STANLEY J ZAVATSKY wrote:
> I was wondering who are this years River Hawk recruits.  Hopefully
> Crowders departure won't affect their coming to Lowell.
 
First off, the rules about transfers don't change when a coach leaves.  If
you've signed a letter of intent, then you stay or transfer and sit out a year.
This is unfair to an athlete who may have chosen a specific school to play
for a specific coach.  Even worse, the new coach is inheriting someone he
didn't recruit.  This may not be good news for the athlete, especially if the
new coach has a different philosophy than the old one.  The athlete may not
be well suited for the new philosophy.
 
OTOH, institutions suffer enough when a coach leaves.  It could be devastating
if the recruits waltzed off as well.   In cases like this, however, the school
where the coach is headed to has already filled all their scholarships so even
if the recruits were allowed to follow, the scholarships wouldn't be there.  A
hypothetical point, but an interesting one.
 
So it would seem that the UML recruits will still be heading to Lowell in the
fall.
 
Who are those recruits?  The following kids signed during the early decision
process back in December:
 
        Kevin Bertrim, D (Nanaimo, BC) Surrey Eagles (BCJHL)
        Craig Brown, F (Winnipeg, MAN) Winnipeg South Blues (MJHL)
        Mario Leblanc, F (Cap Pele, NB) Cushing Academy
 
Since then, almost all other teams have publicly released the rest of their
recruits.  Lowell is one of the few that has not.  I do know, however, that
Ed Campbell's younger brother, a forward out of Omaha in the USHL, is coming.
 
Joe LaCour wrote:
> Where's the new rink?  Will it be the same place as
> the AHL team?
 
The rink will be within walking distance of the campus.  (I'm not sure the
exact street.)  They will be sharing the rink with the AHL team which is why
they'll have a ~6000 seat rink, more seats than they really want.
 
> I agree, a good choice on coaches.  Did the coaching
> change affect recruiting?
 
As I've mentioned above, there should be no effect on recruiting, unless there
were still scholarship slots open at the time Crowder left.  Whether this is
true is unclear.  Keep in mind, though, that unless they knew that Ed Campbell
was definitely going pro, his scholarship was not freed up until the last
couple weeks.
 
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