At 9:13 PM 1/17/96, Luiz F. Valente wrote: >>Posted on 17 Jan 1996 at 17:13:35 by Deron Treadwell >>This brings up an interesting question in my mind. UMaine has made it very >>clear to me that they don't want to be a part of my page, very similar to >>how BU treated Sean Pickett a while back. Since my page, (as well as Mike's >>and Sean's) is unofficial, how can I be considered a representative of a >>university that wants nothing to do with the page? > >This is indeed a very interesting question. I suppose that the difference >is that although Mike's page is unofficial, Mike's relationship with >Merrimack College is at least quasi-official. I think the best thing to do is to assume that you *are* a "representative" in some way because of the work you (Deron) do in promoting the program, on the lists and on the web (and perhaps in other ways). At least, assume that unless you definitely know otherwise. I am not employed by Merrimack, but as Luiz suggests, because Heather and I have been doing volunteer work that is acknowledged by the program, it makes sense that we might be considered representatives in some way. I felt it was a good idea to raise this issue with Merrimack coach Ron Anderson this evening after the Yale game. He's not too familiar with the web concept, but I gave him a brief synopsis of what the web is and explained that among the unsolicited replies I have received have been ones from PSAs or parents of PSAs. I said that because I have been contacted, I thought I should let him know - my thought being that coaches should always know who might be in a position to be in touch with PSAs, and sometimes they can only know this if we tell them. He appreciated this and said that I was handling it in the right way, by referring them to the school itself. He also explained to me that I should refer any questions to the program's recruiting coordinator, assistant coach Stu Irving. And as some people have suggested here and to me via email, he added that it would be a violation for me to have illegal contact with PSAs in which I gave information about the program. (Fortunately, I have not done this, and I have the messages to prove it. :-)) I plan to add a special page to the web site soon that gives methods of contacting the school and program, along with a brief explanation of why PSAs need to contact them directly. Other people may wish to do the same. Also, I'll have prepared a "canned response" to send to people who ask me for information. (thus far, I've just re-written the same basic "ask them" responses, but it makes sense to have one ready for when those occasional requests come in.) It's probably worth noting that because of discussion on the topic of recruiting here in the past, I already had an idea that I shouldn't discuss the program with any PSAs who contacted me. Not everyone would necessarily know that. I do have a couple more questions I'd like to throw out for discussion. I thank those who have already answered my original questions. 1) Let's say I have been corresponding or talking with a PSA but not on any topic related to recruiting. It might be that this PSA is a friend who also happens to be in the process of being recruited by schools. Is it illegal to have any contact whatsoever, or only any contact that involves the dissemination of information about the program? For example, Heather and I have a friend whose younger brother graduated from an ECAC East school recently and played hockey for them. Because I am a friend of the family, I naturally saw and talked to this person a lot several years ago when he was being recruited. I hope the NCAA didn't require me to avoid my friend's brother whenever I visited them. :-) (I don't recall ever talking to him about recruiting.) 2) Sometimes I go to high school games in the area. I am not too clear on the restrictions regarding school representatives who choose to attend games. If I am considered to be a rep, as would many of us here, are we prohibited from going to these games, or only from talking to PSAs - and even then, are we prohibited from saying hello to those we know personally or just from talking to them about our programs? I think these questions concern a lot of people, so I suggest that replies go to the list. Thanks...and maybe this is a good topic for the FAQ or a separate document in the archives or someplace on the web. --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] *HMM* 11/13/93 >> Co-owner of the College Hockey Lists at University of Maine System << ***** Unofficial Merrimack Hockey home page located at: ***** ***** http://www.tiac.net/users/machnik/MChockey/MChockey.html ***** HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.