Why can't we have nice things like this.... This is what UNH wants and is looking for big donor money to provide. Not sure what something like this even begins to cost, but
when you win a NC and a couple of back to back league championships, I guess this is what you can ask for, and receive. I do realize UMass has a lot more $$ than UNH, and I do realize that player lounges aren't everything but they seem to mean something apparently. This is one beautiful facility.
State of the art weight rooms...now UConn with their new arena coming on soon I can see why it's tough to compete with the limited amount of players available for 50+ D1 programs. Go ahead, tell me I'm full of it and we should try to re-sell our jumbo tron and get back the old one
I think you've pretty much answered your own question, 'Ref. Coach Carvel didn't have a fraction of this stuff when he started his rebuild in Amherst, and yet he somehow got the talent there (thanks Ben Barr), instructed and motivated the talent, and presto bingo, now he gets to be King of Hockey in his own little kingdom for the foreseeable future. And good for him. He's accomplished more in a short period of time than most other folks accomplish over the lifetime of their coaching careers, and he's done it where no one else has before him. With the exception of Barr, he owes his success to no one other than people he chose to be there with him.
UNH needs to find someone like that who knows how to build, how to coach, and how to sell. There is SO much more that can be done around UNH Hockey that isn't being done right now, and it's an accurate reflection of the lack of vision and ambition surrounding the hockey program.
I'll relate a brief example of what I'm talking about ... this afternoon, my better half and myself were out dining in one of our regular hangouts in the Greater Effingwoods area, not all that far from the UNH campus (two towns removed, actually). It's not a "sports bar" per se, but there are big screens that show sports events almost exclusively in both the dining area AND the bar. So we are enjoying a late lunch and there is one of the large screens at the other end of the dining room, which is showing a UMass Women's basketball game, complete with all the in-game UMass propaganda relative to the school, other sports, etc. Amherst is, what, about a 3+ hour drive from many of the most populous parts of NH? But here we are, two towns from UNH Central, and that establishment - and many others like it - are pumping in propaganda supporting the selling points being put out there by the likes of BU, BC, Northeastern, and now UMass Amherst. Does UNH even counter? At present, no, they don't. Last time I checked, they had the Channel 11 PBS affiliate with studios literally right down the street. Is this capacity being utilized? Uh, heck no. They're busy with the usual PBS fare. What's happening here, and why is potential source of support not being utilized for UNH sports?
I've coached hundreds of kids over the last 20+ years up in this very same area, and dozens who have gone on to play at the college level - admittedly more at D-3 than D-1. But coincidentally, two of the more prominent players I've been associated with during that stretch have ironically "made their bones" playing the same position at none other than ... UMass Amherst. One was a former four year starter who I met after her D-1 career, when she was beginning her post-grad teaching career, and I was privileged to have her as my assistant coach for a year. By then, she'd started putting down roots in the area, and part of those roots were/are UNH related (I'll leave it at that). More recently, a kid from our area followed in her shoes at UMass, and has likewise had some success as a starter there (her career is still ongoing). Mind you, UMass hasn't been a national force in the sport for the last generation, and neither has the UNH Women's team.
I mentioned this potential UNH connection to the younger player a few years back, before she had committed to UMass. Whether she followed up on it (and if so, whether the older player pointed her to her alma mater or to her more recent connections at UNH) wasn't/isn't my business, but actions do speak louder than words sometimes.
Anyway ... to cap off this little ditty, there is now a third player to be considered, who meets the same player profile as the first two ladies, goes to school now less than 10 minutes from the UNH campus, and is a bright and personable kid who is already on the radar for national teams after some great results at regional camps. It's too early for her to be giving serious thought about some final choices yet, but I will in the normal course of things at some point inquire with her folks (I've known her dad for a few years through playing Over 45 soccer), and it will be interesting to see what their thinking is like when that times does come around. One would think UNH should be on a short list at least, but if the family is exposed to the same stuff her coaches and teammates' families see on sports TV programming, they'll never stand a chance.
I'll repeat this once again, as it's something that I've said many times in the last 10 or so years ... if you talk to HS kids about UNH sports, it's shocking how many really aren't aware that UNH even factors into the picture. 20 years ago, when UNH Hockey was at its apex, and I was just getting started in coaching, I couldn't go to a UNH home game and not run into a family or two that were connected to my coaching (which as most of you know ISN'T hockey BTW). UNH was a known factor - probably when WMUR mattered and covered it. About a decade or so ago, it began to change ... and nowadays, once in awhile I'll overhear some hockey discussion with players on the sidelines, but 99% of the time it's about the Bruins. And I'll make a point of asking if the kid(s) have ever seen a UNH Hockey game in Durham. There's only been one (1) kid in that last ten years who has answered in the affirmative. Most others are surprised or even puzzled.
It's hard to overemphasize how much UNH Hockey has fallen in the local sports fans' consciousness in the last decade ...
