Author Archives: Geof F. Morris

Student Athletes, Hockey, and UAH’s Search for a New AD

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UAH President Dr. David Williams wrote recently about the proper consideration of intercollegiate athletics at a research university like UAH.

In some ways, a student athlete might seem to be the very antithesis of the archetypical research-university student – the clash between the safety glasses and the helmet, the library and the stadium, the geek versus the jock. But these concepts reflect the extremes. There is another side to this contrast; the presence of nationally ranked athletics programs at nationally ranked research universities such as Stanford, Duke and Georgia Tech. At many other universities, there are examples of individuals who excel at both academics and athletics.

Dr. Williams goes on to discuss Sen. Bill Bradley, Craig Breslow, Myron Rolle, and Maya Moore. Bradley and Rolle were Rhodes scholars. As Business Insider notes, one of the original criteria for applicants given in Cecil Rhodes’ will was the “energy to use one’s talents to the full, as exemplified by fondness for and success in sports.”

I’d like to add two college hockey examples to Dr. Williams’s list:

  • Princeton’s Landis Stankievech, who was a Rhodes scholar in 2008.
  • UAH’s James Kodrowski finished an aerospace engineering degree in three years. In addition to being a walk-on defenseman for the Chargers, Kodrowski worked at the Propulsion Research Center, was a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, and served as Student Government President. [Disclosure: I was VP during Kodi’s term as President and was the guy who figured out how he could finish in three years. Crazy man.] Last time I walked through Huntsville International Airport past the gift shop before descending to the baggage claim area, I noticed that a photo of him working on a turbine is still a part of the UAH ad.

As Dr. Williams noted, academics is a vital thread in all of the University’s athletic teams, and all four captains for hockey this year had GPAs above 3.0. The coaching staff demands good performance in the classroom as well as on the ice. We should care as much about the academic performance of these young men as their athletic prowess.

UAH’s search for a new Athletic Director presents a number of challenges to the University. You’ll note that Dr. Williams mentions bringing all varsity sports on campus, which is something that all of us would certainly welcome. The search committee to replace Jim Harris is certainly representative of the entire Athletics community at UAH, but there are a number of hockey aficionados involved.

We all want the best for our University, and here at UAHHockey.com, we believe that this begins and ends with expecting academic excellence.

Colorado Springs Gazette Interview – Full Text

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Back when Huntsville was covered in snow, Joe Paisley of the Colorado Springs Gazette emailed me for an interview about the state of the hockey program. The resulting article that quotes me and Coach Luongo has hit the presses, and I found that my comments were mashed up in a way that didn’t leave me very satisfied. This being the Internet, and me being a “blogger” in Mr. Paisley’s parlance, I will reprint his questions in bold-face type and my answers below. The below will be exactly as asked and written; the only thing removed is the “who are you and where do you write” question, which I don’t consider germane to this. His quotes of me will also be in bold-face type.

Is the program’s future a cause for concern?

I would be lying if I said that the potential of losing varsity hockey at UAH didn’t bother me. UAH Hockey was an essential part of my collegiate experience, to the point that I paid my own way to travel around the country to broadcast games in 2002-3 after I had graduated. Hockey is the only Division I sport at the university, and it’s the sport where we’ve seen the most success. Will and I started the Save UAH Hockey stuff within 12 hours of the CCHA making their rejection public.

Is the usual presumed athletic budget crunch part of that equation?

It has to be a part of it. We’re a Division II school playing a Division I sport. Moreover, we’re playing a sport that isn’t played elsewhere in our state, which means that it’s hard to get state money to support the program. If there was money in the state budget to build UAH an on-campus rink and convocation center, we’d be in much better shape.

I think the best analog for UAH’s situation is Bemidji State. The Beavers were in very dire straits in 2006 and 2007. The money just wasn’t working for them to have a program at the D-I level because of the travel costs involved in playing in a conference with teams in Colorado, Alabama, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York. They had been working with state legislators in St. Paul for years to get a bond levied to build a hockey facility in Bemidji. They hit a window of opportunity when everything was right for it, and they got the bonding agreement. They had to work with the city to get a half-cent sales tax approved to make the financing work, and that was a close call as well. All of that work culminated in the Bemidji Regional Events Center, which was their ticket into the WCHA.

If UAH had been able to get a rink built in time—and there have been three or four really solid efforts over the last decade, including one that I really thought was going to happen within 3-6 months—I think the CCHA bid would have stood a much better chance. The travel issue is certainly there for the smaller CCHA schools, especially now that it looks likely that they’ll lose their Big Ten cash cows.

Is the program waiting for the Big Ten shoe to drop officially?

I think everyone out west is waiting for that shoe to drop. How will it happen? CCHA coaches are pushing for a superconference where the Big Ten schools are one six-team pod in the conference. Unfortunately, the CCHA coaches who talk about this always mention 24 teams, which leaves UAH as an independent. I think WCHA officials would be happy with some kind of interlocking schedule with the BTHC and CCHA that has them get non-conference games with Wisconsin and Minnesota.

At the end of the day, the Big Ten schools drive the bus. If they decided to just go it alone and play an insular conference schedule, they could do that and make a lot of money. It’s not as if any of the BTHC schools would have problems getting non-conference dates, and they’d probably want them with name teams. I expect that CC, DU, and North Dakota wouldn’t have problems getting dates, but Mankato, UNO, and Duluth might.

I do know that most of the WCHA coaches are really pushing to make sure that UAH isn’t left out in the cold. Tom Serratore at Bemidji is probably the loudest of those voices. I know that Bruce McLeod is a supporter of the program as well.

Has the program approached Atlantic Hockey?

It’s my understanding that UAH has had contact with all five conferences. I think it’s reasonably well-known that two Atlantic Hockey schools, thought to be Canisius and Mercyhurst, asked their league for permission to go to the CHA with the request that they be readmitted without question if our league folded. They were not granted this, so they didn’t leave.

If the worst case for the CCHA happens—Big Ten conference forms, no interlock with the three western conferences, and an insular schdule—I will be curious to see if the CCHA approaches UAH or any of the Great Lakes area AH teams about membership. I don’t know that it will happen, but I could see it.

Is there plenty of fan support in the community?
Alumni support is there as well?

We’ve got solid alumni support. General fan support is waning a bit with all of the uncertainty. In the Division II days, UAH routinely won by three or more goals. Those games were fun for everyone, feeling like you’d come away with a win. Earlier in the D-I days, UAH still had a great team, and so you felt like they’d win at least 60% of the time. As the CHA’s days were numbered, it became harder to get both recruits and home games. Attendance has waned as a result.

It would be very easy to expect that UAH’s 3-19-2 record has everything to do with the woeful attendance in 2010-11, but what’s not clear from the outside is that the Von Braun Center arena has been under renovation for the entire season. It’s not entirely clear where you even enter the facility. Very few things in the renovation are fully finished, and it’s really a hassle.

Describe the state of the UAH hockey program in 5 years. In 10 years.

The key for a medium-term outlook for the program has to be conference membership. I think that UAH can survive for a few years as an independent. We’ve been able to schedule a solid schedule for next year, and we’ve got a number of good commitments out for the next four seasons. That said, there has to be an end to this. D-I hockey is not set up for independents these days with the insularity of conference schedules. UAH also struggles with getting home games in general, and any games at all past mid-February. UAH had their last true home series of the season last weekend, and the last home games of any sort are this weekend in Nashville against Merrimack. UAH ends their season before Valentine’s Day. Teams with conferences will play at least three more weeks after that.

For a long-term outlook, UAH will have settled into whatever conference home that they have found and have a program full of recruits who’ve known that they have a conference home. Those players would either have a new home rink or see it being built as they leave the dorm and go to class.

As I consider that entire review to be on the record, I have no problems providing the full text of my remarks. As always, please be clear: these words and those that you see on this site are my personal opinions, and they do not represent the opinions of anyone at UAH, from Dr. David Williams on down to the young kid who helps our equipment manager during games. I’m an alumni and a booster, and my on-record comments reflect that background.

The 2001-10 UAH Hockey All-Decade Team

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We told you back in November that we’d do this, and as a new decade for UAH Charger hockey dawns, here’s UAHHockey.com’s 2001-10 UAH Hockey All-Decade Team:

Forward Lines:

Top Line:
LW Karlis Zirnis (46G, 73A, 119Pts)
C Jared Ross (72-86–158)
RW Craig Bushey (45-67–112)

Was there any doubt that Ross would center this first line? Zirnis-Ross-Bushey was a successful line down during Karlis’s senior season, and this combination was certainly the most prolific in the past decade of UAH hockey.

Second Line:
Steve Charlebois (46-33–79)
Jason Hawes (22-64–86)
Joel Bresciani (36-29–65)

This is another line that played together for quite some time. You’d have a hard time slowing these guys down when they wanted to go to the net, and they also played spirited defense and finished their checks.

Third Line:
Bruce Mulherin (49-52–101)
Grant Selinger (33-37–70)
Cody Campbell (15-28–43)

It’s almost criminal to put Bruce on a third line. This is something that I struggled with for a while, but it came to this: Charlie was the scorer on his line, where Bruce was a happy to score and dish. In doing the research on this, I was surprised that Selinger had 70 points in his career. As for Campbell, I feel like he’s the most complete offensive player on the current Charger roster, even if he’s still sidelined with NCAA eligibility issues relating to taking one semester of classes five years ago.

Fourth Line:
Mike Funk (34-40–74)
Matt Sweazey (28-30–58)
David Nimmo (25-38–64)

Funk (6’4″, 220), Sweazey (6’1′, 195), and Nimmo (6’2″, 220) would score and bang with the best of them. Having these guys together means that none of them has to shoulder the physical burden alone, allowing each of them to let their scoring ability shine.

Black Aces:
Andrew Coburn (21–33–54)
Keenan Desmet (11-18–29 through 12/31)

Coburn gives you the flexibility to play a wing or the center, and as for Desmet, how can you deny the man who ended the final CHA tournament and put the 2009-10 Chargers into the NCAA tournament?

2010 CHA Championship: Keenan Desmet Game-Winning Goal from Geoffrey Morris on Vimeo.

Defensemen:

Top Pair:
Tyler Butler (21-60–81)
Ryan Leasa (12-41–53)

As with our top two lines, the top pair is a historical fact. If you watched these two guys play together, you don’t have any doubt that they should be on the ice together. It’s just a shame that their career in Blue and White ended on a turnover. The 2002-03 team seemed destined to get the CHA’s first automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, but it would be four more years before the Chargers attained that accomplishment.

Second Pair:
Jeremy Schreiber (21-65–86)
Scott Kalinchuk (11-34-45)

I don’t know about you, but I would not want to skate into a zone with Jumbo and Chuk. These guys would complement each other, as Schreiber would be able to jump up the ice as needed to support the offense knowing that Kalinchuk is there to anchor things. While the two were on the roster at the same time during 2005-06, they were never paired by Doug Ross; Schreiber played every game with Jeff Winchester, and Kalinchuk played every game as the third-pair left defenseman. Both men captained the Chargers as well.

Third Pair:
Shaun Arvai (7-47–54)
Brandon Roshko (6-50–56)

Arvai and Roshko would be a good pairing in my book. They can each play the offensive and defensive game, and they’d move the puck well.

Reserve:
Jeff Winchester (4-41–45)

You’ve got Winchester around for three reasons: a big shot, a big body, and the ability to pummel the crap out of another player. You don’t fight in college hockey, but if you needed to take care of someone on the second night of a weekend, you could send Winch out there and know that he’d take care of business.

Goalies:
Scott Munroe (49-36-8, 2.76GAA, .918SV%)
Cameron Talbot (15-44-6, 3.03, .909SV%)
Mark Byrne (42-41-5, 3.01, .900%)

It is easy to look at the unbelievable play of Talbot down the stretch of 2009-10 and want him to be the #1 goalie. If we’re going for peak, it would be hard to argue against him; if you had just the one game to win, I’m not going to argue against you if you take Cam.

In my world, though, you have to go with Scott Munroe. Yes, he was surrounded with arguably better talent. Yes, he played on teams that won more. But Muny came in as a freshman in 2002-03 and wrested the starting job from senior Mark Byrne, who was certainly no slouch in the net himself. Munroe played 31:48 in the team’s second game at Wisconsin, stopping 15 of 16 shots, and then relieved Byrne in the 12-2 rout by Minnesota two weekends later, giving up five goals on 22 shots. Then came his first start: 52 of 56 against the reigning national champions. At that point, you knew that the Chargers had something special.

Byrne certainly shouldn’t be overlooked, as he was quite dependable for the Chargers. When Mark Byrne is your third goalie, you’re doing very well.

If you had to pick a fourth, practice goalie, it would have to be Marc Narduzzi. Why? Easy: the 2OT loss to Notre Dame. Wearing a new helmet, Blake MacNicol gave up two goals on three shots in the first 4:26 of the game. Ross switched goalies—having done this routine each of the three games in the 2007 CHA tournament, which the Chargers entered as the lowest seed—and Narduzzi played the game of his life, stopping 49 shots in the next 90:52. The only way the Irish solved Narduzzi was to get a power play opportunity, their first since the first few minutes of the second period. I can’t think of a singular goaltending feat that topped what Duzzi put together that night in Grand Rapids, in a game so amazing that ESPN2 aired the last hour or so of the game live, taking the feed from ESPNU.

Special Teams:
#1 Power Play
Funk – Ross – Bushey | Butler – Leasa
This combination worked in 2002-03, with Funk able to use his presence in the slot to free Ross to slash around while Bushey dug pucks out in the corner. You could make an argument for Zirnis or Mulherin on Ross’s left wing, as Bushey would be able to provide the grit regardless.

#2 Power Play
Zirnis – Mulherin – Bresciani | Schreiber – Roshko
Picture it: Zirnis and Mulherin cycling around or working behind the net. Bresciani planted in the slot and taking all the abuse in stride. Roshko on the point to move the puck where it needs to be. Jumbo with the big slapshot. I think that might score a goal or two.

#1 Penalty Kill
Hawes – Charlebois | Schreiber – Kalinchuk
One of my favorite things to watch while I was in school and right after I graduated was Zeus killing penalties. He was so tenacious. Charlebois was certainly no slouch, and he’d give you a chance to put in a shorthanded goal or two. Schreiber and Kalinchuk would do the smart, patient work down low, and either could move someone off of the front porch.

#2 Penalty Kill
Ross – Mulherin | Arvai – Roshko
It’s almost a shame to put two of your great scorers out there to kill penalties, but Ross was indefatigable and Mulherin had the speed and hands to disrupt things and put fear in the opposing goalie if a turnover happened. Arvai and Roshko aren’t going to make many mistakes.

Internet Coverage of the UAH-Mercyhurst Series

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Folks have asked how you can keep up with tonight’s and tomorrow night’s games with Mercyhurst. There isn’t any video, but there is a live-updated boxscore and there should be audio. Here are your resources:

Charge On!

6:11pm Central: The audio link works, but the MC folks are apparently not supporting the live scoreboard. I’ll keep looking for a resource there.

Your 2001-10 UAH All-Decade Team

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As the first full decade of the modern era of D-I hockey for UAH draws to a close, we’d like to pick an all-decade team. I’ve put mine together and will post it in the coming days, but I’d like to invite you to come up with your own. Here are the rules:

  1. Must have played UAH hockey between 2001-2010. You should discount the statistics for guys who played against D-II competition, and similarly try not to project too much into the current players who’ve got eligibility left.
  2. You must pick 21 skaters and three goalies.
  3. You must put the skaters on lines and pairs, with a minimum of four forward lines and three defensive pairs. If you want your three spare skaters to all be forwards or defensemen, this is fine. You can’t double-shift anyone, either.
  4. Have fun with this! Come up with power play and penalty kill teams. Write a narrative. Defend your selections.

Comments are open on this post; if you want a longer-form environment, send an email to g@uahhockey.com. You can submit your teams up until 6:00 p.m. on December 10th.

We’ll compile the list and put it together the week after the Robert Morris series. Have fun with this!

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Pre-Sale Underway for UAH v. Merrimack in Nashville in January 2011

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Photo courtesy: Nick Stenning

The University of Alabama in Huntsville Athletics Department is excited to announce that tickets for the hockey team’s upcoming series in Nashville at Bridgestone Arena on Jan. 14th and 15th against Merrimack are now on sale for Charger fans only. Do not miss the chance to catch the first-ever NCAA Division I hockey contests in the state of Tennessee hosted at the home of the Nashville Predators.

Pre-orders are done through Ticketmaster; select seats for the games by using the password Chargers. For students, UAH students will have the opportunity to purchase tickets on gameday at the Bridgestone Arena for only $5 for some of the best seating in the house. Those tickets will not be sold beforehand and students must show a valid UAH ID.

I do know that this is an event the program would like to see happen again in the future, but it’s the attendance success of this first event that will make it a reality.

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UAH Alum Cam Talbot Gets Shutout Win in First Professional Start

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UAH alum Cam Talbot, who forewent his senior season as a Charger, stopped all 41 shots he faced in his first professional start for the Rangers’ AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack. Cam was also awarded the first star of the game for his efforts.

Talbie, from all of us here at UAHHockey.com, great job! We hope to see you in the NHL someday soon.

UAH @ Wisconsin Viewing Party

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Many of you may know that UAH-Wisconsin will be aired on Fox College Sports Atlantic on Friday night, 8pm Eastern. For those in the Huntsville area, I’ve put together a viewing party at Knuckleheads Sports Pub and Restaurant on Hwy 72 W in Madison. If you’re wanting to catch the Chargers on TV this Friday night, this would be a good place to do it. If you’re wanting to watch at home [and believe me, I get the attraction there], I know that Knology carries the FCS channels as part of its Sports Pak at $5/mo. I expect that Comcast and Mediacom may have some coverage as well, and all the Fox channels are a part of the DirecTV sports package.

I hope to see you there. If you haven’t joined the UAH Blue Line Club, I’ll be happy to collect your dues there; if you’d like to know more about the BLC, I’ll be happy to discuss it with you.