Sooo... any further word on the Dartmouth "situation"? Over the weekend, I
had a few thoughts about the whole mess, which I'll throw out for consider-
ation:
1. Under most circumstances, I would holler mightily about Ben Smith
leaving the Big Green for Northeastern and not honoring his contract
(which I'm guessing was for longer than one season). Similar actions
in the "real" (non-coaching) world would probably have landed him in
court. But let's face it -- the world of college athletics is one in
which contracts, commitments, and so forth don't seem to offer too much
security, either for the college or the coach. Every year, there are
any number of college coaches who are fired or who "resign" from their
positions, and there are also many others who jump ship for what they
consider "better opportunities". This kind of thing might be happening
more often in football and basketball than in hockey, but it is by no
means confined to the Big Two. I know this is small consolation to the
Dartmouth players and fans, but Smith's decision wasn't really anything
out of the ordinary.
With Smith's strong ties to the Boston area, it is no big surprise that
his "dream" was to coach at a college in or near Boston, such as North-
eastern. I suspect that if he had had similar ties to New Hampshire
instead, he would probably not have been so interested in the job at
Northeastern, and they might not have been interested in him either. I
hope things work out well for him with the Huskies.
2. I have to be impressed with Dartmouth athletic director Dick Jaeger's
handling of the situation. Here's a fellow who is interested in
rebuilding Dartmouth's hockey team (unlike the previous AD, who from
what I've heard didn't particularly care about the team) and who
watches his rookie head coach build up the morale among the players --
only to have the guy come to him after the season is over and ask if he
can interview for a job somewhere else. I'm sure Jaeger was not happy
about that, and he could have raised a big stink, but he didn't. It
sounds like the whole thing was very civil. And while Smith certainly
could have handled the situation better, at least he didn't come out
and publicly deny that he was interested in the Northeastern job before
he went and accepted it. That type of hypocrisy is also common in
college athletics, as Wayne's recent posting about the Maine women's
basketball coach shows.
3. Hopefully, Dartmouth's search committee will be able to get a coach
quickly, since whoever comes in is going to have a lot of work to do.
I agree with Bob that assistant coach Roger Demment would be a good
choice -- probably the best choice, since his knowledge of and
experience with the program under Smith could only help next year's
team. But it also might be a good idea for the committee to try to get
someone who has some ties to the area, like a Dartmouth graduate (I
don't know if Demment is one or not). Brown coach Bob Gaudet would
have been a coup -- a former Dartmouth goalie who has already shown
that he can point a team in the right direction. It sounds like he
won't be leaving Brown (at least, he has publicly denied it -- uh-oh!),
but it was pretty nice of him to suggest his own assistant coaches as
candidates. Maybe Dartmouth should consider one or both of them. I'm
not saying that a Dartmouth alum would necessarily be a better coach
for the Big Green than a non-alum, but the team might be a little less
likely to find themselves in the situation they are in right now if
they get someone who went through the program as a player, like Gaudet
did. At any rate, I'm betting that Dartmouth will put a HUGE buyout
clause into the contract of whoever they hire.
And as far as Elvis and Billy Martin are concerned, well, Elvis would
sell more tickets...
4. Despite their 1-24-3 season, Dartmouth is not a completely talent-bare
team. Last year's freshman class produced some high-quality players,
among them center Tony DelCarmine and goaltender Mike Bracco. Del-
Carmine looks like a solid and dangerous skater, and I think he led the
Big Green in scoring, while Bracco showed a lot of promise between the
pipes and will be tough to beat if Dartmouth puts together a coherent
defense in front of him. These two and winger Scott Fraser all made
the ECAC 1990-91 All Rookie team, and for what it's worth, Dartmouth's
three All-Rookie selections were the most of any team in the ECAC last
season. The Big Green also showed that they were able to disrupt a
more talented team by clogging up the neutral ice area and forcing
their opponents to slow down. This was especially true late in the
season in a 2-0 loss to Cornell and a 3-3 tie with Clarkson. If their
offense had been able to generate a little more pressure, Dartmouth
might very well have won those two games, as well as a few other close
ones.
5. Having said that, let me add that I do not believe Dartmouth will climb
out of the ECAC cellar next season. I know this does not exactly
qualify as going out on a limb, but I don't think the Big Green will be
able to rebound too well from the turmoil generated by Smith's sudden
departure. Dartmouth will also be fielding a young team next season,
and the veteran players that they do have will be adjusting to their
third coach in three years. I suspect Dartmouth will surprise a few
teams next year, but I don't see them making a move in the standings.
However, if they are fortunate enough to get a coach who can keep up
the morale and team spirit the way Smith did, they should be able to
build on that for future seasons, assuming the coach stays around.
--
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86
LET'S GO RED!!
"I want a smart kid, like Mozart. He was a genius... he wrote an opera when
he was seven. An opera! Of course, you never hear that one."
-- Matt Weinhold
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