Just catching up on my hockey-l reading - prompting a few points:
 
1. On DIV 1 brothers:  SLU's current junior goalie, Jon Bracco, has an
older brother (forget the name now) who played goal for Dartmouth (and has
now graduated).  They did face each other at least once (Jon won - although
Mom & Dad were pulling for a 0-0 tie!)  Interesting coincidence was that the
same week, the SLU women's team also played a game with rival sibling goalies
(I think against Middlebury).
 
2. A major internal commission just released a report with recommendations
on SLU athletics.  In addition to reiterating support for Div 1 hockey as
a distinctive feature of SLU sports, the report calls for instituting
grants-in-aid for men's hockey.  The current policy allows scholarship
money to be awarded only up to a student's calculated need.  As a result
the hockey staff has had to focus primarily on recruiting students with
fairly high need - it's tough to compete for a good player from a well-to-do
family when you must tell them they need to pay full $20K+ tuition/fees. The
report emphasizes that the scholarship $$$ available to hockey will not
increase, just that the staff would have greater flexibility in how it's
awarded.  Increasing the pool of potential recruits is described as a
"win-win-win" situation since the cost would not increase (actually they
anticipate slightly lower recruiting expenses), and we would be better
able to compete for both academically and athletically talented students.
Recommendations now go to the SLU President and eventually to the Board
of Trustees so nothing is set yet.  The report also calls for the possible
elimination of some teams (women's teams are exempt due to equity balance)
so there should be lots of lively debate before anything is actually
determined.
 
3. A dispute over terms of a broadcasting contract with the local radio
station (WVNC 96.7) has left the Saints off the airwaves as the season
starts.  Not sure if it will be resolved soon, but I will be looking
forward to posts on this weekend's games at LSSU since we probably won't
be able to hear them locally.  Does anyone out there (Mike?) have a idea
of what sorts of arrangements (financial & otherwise) are typical for
a regular radio broadcast of games?
 
Robin Lock
St. Lawrence University
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