The following article appeared in Tuesday's Columbus, Ohio Dispatch
newspaper. I hope I'm not repeating it here. I receive the digest format of
hockey-l so there is a delay until I receive my mail. All typos are mine.
This was not reprinted with permission of the Newpaper.
OSU WINDING UP SEARCH FOR NEW HOCKEY COACH
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Two Candidates Back For Second Interviews
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By Bob Baptist, Dispatch Sports Reporter.
Two candidates to be Ohio State's next ice hockey coach are expected to be
interviewed for a second time this week by athletic director Andy Geiger, who
said yesterday that he would like to fill the job by the end of the week.
Geiger did not reveal the names of the two finalists, but they are among five
who were interviewed last week by an athletic department search committee.
The five are Maine coach Shawn Walsh, whose team won the NCAA title in 1993
and lost in the final this year, Northern Michigan coach Rick Comley, Union
(N.Y.) coach Bruce Delventhal, former North Dakota coach John "Gino"
Gasparini and OSU interim coach John Markell.
Paul Pooley, Ohio State's career scoring leader and belived to be a top
candidate going into the interview process, is not in the running. Providence
College, where Pooley just completed his first season as head coach, did not
grant Ohio State permission to speak with him.
Gasparini, Walsh and Comley have the most attractive resumes.
Gasparini was head coach at North Dakota for 16 seasons before resigning in
1994 after three straight losing seasons. His teams won NCAA titles in 1980,
'82, and '87 and compiled an overall record of 392-248-24.
Walsh is 275-168-21 in 11 seasons at Maine, and his teams have reached the
final four five times in the last eight years. But Ohio State may view him
warily because of run-ins with the NCAA.
Use of ineligible players during the 1993-94 season resulted in Maine
forfeiting 14 games, the athletic director and compliance officer losing
their jobs and Walsh being suspended for five games. The program remains
under investigation by the university and NCAA.
Comley has been at Northern Michigan 19 seasons and has a 411-307-41 record
there, including an NCAA title in 1991 and runner-up finish in 1980. But he
said yesterday that he is not interested in the OSU job, possibly because, as
both AD and hockey coach at Northern, his salary exceeds $100,000 per year.
"If I thought they were legitimately going to make an effort to be another
Minnesota, Wisconsin or Michigan State when it comes to hockey, all of us in
coaching would be interested. From what I gather, that's not the case,"
Comley said during an interview with the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald. He did
not return a call from The Dispatch.
Geiger disputed Comley's statement.
"Why do you think we're going to play in an arena that's going to hold 17,000
for hockey?" Geiger said. "Obviously, there's going to be an effort to try to
make the thing pay. We're going to do everything we can to play with the big
boys."
Geiger said OSU is ready to pay the going rate for a top-level college hockey
coach, which may be about $80,000 a year. Jery Welsh, who resigned in
February, earned $43,000 this year, which ranked him among the lowest-paid
Division I coaches.
"If you're going to have a program like ice hockey and play in a league like
the CCHA, you've got to underwrite the program so it has a chance to be
successful," Geiger said.
Delventhal has been head coach since 1989 at Union, in Schenectady, N.Y. He
has a record there of 82-92-17 and a career record of 169-131-19 that
includes four years at Rochester Institute of Technology. At RIT, his teams
won an NCAA Division III title in 1985 and finished third the next season.
Markell, in his second season at Ohio State, is a dark horse but one OSU may
be willing to bet on. At 38, he is the youngest of the candidates, won't
command the salary of Gasparini, Walsh or Comley, and established a strong
rapport with Buckeye players after taking over for Welsh the final four weeks
of the season.
Markell played professionally for 15 years on the National, Central and
American hockey leagues and overseas. His only previous experience as a head
coach was as a player-coach for two years in a German professional league.
The international experience may best suit him to coaching in OSU's new
arena, which is expected to have a larger ice surface than standard college
rinks.
"Just because I'm young doesn't mean I don't have experience," Markell said.
"When you make your living in the game, you learn the game. You're not just
sitting on the end of the bench.
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