Although I have never met him, my understanding is that Ron Anderson is a
pretty nice guy.  In addition, he is married to a woman from my home town.
And, I am sure he knows the game.
 
That said, the bottom line with any coach is winning.  Ron Anderson has not
had a winning record in HE since Merrimack joined the league.  At some
point the school has to ask if it can continue competing in a league such
as HE with the current coach at the helm.  The answer was partially given
last year when Anderson was given a one year contract.  Clearly, he had to
produce this year or he was gone.
 
The fact that he has only won 4 league games this year despite having some
very prolific scorers makes one wonder.  Yes, the defense was suspect and
he started the year with no experienced goaltender but, who recruited these
guys?  To be a D-1 head coach, you have to be proficient at both coaching
and recruiting.  Yes it is a hard job, but most of these guys get paid
pretty handsomely for taking on the task.
 
One other point.  I do not buy the excuse that it is impossible to win at
Merrimack while playing at Volpe Rink.  Yes, it is cold, the benches are
hard and the concessions are mediocre.  But it is an on-campus facility, in
metropolitan Boston and, while not Harvard, the school has a solid academic
reputation.  If teams at UMass-Lowell, with a rink 5 miles from campus, can
win so can teams from Merrimack.  If this is not the case, then you will
not have the the slew of applications that I anticipate Merrimack will
receive.
 
Greg Ambrose
 
P.S.  Jim Vecsey was not, as Mike Machnik erroneously posted,  the Hobey
Baker winner in 1988.  I believe he was a finalist but Minnesota's Robb
Stauber won the award that year.
 
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