With Jerry York and Scott Paluch now at BC,look for quite a few of the new recruits to come from Ontario and possibly from Culver Military Academy. Holzinger for Hobey Baker!! On Thu, 23 Feb 1995, Rick A McAdoo wrote: > 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! >