Coach Vaughan: Well, first of all, it's quite involved. You know, what we try and do is, we've got two great assistants who are on the road all the time, one of us is usually on the road at all times. In our sport, you need to understand how the calander works, in our sport, there is no calander really. Football and basketball all have recruiting calanders, in hockey, there's no set, other than the specific dead periods for a sport, we can have somebody on the road at all times, you know, evaluating and we are limited in terms of the number of contacts and evaluations by the NCAA. But in the other sports there are evaluation periods, where you can only go in certain blocks of time, like football and basketball, we don't have that. So what we do is we try to have somebody on the road at all times, we try an identify those people that we feel would be somebody we want in the program, either through early evaluations that Andrew and Stan do, or just contacts, you know, there have been a lot of people who have been supportive of the program over the years. You develop relationships with different people and you have to rely heavily on those contacts and their input and insight on what they feel we need and vice versa. It'sa lot of leg work, a lot of work behind the scenes. First of all, you have to find somebody who you feel could contribute and play at this level. But, on the tails of that, you gotta find out whether or not academically they are qualified, and we do a lot of work up front on that end. And Andrew can jump in here anytime, I think the first question we ask is "How well are you doing academically, what are your grades, what are your SAT scores?" And, then we take it to the next step, talking to the coaching staff, the management, anybody that knows the person, about his charachter.
Coach Dickson: I think one of the other things from the hockey end of it is, we're only allowed two on the road. That, compared to some of the other sports, as something you might look at as a disadvantage, becuase there is a lot of hockey to watch. There some busy winters, and the rules only allow two of us to be on the road. The main thing for me when I first started was was what coach just said, you can eliminate a lot of the pool through academics at Colgate. My first scouting trip is a good example, I went to Ottawa and watched a game, I liked 4 guys, but I should have done my homework before the game. Because I could have eliminated three of those guys off my list, because academically, there was no chance. I could have been able to concentrate on others. So, now after that trip, I know them academically before I go into to game. That saves me time, and even if I really like the kid on the ice, if you can't get him into Colgate, there's no real reason to watch him. Thats the one thing that makes the pool a little smaller for us right away. What coach also said, charachter is a big thing. I mean on ice ability and academics, and then charachter, you want to bring in a good person, character is high on my list.
I think about a place like this too, the pool gets limited quickly.
Does Colgate go after the top recruits, that are available each year?
In order for us to compete at this level, we have to do that. I think the playing field is certainly not level, for a lot of the reasons that I understand, right away, you can eliminate a large part of the pool for academics, they can't get into Colgate, so they're gone. That obviously hurts, the next step then, is are they qualified, and willing to pay, becuase we are also going head to head with scholarship schools, for all of these kids. If your going to compete at this level, your going to need to attract a kid that somebody else wants obviously, and most of those kids are going to be wanted by the scholarship schools. So we've got to find that person who qualifies finacially, or is able to pay, and that takes a lot of work.
So what are our top recruiting draws?
Small atmosphere, that seems to attract a lot of prospects that we've signed since I've been here. Thats probally one of the big things, there's a lot of people who just don't want to go to a school where there are classrooms of 300 students.
Academically it's a great environment. Hockey wise we've made a name for ourselves nationally. So the kids we are recruiting are aware of us first of all. But there's a lot of differenent reasons, like the general population who decides to come to Colgate, I think Andrew touched on one, there's a real sense of community and family here, there's a lot of kids who aren't excited about being in a big metropolitain area, in a city or a big school. And we've had a lot of success with those kids who are coming from smaller, a little bit more rural areas. So that when they make the transition to a place like Colgate it's not that big of an adjustment for them.
After they sign their letter of intent, what can they expect before the start of their first season?
Well, I think it's important to understand that Colgate chooses not to use the national letter of intent, we're one of only 6 or 7 schools in the country that don't use that. So in liue of that we use the actual letter of acceptance, so once the kids have committed and they have been accepted by Colgate, than that part of the process is done.
And then what?
Well, a lot of that is certainly up to them, we'll foward them our conditioning program. We have a very involved strength and conditioning program that we give to all the guys that they are expected to do over the summer. Most of it is up to them, for them to be disiplined enough for them to do it. I think what you find with the first years, even though they think they are where they need to be physically, when they get here, they realize that they are not. And the only way I think the only way to understand is to actual be here and experience alongside with the guys who have been through it a couple of times already.
One of the players people on the message board have been asking about is Erkki Rajamaki, who left the school after one year, do you think he just never adjusted?
No, I don't think it was that at all. It was dissapointing. I think Erkki had gotten over, he was beyond the difficult part. The adjustment was certainly challenging for him. But he managed, and he did a real nice job, he made a whole bunch of friends away from the rink. I think that there was such a draw for him to go back. He had an opportunity to play professionaly in his home town. You know, you put yourself in that situation. Here's a kid that grew up watching this pro team his whole life. It would be like someone from Boston being offered an opportunity to play for the Bruins. And that I think was just too much for him not to give it a shot. And again, I think that it's dissapointing in that he put so much hard work into being here and getting over some of the hurdles and some of the adjusting that he had to do. To have him come back this year, I think he would have been that much better. He had adjusted to our kind of game, which is different than the one he is playing now.
Thats why it was such a shock. Because he had done so well to adjusting to the language and to the school, being so far from home. Thats why it was such a shock, it would almost be more acceptable that if he was just really homesick, thats just a part of life. But he did very very well adjusting, thats why it was such a surprise.
And again, it was just such a dream come true for him to play there, and very well from what I've heard.
Whats the name of the team, so we can check up on him?
It's IFK Helsinki
Last year we lost 7 seniors, this year we're losing 9, how do you look at the leadership roles developing through next year?
It's certainly challenging for any program to lose that many players over a two year period. Those are quality people and quality hockey players in there. But, we feel we've got a good nucleus, that's been our goal, to keep enough quality and character kids in the program at any one time, so that when you do lose your leadership, you can replace it. And thats the challenge that guys like Etienne Morin and Jason Lefevre and Bob Vandersluis and a guy like Brad D'arco, who I think is a pretty good leader as a sophomore already. Thats a challenge for them. But thats not really that uncommon in any program, your going to lose your leadership. We only get them for four years, its a constant transition.
Guys like Cory Murphy, he was assistant captain his junior year, then moved up to captain senior year to sort of preserve some of that continuity and leadership. How are the captains chosen, is it your choice, or is it a team choice?
No, my policy has always been to solicite and use input from the team. We have exit interviews for all the outgoing seniors and we ask thier input. Then we have the returing players vote for thier captains. And in the nine years that I've been here, we've gone almost every year with who the guys have voted for. I mean, we may have made some adjustments on some of the assistants. But I can't even recall if we've done that.
Its great to see the leadership changing. For me, I'm fairly new, but I've noticed that our sophmore class, the way they act now, how they have just developed, which is how you keep it in the program. It's really neat to see I think. It deals with maturity and familiarity with the program, and it's interesting to watch how it developes throught he year
I think from a coaches perspective, and from this coaches perspective, thats one of the most rewarding things of the job, to see guys come though a program and see them and grow over four years. We see them on a daily basis so you really get a feel for the development of it and how it evolves, and we've been fortunate that we've had some great kids in this program who turned into pretty good leaders and have been pretty successful after they have left here.
You were looking at the recruiting page earlier, according to the sources I've seen, there are 9 people coming in next year, which matches the number of seniors we're losing. Are there any more coming in this year?
Well, we're looking, if we can, I'll tell you where we're at. We're in a situation where ideally in our program we like to have 8 foward lines, 8 defensemen and 3 goaltenders. Currently, we have 4 foward lines, two extra fowards, and 7 defensemen, and two goaltenders. So if we can get to a situation where we can have 5 lines, 8 defensemen and maybe 3 goaltenders, but I'm not sure that can happen, we'd like to do that, but thats very challenging. We have 9 graduating players, and that was the initial goal, to go out and get 9, if we can get 1 or 2 more, I think we would do that, but we're certainly not going to do that just for the sake of bringing in a body. I mean, we want to make sure that if we can get a 10th or 11th guy, thats there's someone who fits into all the things we talked about before. He's got to be able to contribute to the program.
I was looking at the recruits list, guys like Mitchell and Mckinnon seem like they are going to be able to jump in right away. There's Yashin, Patrick Farrell looks like he has a lot of potential, what do you think about next years class?
I'll let Andrew answer that, he's seen more of them than I have.
Yeah, so far so good, we're pretty happy with our incoming class. The names that you mentioned there, they are expected to step in. Of course, they all have to have pretty good summers as far as the weight program. The beauty of our program is they pretty much have to come in and contribute right away. We understand that there is an adjusting period, but we expect them to play and contribute right away, especially with the size of the class. We're very happy so far.
What would you say the coaching style is like at practice? Do you let the captains lead the team, how much of a role do you try to play?
It really depends on the kind of team that you have, the level of maturity in the program. I think one thing we've tried to guard against is to take a system and force it on a team, we've never tried to do that. You'd hate to take that system. We've always tried to go out and recruit what we needed, we've never gone out to try and get a certain kind of player and then make him into something that he isn't. And I think the same is true of the team. If you have a team thats like this year, with a lot of upperclassman, I think there's a tendancy for us to really get a feel for what they feel they need in terms of systems and how they want to play the game. There's a lot of give and take, and that's the way I like to do things. There's certianly a lot of development and a lot of one on one instruction, and I think that's part of the program in order for us to be successful. We're not Boston College, we don't walk into a rink and find the 5 best guys on the ice. Maybe that's not fair to Boston College, but they have been able to go in and get some of the best players from the teams they've recruited, we're just not in the position where we can do that for a lot of reasons. So a lot of the success that we've had comes from a lot of the development of the players who are in the program, being able to keep them in the program for four years. Last year was the culmination of a lot of hard work by that group of guys over 4 years. Andrew and Stan do a lot of 1 on 1 instruction, and we're able to help these guys along and develop as players. That's what we're trying to do here, some years it's a little more successful than others. But in terms of your initial question, I think it's just try and not to force a system on the players.
And I can vouche for that. I've played under coach Vaughan an Coach Moore. And one thing that stayed very consistant here is the creativity he allows you to have. I know for a fact some other programs have thier system and you have to stick with it. Coach Vaughan has always wanted the guys, we recruit for a reason, so don't change, keep your creativity, thats what your all about. We give them a guideline, but it's not a strict regiment, they still come in here and do there thing. And that's why they're here.
One of the things I was looking at is that we only had two out of conference home games this year, do you think that takes a toll on the team. I know it's hard to convince some of the bigger programs to come into Starr rink.
I think thats a real challenge for our sport right now, thats not unique to Colgate. I think that there a lot of teams out there that are in similar positions. I don't have a perfect answer for you there. We're certainly going to try and do that. I think what we're seeing now is that a lot of teams are trying to protect thier Power rating, you know, your top 8 or 10 teams, traditionally that is, are really looking at their schedule and strength of schedule. And a lot of teams don't venture far from home, you can look on the internet and find out who those teams are. There's a lot of teams whose non conference schedule is mostly at home. And in fairness to them, a lot these teams have built brand new rinks, they need home dates, they are willing to pay a big guarantee for those teams to come out and play them, you know teams like us to go out and play some of these teams, and we're just not in position where we can do that. And that just skews the formula a little bit in my mind.
Does that take it's toll on a team?
I think it does, if you can get a couple of wins early I think it goes a long way in building confidence, and unfortunatly for us, that didn't happen this year, and after a while that took it's toll on us a little bit. Would we have preferred to have a few more home games? Absolutly, but we're also not going to compromise the strenght of schedule to get home games. We've really tried to keep our schedule strong, and that forces you to travel to play the Michigans. Next year we're going to Minnesota for two, we went out to Minnesota this year to play in a tournament. And those are the ways I see us being able to challenge our players, and it's never a bad thing to play a Michigan.
What other non conference games are coming up next year?
Next year, because of the way it went this year, I've tried to get some more home games in. I think that the new MAAC conference is trying to make it's mark, we've been able to get some of those schools to come in next year for some home dates. I think that's good for the game. We're going to Minnesota at the beginning of the season for two. And it looks like we're really close to getting Omaha, you know, the University of Omaha Nebraska, another really strong team from the central league in here for two next year. I like the way the schedule is shaping up, we'll certainly have more home games next year.
How much does the team react to the crowd? Either at home or on the road, I know this past weekend, I was watching from the stands at both games, and we really took over the rinks and had strong support for the team.
I thought so too, certainly at Yale, I didn't realize there that many people there until we scored and you could hear the crowd, and then again after the game. I think the crowd is a big factor, probally more so at home than it is on the road. Again, our schedule this year might not have allowed the crowd to get as involved as we were last year. And I'm hoping we can draw some of those people back as we head down the streach, and we can get some W's at home here and get the people back into it. Because last year, was proablly the best crowds we've had since we've been here. I know success and winning goes a long way as far as getting people in the building, even beyond that, I thought the crowd was very animated and there was a lot of energy in the building last year. This year there hasn't been a lot of that, but part of the reason is we just haven't been home as much.
Well I promised some people I would pass along a congradulations for the Princeton game. I talked to some alums there who have been going to the game for years and are finally getting a pretty big reward.
Yeah, it was nice getting that win for sure. I mean, Andrew was the captain on the last team that won down there. I'm very proud of this team. We've had a real test of our character and I think this team has worked really hard this year. And there were a few times where we could have thrown the towel in and looked for next year, and this team hasn't done that, they've kept working and I think we're healthy now, guys are feeling pretty good about their recent success. And we hope we can carry that through the rest of the season.
We've tied at Lynah, got a win at the Gut, those are two big games. But there were some games where it seems like we had really outplayed the other team and then came up a little bit short. I'm thinking about SLU, and Harvard.
Those two games stand out in my mind too. I thought we easily could have won both of those games, but thats the nature of the beast. It's a crazy game, a lot of nights there isn't a lot of justice. Thats the difference between our sport and a lot of other sports. Usually in most sports, if you dominate like I thought we did in a couple of those games, you win. But, in our sport, one guy can make all the difference, and that's the guy between the pipes. The goaltender can really be a big factor in our sport, and I think in both of those games it was.
And even to take that farther into the league. I know college hockey is very tough, but I played here, and this league is like this, anything can happen. A lot of people said to me, we're not an 11th place team, because of the way we've played this year, and we're not. And thats why we won't finish in 11th place. Thats the way I look at it.
How do you see the rest of the season playing out?
Well, again, its the ECAC, you really don't know. I wish I had a crystal ball, but I can tell you that our team is going to continue to work hard. I like the attitude of our team right now. I think we had a little bit of success, and some reward for the hard work. Our intent is to follow that through, and build on what we've been doing, and finish strong. If you look at the standings, there's a lot of room for movement, for all the teams.
Are you continuing with Cann in net?
Friday night for sure, we'll go with David, Jason knows he has to be ready at any moment. And David deserves the shot for sure, they way he's been playing the last couple of games, so that will be the way we go on Friday.
Ok, sounds good, good luck.
Thank you.