto "Luce". But everyone knows who "MS7" is, and most know who "Blue Skies" was.

All good clean fun, and part of how we communicate on the boards, no? As the great Sgt. Hulka once said in Stripes ... "Lighten up, Francis"

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

Exhaustive explanation when 'yes' would have sufficed.

 

[Nick Papagiorgio]

What I got back just killed me... (rough quote) "The NC 2A made rule against single sport booster clubs and the FoH had an exemption as long as Richie was coach". So a couple things about that rough quote. Not many call Umile, Richie. You would occasionally get Jack Parker or Mike McShane in some interview refer to Dick Umile as Richie, so that caught me by surprise. On the other hand I do not believe for one second that the NCAA would make an exception for Dick Umile so this sounds to me like BS from BS.

Seems like nonsense. BC has had the Pike's Peak Hockey Club forever and it's still going strong. I don't know if there were changes to rules by the NCAA about these clubs that Pike's Peak and BC had to make adjustments to how they were operating but that just doesn't pass the sniff in any way - the exception for Umile and the rule against the booster club for a single sport.

 

[Snively65]

Exhaustive explanation when 'yes' would have sufficed.

My guess is that you did not enjoy your history classes as a student, 2013?

 

[2013hockeyfan]

My guess is that you did not enjoy your history classes as a student, 2013?

Chuck's response reminded more of the explanation I'd give as to why I hadn't completed my history report than the history lectures themselves.

 

[HockeyRef]

I wish you would be correct but I don't see it. They should be practicing in Rochester or Dover with a rink the size of MC, but they practiced all week at the Whit, which makes a difference

Tomorrow will be a 3 goal spread 5-2 or 4-1. Saturday will be a dog fight maybe 4-3 but the home record is not good.

I've always thought that, that to prepare for the Lawler rink...practice on a shorter sheet...we'll see!

 

[2013hockeyfan]

I've always thought that, that to prepare for the Lawler rink...practice on a shorter sheet...we'll see!

What is the sheet size at Lawler?

 

[deltabravo62]

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Reference image above, at least Souza is saving the university a boatload on performance bonuses.

 

[HockeyRef]

The problem with the death of the FoH is I have never heard one explanation that made sense as to the why.

Last weekend I got a new one, I honestly don't remember how the FoH came up in the conversation. The guy I was talking to has been around UNH hockey since he was a pre-teen helping around the rink/team in the pre Rube Bjorkman days. I think it came up about money to the hockey program as he said the $500k-$1M a year the FoH raised would be nice to have. I noted it would have been nice if Marty and Souza hadn't killed that organization.

What I got back just killed me... (rough quote) "The NC 2A made rule against single sport booster clubs and the FoH had an exemption as long as Richie was coach". So a couple things about that rough quote. Not many call Umile, Richie. You would occasionally get Jack Parker or Mike McShane in some interview refer to Dick Umile as Richie, so that caught me by surprise. On the other hand I do not believe for one second that the NCAA would make an exception for Dick Umile so this sounds to me like BS from BS.

What I know is for years BlueSkies had been pulling things back from the FoH to under his control. BlueSkies wanted that money so he could give it out as he saw fit, not as the FoH saw fit. The FoH worked with Umile/Kullen/Holt to figure out what the team needed and then gave the money to that.

What I think happened, and why you never get a straight story that makes any sense. BlueSkies wanted that money. NCAA probably made things in compliance harder and harder (as was the trend until very recently). Umile had more "juice" than BlueSkies at UNH and so the AD just had to suck it up a deal with the compliance monitoring and the coach having power of that money. Once Umile retired MS7 was to weak to stop BlueSkies... it didn't hurt that MS7 wants to hide under a rock, not face accountability, not do the extra selling and politics that position really requires so a win/win from a (short term) certain point of view.

Like Ref this entire mess really turned me off. I still have season tickets. Beyond the seats and occasional beer, no more money from me, no 50/50, no/limited merch, no higher end FoH membership, no additional annual gift... I know many others in the same boat that BlueSkies just turned off.

P.S. very weird that last week during the BC game Bjorkman and FoH came up in conversations and then echoed on here

Not to continue on with the FOH stuff but isn't there a football booster club? Heard there was a skiiing one as well. Regardless, I will say that in my last meeting
as a fan advisory member that Spring when it had all come down I let them know how many of us were feeling...that we felt totally blindsided, and that it had left a
very bad taste in our mouths, etc etc.

Funny, a week later FOH members get a lengthy "conciliatory" letter of sorts from Marty S himself thanking us for all that we had done for the team, UNH in general, yada yada yada. Like you mention, just how much $$$ has been lost? I bet it's staggering from those who never returned to being STix members (I'm thinking of two who for years were loyal to the program, FOH...and I know there are others).

Welp, as they say, that was then, this is now. Stick of fork in and RIP FOH. Onward to MC where we either sink or swim...

ps...for reference, it should be duly noted I never won any 50/50 money in spite of my 'generous' nightly contributions...but that was never the point, was it?