I can't resist tossing a few more notes on this subject (as a fan only;
I can't claim any inside information.)
 
Geoff Howell summarized several points about the BC program in his
message of 21 Feb 1995 regarding the coaching changes, the scholarship
and recruiting problems, and the increased recruiting pressures on a
smaller US talent pool.  (See that message for details.)
 
The delay in hiring a new coach certainly hurt the program, and indicated
the lack of confidence the administration had in hiring long time
assistant Cedorchuk.  AD Chet Gladchuk was seen as wanting to hire a
"big-time" coach for the program, and when that wasn't accomplished the
perception was that he "settled" for Cedorchuk.  I don't know if there is
any truth to the perception, but it did not help subsequent recruiting
efforts.  One should also note that the Olympic years took several good
players from BC just as they were losing their other top-notch talent
to graduation anyway; Bill Guerin, Ian Moran, Todd Hall (who didn't make
the US team and got caught in the scholarship fiasco, as was previously
noted.)  BC has gone several years with only 3 or 4 seniors as a result;
a marked lack of leadership and experience.  Combined with the
recruiting/scholarship/coaching problems, it has helped bring down the
talent level greatly.  In all honesty, though, the program had been right
at the top for many years running, and with the loss of the Emma/Heinze/
McInnis/LaGrand group a drop-off was expected.  The turmoil of the
coaching change at the same time added to that.
 
BC is only now starting to recruit outside the New England/US talent pool,
and it will take some time to build the reputation, the contacts, etc.
Greg Taylor was a nice find, and if the team was winning it would help open
up more recruiting in Canada, but it is a slow process.  With UMass-Amherst
joining the hunt for talent it spreads things even thinner.  (Gee, more BC
players who left and went there, too -- Manganaro, O'Connell.)  Maybe the
better Canadian and American players are going to major juniors rather than
colleges now (after colleges seemed to be getting more of the talent for
a while -- see the discussion on Hobey candidates and the "decline" of
college play.)
 
I have heard many different numbers regarding how many scholarships BC has
to offer in the next year or two, ranging from 0 to 2 to 4 to 5 to 7 ...
The athletic department has not released any definitive data on this, and
no one has offered any reliable source of info, so I have to take all of
it with a grain of salt.  If they have few scholarships, I hope they can
use them wisely.  The implication in Geoff's numbers is that over half
the juniors and seniors on this year's team are walk-ons rather than
scholarship players.  It seems unlikely.  But I am confused about something
here; how many scholarships do Div I teams get?  I thought it was around
18, or maybe a little less in recent NCAA cutbacks.  Most teams dress 21
players and have anywhere from 25 to 30+ on their rosters.  Does this mean
that many of the players on any roster are non-scholarship?  Or do teams
split them into half-scholarships to spread them more?  Are there any
Div I experts out there who deal with this on a daily basis who could
enlighten me?  It would be appreciated.
 
My own feeling on this is that no school could have weathered the number
of changes and the combination of timings that made it tough for BC.  Part
of that was the school's own fault, of course, but there isn't much they
can do about that now.  Jerry York has come into this situation knowing
that it will take several years to recover (my estimate is 4 years - about
1998.)  If he can mold the program the way he wants, and is capable of again
leading a team to the national championship, then BC should recover given
the alumni pool, the tradition, the facilities, etc.  But the jury is out
on the coach, the department, the AD, and the team.  They will have to
prove over several years that they are honorable, intelligent, talented,
hard-working, honest, etc.  In short, they will have to re-earn people's
trust -- a sad state of affairs for a Jesuit school, but that's the way
it is in big-time Division I sports.
 
BC has announced two recruits for next year, Deerfield Academy's Marty
Reasoner (who was in SI's Faces in the Crowd last week, I think) and Andy
Powers from nearby Arlington, MA, who has been playing in the US Juniors
somewhere.
 
P.S. Just as I was posting this I saw Mike Machnik's post of the
newspaper article about BC suspending 10 players for visiting a popular
but off-limits bar.  Just what the Eagles need, right?  The two
losses to Merrimack probably had the team in a bad mood anyway,
and this may or may not improve relations between the coach and the
players; it all depends on if there is an underlying problem there.  But
the players were recruited to play for other coaches, not Jerry York.
Hmmmmm.....  It could get interesting.
---------------                              ----------------------
Rick McAdoo                                  [log in to unmask]
BC will return!                              GO EAGLES!