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Date Posted: 11:05:50 06/02/04 Wed
Author: HC1843
Subject: As the Hockey World Turns...

COLLEGE HOCKEY

ECAC applicants make good impressions

By KEN SCHOTT Gazette Sportswriter Reach Gazette sportswriter Ken Schott at 395-3159 or schott@dailygazette.com.

The five schools applying for membership to the ECAC hockey league made a good impression on Union College athletic director Val Belmonte and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute athletic director Ken Ralph.

Belmonte and Ralph are on the committee overseeing the application process, which took place Wednesday in New Haven, Conn.

Holy Cross, Mercyhurst, Niagara, Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart each stated their cases to the committee as to why they should be accepted into the ECAC. The league is seeking at least one school to replace Vermont, which will depart the ECAC following the season to join Hockey East.

"I think the process was really good," Belmonte said. "I thought all the institutions did a great job. I was very impressed with the way they presented their program.

"You could tell all five of them were extremely interested, and very, very serious about joining the league and the members. And they were serious about their programs at their institutions."

Four of the schools � Holy Cross, Mercyhurst, Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart � play in Atlantic Hockey. Niagara plays in College Hockey America.

Ralph also was pleased with the presentations.

"I thought the presentations were well thought out," Ralph said. "The commitments each school is willing to make is pretty significant. We all felt pretty good after seeing the presentation. Now, it�s going to be a matter of doing some site visits, and digging into the nitty gritty and getting some questions answered.

"There�s still some work to be done."

There weren�t any surprises, nor disappointments, according to Ralph.

"A couple of the schools went over and above," Ralph said. "Each school brought a little something different to the table. They presented it in a different form. They�re all very serious about it."

Some of the questions asked by the committee included program funding, athletic facilities, the admissions process and, for the four Atlantic League schools, the willingness to increase the number of athletic scholarships from 11 to 18. [HC1843 Note: If this last factor is a factor, this might spell trouble unless they buy into HC's "a scholarship is the money we already give and will give more of" line]

Eighteen scholarships are the maximum allowed by the NCAA. Atlantic Hockey and its predecessor, the MAAC, capped athletic scholarships at 11.

"Obviously, I don�t know where their heads are at as to what they thought, but I thought it went very well," Holy Cross athletic director Dick Regan said. "They asked a lot of probing questions. Clearly, they�re really focused on this. They had a great turnout from all of their members."

Mercyhurst athletic director Pete Russo, whose school is located in Erie, Pa., was pleased with the process.

"I felt real good about our presentation," Russo said. "We were well received. They were very professional, very courteous. We knew a few of them, fortunately, because we�ve affiliated with them on the women�s side in hockey, and we also met a number of those schools in our rowing program.

"As I commented to them, I think we bring a lot to the table. We bring not only a good liberal arts school, but we bring two quality hockey programs."

Sacred Heart may be considered a long shot to be accepted, but athletic director Don Cook doesn�t see it that way.

"We didn�t go in there just to say we made a presentation and walk away from it," Cook said. "I thought we had important things to say. Among them was our geography and the evolution of our program."

The next step for the ECAC will be a conference call with the league�s athletic directors to discuss the five schools. Then the committee will make campus visits to some or all of the schools.

A decision is expected by July 1.

The impression Russo got was that one school will be accepted by the ECAC.

"I don�t know their thoughts and their thinking process," Russo said. "Unless they�re overly impressed, and they feel they�ll allow more than one [school] for other reasons, like travel partners. I just assume because they lost Vermont that they would only be looking for one. But the following year, they may be interested in opening it up further."

Ralph said they could visit all five schools

"All five had enough good things to talk about that we may need to get on every campus," Ralph said.

Cheers.

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[> Re: As the Hockey World Turns... -- Rick, 14:57:38 06/02/04 Wed

1843 -

" And they were serious about their programs at their institutions." "

I'm a little fuzzy on 'serious' as pertains athletics at HC....that dang Patriot Prez Cup thingee which we've had a dead last stranglehold on for near a decade keeps coming to mind.

Maybe 'serious' hockey is different from 'serious' Patriot sports, eh ?

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