Thanks to the fans that attended, the pep band, the administration for sponsorship, the players for a spirited scrimmage, and WZON for excellent coverage, Midnight Madness 1997 was most rewarding and an excellent start for the 1997-98 season. Grades seem out of favor these days, but I'll offer some anyway: C, A, B, A+, and A. The fans get a C. Only 1,200 showed up and were relatively quiet. Another 500-1,000 students would be needed to get an A. Maybe it's time to revive the noise contests? Do students still do things in groups (dorm, frat, etc)? I'm out of touch. :-( The pep band gets an A. They were loud and enthusiastic and played a lot of tunes. Great job! I'd like to give the administration an A, because many they did many things well. Brief speeches from the President and AD is a great idea and shows great support. Neither speech seemed to have a point, however. Kudos to the other-sport coaches that attended; very impressive! Public skating, radar gun, dimming of lights, player intro (did brother Jason really take Shawn Mansoff's shootout attempt? :-)), shootout and scrimmage were all good ideas. A big display and better experienced setup is needed for the next radar gun show, however. Can the players participate with gun on ice next time as part of intro? Veterans against newcomers was appropriate and interesting this year, though! Other suggested changes: the scrimmage was too long. Twenty minutes of running time would have been plenty. Finally, it's time for the overworked SIDs office to start providing information to fans. A one-page flyer with player name, year, home with an ad for ticket office and promo for Blue-White and JCPenney tournament would have been welcomed by this fan. Maybe this could be "assigned" to FoMH with FoMH promo material instead of ticket office promo? A straight "A" for the players seems most appropriate! Kudos to SteveK and the other captains for the fan-awareness, including end of scrimmage salute at center ice. We fans appreciate it! Nobody in their right mind asks me to evaluate hockey talent but I'll offer that (anyone can voice an opinion and) there will be some very good hockey players not suiting up for the first game and even cut from the (reportedly) 31-man roster. My first-look favorites include Trattnig, A.Lundback and Tate with several others looking very good! Returning veterans that caught my eye include Kariya, Vitorino, Parmentier and Gustafsson. Also, once the NCAA allows him to play, Brendan Walsh will be quite noticeable and may be important if he can figure out how to play without attracting the dismay of the referees (I would have whistled him off about 8 seconds into the scrimmage for holding, but the lick he put on SteveK was a great way to start the play!). An A goes to WZON for its promotion and coverage of Maine hockey and Midnight Madness 1997. Dale, Dan, Clem and Blair provided excellent interviews and commentary! Ending their broadcast with a rebroadcast of the 1997 Maine Alumni game was a stroke of genius. I loved hearing (again) the introductions of all those hockey alumni favorites. Honorable-media mention would go to Larry Mahoney, but his excellent article appeared in the not so excellent Bangor Daily News. Yours in Maine hockey, wayne Wayne T. Smith Systems Group -- CAPS [log in to unmask] University of Maine System Co-owner of the College Hockey lists - Hockey-L/Info-Hockey-L/Hockey3