No idea how it works at UNH, but when you work for 25 years with the same people that you hired its hard to fire friends and your hires.
Not sure if the same applies to someone walking into a new place who didn't hire the people, has very little personal connection to them, and was hired specifically to "fix" the situation.
That there was no change made in the major spots late in the summer upon her hire doesn't tell me anything about her plans. What is she to do, make a symbolic gesture when the existing coaches already are under contract for the next year, and the available replacements have been snapped up? Just to show fans something?
No, you speak with the employees privately, send the message that the results are not impressive and nothing is guaranteed past this year, they will be evaluated. And publicly you support them to the max, so they have every chance to succeed.
Come March however, especially if the coaches' contracts are up, you put your stamp on the program.
As I mentioned, I wrote Ms. Rich a welcome note at her Princeton account when she was hired, with a gentle and pretty even-handed content that I was unhappy with the hockey program and some of my concerns about coaching. I didn't say anything about outcomes, just that it was background and a perspective she may not have heard during the hiring process.
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Dear Ms. Rich,
As a UNH Class of 87 alum, I want to congratulate you and welcome you to Durham. I grew up in Durham, though now I’m actually not in New Hampshire. As a UNH sports fan, particularly a lifelong follower of the hockey team, I am particularly excited about the hiring of new blood and the potential changes it might produce.
...
The root cause of this is the hiring or a coach for the sole reason of former Coach Umile’s outsized reach within the program, and a myopic perspective that excluded qualified people from outside the UNH family (there were at least a half dozen or more plainly qualified assistants who had achieved success but who were not from the tight UNH circle. Each has since become head coaches elsewhere and have exhibited the initial recruiting results I had hoped UNH would have from a regime change. Sadly, the ready pool of high-achieving assistants has drained much the past 6 years, so finding the next hotshot seems to be a tad more difficult, but another season will permit the pool for replenish.) All of this with the men’s hockey program seems to mirror the decline in the women’s hockey program, though on that I have no insight. Combined with the lack of community outreach (to which I cannot speak, not being in NH) and other complaints that I understand you probably heard about during the hiring process, you will have a full plate.
I apologize if the above assessment that plainly suggest one solution sounds like a sports-talk radio screed. I’d like to think that I have a somewhat more-educated perspective, but it plainly is not an insider’s perspective. I can only hope that this email provides you with some thoughts to ask about when you are speaking to the broader non-UNH hockey community (I imagine the UNH-centered hockey people would dispute the above, or point to factors such as facilities, rather than personnel, as the cause of their lack of success.) I look forward to seeing change (from afar), and wish you good luck.
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I never heard back, so don't know if she received it. That's fine.
I'll hold off sending something to her new UNH account until we have more data in the spring. That's the beauty of the world, few things are impossible, so you can change the future even if the odds are against you. In the end, facts are facts, and eight years of very poor results, no prior positive results. If this year provides any promise for the future that might be a mitigating factor, but not sure how much. Let's let it play out. But after that, I'll certainly chime in with an email to Ms. Rich to ensure she has a full grasp of where the program sits, if she hasn't gleaned that in her first 9 months.
A final point on guessing about her perspective. She came from Princeton, where sports are secondary. But by the same token, when you are the head, and move to a non-Princeton environment, I have to assume the goal is not just to "make sure my resume shows I was good at keeping the status quo on the academic side." It is "my programs improved in wins and losses, and in revenues, and in donations, all while maintaining academic integrity." Making changes at non-productive programs the personnel of which you have no allegiance to seems like the barest of steps.
Raise funds to fix the locker rooms. Maybe save an extra million on top of the facilities budget to offer to a coach (Souza is @ $240 per year
https://govsalaries.com/souza-michael-j-132412907 , so allocating $375 to $400 (an extra $150 per year) over 8 years.) That puts you in a significant upgrade class.
