It has been a trying couple of days for those of us around the Merrimack
hockey program, with the announcement that the school would not renew head
coach Ron Anderson's contract after this season -- effectively firing him
after 18 years of service, 15 as head hockey coach.
Anderson is the winningest coach in school history and took the program
from Division II when he began to Division I and Hockey East in 1989. Last
year -- less than one year ago -- he was named as the New England Hockey
Writers' Coach of the Year and was a finalist for the Spencer Penrose Award
as National Coach of the Year as selected by his coaching peers. His team
achieved its best record ever in Hockey East last year, 11-11-2, and hosted
a quarterfinal series for the first time ever. Color analyst Bob Norton
named him as the head coach on his 1997 All-Nort Team. In 1996 he was
honored before a game at Boston University with the Harry Cleverly Award as
a distinguished BU alum who has made significant contributions to the
coaching profession. Anderson was a player on the last teams to win back
to back NCAA Division I championships, the 1971 and 1972 BU Terriers.
But he has also been a coach who worked hard to prepare his players for
life beyond college. Few student-athletes left the program without having
grown beyond what many could have expected as players and people. Through
1996-97, 62 of his players had been recognized as members of the annual
Hockey East Academic Honor Roll -- more than any other school and one-third
of all players ever so recognized by the league. Five had been recognized
as Distinguished Scholars, the highest honor bestowed by Hockey East, also
more than any other school -- and two more players are in line for that
honor this season.
On top of all of this, he has been the man who has most embodied the spirit
of Warrior hockey because of his tireless dedication, loyalty to his
players and program, and undying commitment on and off the ice. He has
always represented himself and the school with class and pride, and the
high level of respect he has attained among his coaching peers is
unquestioned. He does things that many other Division I coaches do not do
simply because if he didn't do them, no one would.
And that is where the problem with this decision lies. When the school
announced its intention to move up to Hockey East on January 30, 1989, then
school President Rev. John Deegan, O.S.A., said in part, "The dedication
the other seven member institutions have shown to both academics and
athletics is second to none. We are pleased to be a part of these fine
programs." But it never followed through on its promise to provide
Anderson and the program with anything approaching the same dedication and
commitment as the other league schools. Nine years later, the rink is
still the worst in Hockey East and perhaps in Division I with few
noticeable improvements, there is no recognizeable effort being made by the
school to market the program and build support as is done at most other
schools, and, indeed, this season was the first ever that Anderson had a
full time assistant coach at his side (two, Stu Irving and Andy Heinze).
As an alumnus, Class of 1991, I have been with the program mainly as a
volunteer since that first Hockey East season in 1989, and I have done all
I can to promote the program in the ways I know best -- on the net, through
forums such as this and others, and the last few years with the Warrior
hockey web page in the absence of one done by the school itself; by helping
to significantly upgrade and enhance the program's media guide with
hundreds of hours of research and layout; and also through four years of
providing color analysis for the games on the radio.
At the risk of sounding like I am blowing my own horn, it is my firm belief
that had the administration demonstrated even a small percentage of the
commitment that I and others -- especially Ron Anderson -- have shown over
the last nine years, then this day would never have come.
As a result, I place the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of the
college's administration and President Richard Santagati. Santagati was
appointed as the school's first lay president in June 1995, and while he
served as interim president a year earlier, I wrote to him expressing
concerns I had regarding the school's commitment to hockey. In reply, he
wrote, in August 1994,
"We have begun the planning process necessary to make the kinds of
improvements that you have referred to and, hopefully, participation by
concerned alumni such as yourself will allow us to bring many of our goals
to fruition."
It is now three and a half years and counting. I have been there with my
commitment. He has not. The story is echoed by others who went to him
with similar concerns and were told that things were being done -- lip
service if you will. Current student Josh Roberts sent a copy of a letter
he wrote yesterday (to Santagati) to the Warriors mailing list, and it
begins,
"Early last year, you and I met in your office and discussed the future of
the Merrimack hockey program. At the time, you indicated that the college
was discussing the situation and looking for ways to improve the program.
After we spoke, I accepted your comments and resolved myself to a
wait-and-see attitude. Unfortunately, the college's "improvements" were
minor changes: cosmetic surgery on a dying patient. Instead of the
wholesale improvements that are essential to establishing and maintaining a
Division I hockey team, the college made a feeble attempt at appeasing the
program's supporters. There was no commitment to excellence. There has
not even been a commitment to mediocrity."
Josh's posting of his letter has drawn the attention of a number of people
-- students, alumni and former players among others -- who asked to have
their names attached to it.
In my mind, Santagati and Merrimack committed the unforgiveable sin by
showing such disrespect and lack of loyalty to the one person who more than
anyone was doing all that he could to bring this program to where we hoped
it would be. As sophomore forward Jayson Philbin said, "Ron Anderson is
Merrimack hockey." Team captain Martin Laroche said in the Lawrence
Eagle-Tribune on Tuesday, remembering his visit from Anderson four years
ago, "When he walked out the door, me and my parents knew he would be the
right coach for me."
Former Warrior captain Jim Vesey, the winner of the 1988 Division II-III
East Hobey Baker Award and the school's all time leading scorer, had this
to say on Tuesday in the Tribune:
"I'm disgusted. Merrimack's problems have nothing to do with Ronnie.
(Bruins coach) Pat Burns couldn't win coaching in that rink."
You simply do not treat someone like Anderson this way, someone who has
given as much as he has to the school and his program and accomplished as
much as he has. And that is why this development has made me deeply
embarrassed for my school and causes me to ask serious questions about my
own level of commitment to an institution that would act in this manner.
He deserved better. There is no question. He deserved to be given the
tools he needed to come up to being on a par with the other programs in the
league, to see if he could do the job when the playing field was fairer
than it has been. But the school and administration failed him over the
last nine years, and then President Santagati added the final insult by
refusing to take responsibility for the school's non-commitment and instead
performed the ultimate example of "passing the buck", cutting loose the one
man who more than anyone perhaps in the school's history deserved nothing
more than a fair chance to take this program where it had never gone before.
As Dave Hendrickson writes in this week's Hockey East preview on USCHO,
"And so, major surgery has been performed. The heart has been removed.
The cancer remains."
It is, no doubt, the darkest day in the long and once proud tradition of
Merrimack hockey, a tradition that dates back over 40 years of excellence
turned mediocrity. There are many who have dedicated their time to make
the program what it became out of nothing and whose loyalty and commitment
were unmatched, from Father Thabault, who built the first outdoor rink on
campus in the 1950s, to J. Thom Lawler, who coached the Warriors to the
1978 NCAA Division II championship before unexpectedly passing away months
later, and beyond.
What Merrimack and President Santagati have done of late and over the last
nine years is nothing short of spitting on their grave and defiling their
memory. They would be ashamed to know that all of the work they did came
to this.
Ron Anderson deserved better. His players did and do deserve better, and
we as alumni and future alumni deserve better -- indeed, require better --
from an administration that works for us.
I will be demanding it. There is no excuse, and nothing less is
acceptable. It is time for people to be held accountable for inaction. It
is time that the story is told.
Enough is enough.
--- ---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] *HMM* 11/13/93
***** Color Voice of Warrior Hockey WCAP 980 AM *****
***** Unofficial Warrior Hockey home page located at: *****
***** http://www.tiac.net/users/machnik/MChockey/MChockey.html *****
>>> U.S. College Hockey Online http://www.uscollegehockey.com/ <<<
"I'm disgusted. Merrimack's problems have nothing to do with Ronnie.
(Bruins coach) Pat Burns couldn't win coaching in that rink."
- 1988 Hobey Baker winner and all-time leading scorer Jim Vesey on the
school's decision not to renew the contract of Ron Anderson, 2/17/98
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