All of the talk about coaches to start a program is interesting because of
one guy who has not been mentioned: Niagara head coach Blaise MacDonald.
 
IMO, Niagara pulled a real coup by nabbing him as their first head coach.
Blaise may not qualify for the discussion because he just became head coach
at Niagara and has no proven experience of starting a program from scratch.
Yet, he is the man who was perhaps most responsible for BU's meteoric rise
to the top over the last 5-6 years.  As BU's top recruiter during that
time, he helped build teams that have been well-rounded and talented yet
also full of the type of role players you need to become one of the very
best.  Blaise knows how to bring in a solid mix of players with a winning
attitude.  BU went from an above average team to being consistently one of
the two or three best teams in the country.  It's going to be interesting
to watch how BU fares without him and how Niagara progresses with him at
the helm.
 
Knowing that almost all of the coaches mentioned are pretty much
unavailable, I'd be more than thrilled to have a Blaise MacDonald heading
up my startup program.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
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