Three Stars: July 2-8

3. SCSU hockey lands recruit Tedesco with ... the logo
(sctimes.com)

Toronto Lakeshore (OJHL) forward Dan Tedesco has chosen St. Cloud State over Penn State (as well as RIT and Sacred Heart).

It sounds like the St. Cloud State men’s hockey coaching staff had Daniel Tedesco with the logo.

The school’s logo shares similarities with the one used by the Montreal Canadiens. Despite living in the Toronto suburb of Maple, Tedesco’s family is has an affinity for the NHL team that has a big ‘C’ on its jersey.

“Our family is big Montreal Canadiens fans and as soon as I saw the (‘ST’ surrounded by a capital ‘C’ logo), I saw it as a sign that it was meant to be,” Tedesco said. “But I loved everything about the campus, the dorms, the rink improvements really impressed me. Every day we went by the rink, more walls were built up. It was exciting.”

I know of a school that also has a rink with more walls being built up every day. It has a nicer logo than SCSU too. Just saying. Fans of the school winning Tedesco's services, apparently, are displeased with the caliber of the programs recruiting him. I'm displeased with the caliber of program beating PSU for recruits, so call it even.

Anyway, Tedesco might still join the Huskies this coming season, depending on how things shake out with a couple of serious injuries to their forwards. If not, he'll go back to the OJHL for another year.

2. 150 Miles for a Cure...
(nationalmssociety.org)

Women's assistant coach Casey McCullion is new to Penn State, but apparently not to being a Penn Stater, as she's participating in a bike ride for MS on September 29th and 30th. In her words:

I've registered for Bike MS because I want to do something for the people who have been diagnosed, including my friend from Holy Cross (and riding buddy) who lives with MS every day. I want to do everything to prevent more people from learning what it means to live with this disease. Just as I did last year, I am dedicating my ride to him and hope that he will be able to join me (even if it's just for a few training rides)! Today, there is no cure for multiple sclerosis, and with diagnosis occurring most frequently between the ages of 20 and 50, many individuals face a lifetime filled with unpredictability.

This year I am going to take on the two-day challenge - 75 miles each way - a minor challenge compared to those fighting this disease. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society will use funds collected from Bike MS to not only support research for a cure tomorrow, but also to provide programs which address the needs of people living with MS today. Because we can fight this disease by simply riding a bike, because we have chosen to help thousands of people through a contribution to Bike MS, we are now getting closer to the hour when no one will have to hear the words, "You have MS."

If you're able, please consider supporting her in this most worthy endeavor.

1. @KPegula
(Twiter)

Here's your "billionaires are people too" moment for the week. Kelly Pegula tweeted the above picture on Thursday, captioned "My dad playing NHL..." If it's some kind of special team owner release of NHL 13 (available to us peons on September 11th), I don't want to know about it.

What I do want to know: how many of Darcy Regier's decisions he reverses in Be a GM. That would be juicy. Probably a lot.

Best of the Rest

Crawford Architects
(Facebook)

The PIA architects presented Joe Battista with what they called the "Project Passion Award," really just a custom bobblehead of the hockey czar, complete with his playing days afro swag.

I should note that the bobblehead is wearing a jersey different from anything that the Icers or the 1940s varsity team ever used (it does admittedly look similar to the last Icers jersey, minus the words "Penn State"). The smart half of my brain says that architects aren't in the leaking jersey design business, and that they probably just slapped a PSU logo on the front of a generic blue and white sweater...although it does bear an uncanny resemblance to a possible reverse design of this:

Hey, I'm not doing my job if I don't point these things out...

W 2012-2013 Schedule
(Thank You Terry)

On Friday, the women's team Twitter revealed the game times for the December 7th-8th series at St. Lawrence (7:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.) and the February 22nd-23rd series at Robert Morris (7:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.). A quick check of the CHA website reveals that the January 25th-26th series at Syracuse had already been set for 7:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m., meaning that all regular season game times for the women's team are now finalized.

Apologies for the self-linkage - the schedule on GoPSUSports.com was not updated for those three series as of the time this post went up.

2012 Golf Tournament
(Google Documents)

It sounds like the Icer Open is joining "attack the scoreboard end twice" on the list of Icers-era traditions relegated to the scrap heap as this year's tournament has been cancelled. While administration does plan to bring back a golf tournament in 2013, it will be part of a "Hockey Valley Weekend Experience" (your guess is as good as mine on that one) and will undoubtedly have a new name.

Also buried in the document: single-game tickets will be limited to a "limited number" of reserved seats, plus 300 standing room tickets. Of course, why stress over that when five-game packages - which cost all of $55 and include priority at the Pegula Ice Arena - still aren't sold out?

Would you send your son to Penn State?
(fairfaxunderground.com)

I suppose this was inevitable, but...

My son is a hockey prospect who is being recruited by several schools including Penn State. Given all of the other available opportunities, it seems pointless to even consider PSU.

Not that I really follow it, but from what I understand, recruiting for PSU football is going pretty well, and that particular program is obviously more directly tied in with current events. If they're surviving, I imagine this to be an isolated incident, and Guy Gadowsky confirmed that recruiting hasn't been an issue on Saturday. Wait, why is it pointless to consider PSU again? Worried about the negative association with the name of the school on the degree? That's fair, and admittedly a concern of mine as an alumnus...

It's really about the fact that since this story broke, it seems there was a great deal of institutional tolerance of Sandusky's crimes.

Oh okay...yeah, a few individuals is just like "a great deal of institutional tolerance." I hope you and your duster kid go somewhere else. Don't need anyone with your genes - or someone so weak-minded that daddy has to hit the message boards to pick a school for him - dragging the team APR down.

@NAIHockey/@KPegula
(Twitter)

KPeg makes a second appearance in this post. Why? For completely owning the NAIH, which is really representing itself as a professional, well-run organization in trying to...trying to what, exactly?

Kelly: Hey dad, something called NAIH said you should fire the whole scouting staff on Twitter.
Terry: NAIH?
Kelly: Yeah, I don't know what that is.
Terry: Well regardless, brilliant idea. I'll get on that as soon as I'm done unloading Derek Roy on Chel. Man it feels good to finally do that.

Seriously, that has to be pretty damn annoying. I saw her use that reply to someone else trying to suggest the Sabres go after Gabriel Landeskog (personal opinion: they should also trade Andrej Sekera and a first rounder to Edmonton for Hall, RNH and Nail's rights). Probably the best way to handle it.

Trouba sticks with word, will play for Michigan in fall
(The Michigan Daily)

Highly-touted 2012 Michigan commit Jacob Trouba, the ninth overall pick in last month's NHL Entry Draft by Winnipeg, was involved in quite a saga last week. First, the Daily, citing anonymous Ontario Hockey League sources, reported that there was only a 50-50 chance that Trouba will end up at Michigan. Then last Monday, citing a diffent OHL source, the paper said that the Kitchener Rangers offered Trouba $200,000 to break his pledge to the Wolverines. The story quickly escalated to the point that the Trouba family felt as if it had to issue a statement reaffirming his plans to head to Ann Arbor in the fall.

Rule number one when dealing with major junior: it's never over. That said, if Trouba does stick with the college route, I don't mind calling him one of my favorite players despite his choice of school. Kid's good enough that he may never face Penn State anyway, as he realistically could be a Jet by 2013.

Those people on the roller coaster aren't even looking. I'd look.

Hersheypark Arena Fire Contained; Roof Damage Should Be 'Easy To Repair'
(Broad Street Hockey)

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire...fortunately on Thursday, they did get some water and did not let the motherf***er burn.

Hersheypark Arena is best known as the former home of the Hershey Bears, and many also know it as the edifice where Wilt Chamberlain dropped his NBA-record 100 points in a game. Some two decades before that though, it was the frequent home of Penn State hockey. What was then called Hershey Sports Arena hosted eight of 26 games played by the 1940-1947 varsity team with known locations (of 29 overall), and 16 of 43 with known locations (of 46 overall) when counting the unofficial teams that preceded the varsity years. Even without a Penn State team gracing the ice there since December 5, 1984, Hersheypark Arena probably still ranks in the top ten venues played by PSU hockey teams (just an educated guess - no way I'm taking on that project right now). Also, Mark Scally became the only Icer to ever start an NHL preseason game there. More on that later this week, I hope.

Basically, as a history geek and someone that appreciates one of the last true hockey barns still standing, I'm glad it's okay.

Expert says sanctions unlikely for Penn State

Penn State could pay tens of millions in Jerry Sandusky scandal fallout
(Centre Daily Times)

A couple of CDT items to close things out here, as well as follow up on Friday's post relating The Scandal to hockey. I know that the CDT is paywalling now - I'm still under my 15 pageviews per month limit for out-of-towners, fortunately, but that's why one of the articles is linked from a non-CDT site, in case you were wondering - so essentially:

1. A former NCAA infractions committee chair says that the association shouldn't punish PSU beyond what the legal system provides. He cites the idea that it's outside of the NCAA's scope and also argues that piling NCAA sanctions on to everything else would be "like shooting road kill." Great.
2. Penn State does, as mentioned in the comments to the TYT post, have liability insurance to pay Jerry Sandusky's victims. However, the insurer is apparently resisting payment of costs in at least one case and the amount of the school's coverage is unknown. A more sarcastic "great" fits here.
3. Anything beyond what insurance covers will be paid by interest revenues from loans given to PSU's self-supporting units. Since athletics is one of those self-supporting units, it seems as if its budget will remain safe from that specific expense, beyond the interest it was already paying anyway. Back to straightforward "great."

I think we're safe removing the direct legal costs from the "how does this affect hockey" equation, and I mentioned in the post that I haven't observed effects on operations (including recruiting, for example, despite the link above). That leaves the possible damages to hockey at a) A financial ripple effect from damage done to the football program, likely through lost ticket sales/donations, or possibly sanctions; b) NCAA or Big Ten sanctions that do something beyond simply bludgeon the football program and involve the entire athletic department. And of those, b) seems like a pretty remote possibility right now and a) will be impossible to fully assess for a while. There's also the matter of those $10-15 million surpluses that have been stashed away somewhere for a few years now. I'm not quite ready to start yelling "SUCK IT HATERZ!!!" but I am feeling a little better about my Penn State-affiliated distraction from Penn State than I was even a couple days ago.

Pegula Ice Arena: No Harm Now

The following Pegula Ice Arena renderings were discovered on the internet and briefly posted here (but quickly taken down) back in September. Now they're back up, obviously. As usual with PIA stuff, click for full size. Enjoy.

Here's a quick rundown of previous leaks.

Calling Scoreboard (July 10, 2011)
Pegula Ice Arena: Another Angle (July 22, 2011)
Crawford Releases More Pegula Ice Arena Renderings (July 25, 2011)

The suites are obviously familiar from the third link, but how about that main lobby and seating bowl? "Sick" doesn't even begin to describe it. Just as a reminder, this is all going to be official very, very soon. Like 39 days from now - the final design is expected to be approved at the January 20, 2012 Board of Trustees meeting, with an official design release shortly after.

Crawford Releases More Pegula Ice Arena Renderings

On Friday, Crawford Architects shared two computer-generated Pegula Ice Arena pictures via their Facebook page. Today, they gave us two different looks.

The top exterior shot differs a little from Friday's version (which, interestingly, no longer appears in Crawford's Facebook album).

How do we resolve that one? For starters, GoPSUSports.com posted a video interview with Guy Gadowsky today where the Friday exterior photo served as a makeshift backdrop. Also, I'm no architect, but if I had to guess, the watercolor phase comes before the plug it into the really expensive software phase. So with those two things in mind, I tend to view the earlier picture as more accurate (one also has to acknowledge the possibility that Crawford leaked something we weren't supposed to see Friday, hence the deletion and replacement with possibly older versions).

Just to make it a complete "everything we know about Pegula Ice Arena" photo dump, here are the scoreboard and suite renderings one more time.

Pegula Ice Arena: Another Angle

Just before noon this morning, Pegula Ice Arena architect Crawford Architects posted an album of their sports portfolio on their Facebook page. Here's one of the pictures (click on all pictures in this post for a larger size).

Now, the picture wasn't captioned, but...

So we have a pretty good grasp on the exterior and the scoreboards...get me a shot of the seating bowl, and I think we're set.

UPDATE 2:17 P.M.: Shortly after the original post, Crawford added to the album - including a picture of a Pegula Ice Arena suite, as well as captions for both PIA pictures. The rumors are true: every suite will contain at least two pictures of Teddy Hume.

UPDATE 8:41 P.M.: Courtesy of Penn State alumnus Steven Pierce, here's a picture of Guy Gadowsky pointing at a sketch of the seating bowl. His recollection of what Gadowsky said while showing it confirms everything we know about the design.

The left side is PSU shoot twice, where it seems to separate itself from the regular bowl is the student section (including a section for the band). If I remember right, the plan is that the main part of the bowl will be chair back seats and the student section will be wide bleachers (designed for standing on). Coach also said that the bowl is going to be as steep as code will allow which should allow for a great home ice advantage and sight lines.

Blue and White...and Green

I found a bit of Pegula Center news attempting to inject life into this slow news week, specifically that form field studio (deliberate lower case, e.e. cummings-style) will be assisting architects Crawford and BCJ with their sustainability efforts.

"We are thrilled that our friends over at Crawford Architects have been awarded the new 200,000sf Ice Hockey Arena at Penn State.

"form field studio will be assisting Crawford in their sustainability goals of making this a LEED-rated feature facility. Crawford's team also includes Bohlin Cywinski Jackson out of Wilkes-Barre."

What does it mean to be an LEED-rated feature facility? Glad you asked, I certainly did. Let's head over to the U.S. Green Building Council's website, on a page explaining it.

LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system,  providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO₂ emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED provides building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

LEED is flexible enough to apply to all building types – commercial as well as residential. It works throughout the building lifecycle – design and construction, operations and maintenance, tenant fitout, and significant retrofit. And LEED for Neighborhood Development extends the benefits of LEED beyond the building footprint into the neighborhood it serves.

There's some good info around that website in terms even liberal arts majors can understand, in case you're curious about one of the ways we plan on making good on Joe Battista's claim that the building will last 75 years - and not destroy the planet before that time is up.

Welcome to the team, form field studio!

"The Best in the Country"

As a general rule, I try not to insult the intelligence of the readership with a single-source post - simply sharing a relevant story is Twitter territory in my opinion - and I try to be more thoughtful than bloggers who go "oooh, an article within my area of interest," then basically do a copy/paste with maybe a couple sentences of their own stuff in between paragraphs.

Yeah, that's right, NCAA hockey establishment blogs. Both barrels, until you stop this useless sniping/taking out your frustrations re: Big Ten hockey on us. We have about as much control over it as you do. We're not all pro-Big Ten. We're sorry that Joe Battista didn't abandon his life's work and tell the guy with $88 million to stick it so you could keep playing Michigan Tech and St. Cloud State. Or not. We love Penn State, we love hockey, and for many of us, September 17th was the culmination of a lot of wishing. We're here, we're not going anywhere, deal with it.

What was this post about? Oh right, this article from the Collegian's Tony Barton, which does a tremendous job somehow covering new ground with respect to the Pegula Center, and is therefore worth breaking the rule. If you wondered why there are two architecture firms (Crawford Architects and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson) on the job, this would be the place for the answer. If you thought that Dan Craig was the only ice guru out there, now you know that Penn State has Tim Moore on the design team. Here's the part where I copy/paste the Collegian to tell you that I like the cut of Moore's jib.

“Large sports facilities are very near and dear to my heart,” Moore said. “I’ve been kind of hoping we could be affiliated with this project since it first became public.”

Moore is no stranger to Penn State, as Battista recruited his son, Brian, to play with the university’s club team, the Icers. While his son ended up playing at Division I Bowling Green, the ties to Penn State were made.

The refrigeration technician said his work began with ice arenas 25 years ago, and he and his partner Joel Anderson have worked on more than 200 ice sheets.

As for the championship ice, Moore said its creation is his passion.

“We’ve learned how to do it properly, and we’ve learned what’s important about it,” Moore said. “We know what effects the conditions of the ice and whether it’s fast or slow.”

Moore said the ice system will consist of more than 100 moving parts. He will work to create the most efficient refrigeration units possible that will also be functional year-round.

“We recognize that Penn State wants the best ice in the country,” Moore said. “We think we can bring that.”

There's been some discussion in the Penn State community about how successful our men's hockey team will ultimately be. Some (myself) feel like we're going to have everything in place to be a top program, while others point to the men's basketball program as evidence of Penn State's ability to run a high-profile program that isn't football.

Here's what I feel like I know: Basketball doesn't have a Joe Battista overseeing it, a guy who's been a winner in everything he's done and who has devoted a pretty big chunk of his life to Penn State hockey. He's not doing this to fail. Basketball doesn't have a Terry Pegula, a similarly-wired winner, to keep everyone accountable. Basketball hasn't made a full-on commitment to being the best in the country in every aspect of the program - even the architects and the ice guy, who are less than a week into this, know where the bar is located.

One other note tucked in at the end of the article:

Once a decision is made, the architects, construction team and members from the university will have a kickoff meeting on Nov. 30. It will be the first time the three components come together and begin working on the design.

Sounds like we have a hard date on the construction team's selection, as opposed to the "soon after the architect" line we've heard a couple times.

UPDATE: Barton tweeted to tell me that the construction interviews are next Wednesday.

Battista Likes the Window Seat

Once again, Joe Battista was on with Steve Penstone (43:50 in) during a first intermission of a Friday night game, this time, last night's 5-3 win against West Chester. I didn't think I was going to do another one of these posts, but since some new puzzle pieces came out of the interview, I went ahead with it. After some chatting about the game at hand, Battista got into the day's big news, the selection of a Pegula Center architect.

"Crawford and BCJ from - Crawford is from Kansas City, BCJ is from the Wilkes-Barre area - partnered, and they won the award for the architect's contract. They did the initial study, so they're obviously very familiar, not only with what it is we're trying to do here, but with the site - what needs to be done, what can and can't be done because of where the steam lines are, utility lines - you know, it's always a tricky thing because you look at the building that you know is going to be there for 75 years, and architecturally, you want to do something, but you've got a power line. So you spend a million dollars to relocate that power line. In the short run, you saw "well, we don't want to spend a million dollars to do that." But then when you step back and say "this building's going to be here for 75 years," maybe it's worth it.

"And, you know, that location is such a great place. And if we do the right things, and I'm no architect, but I've been in enough of these meetings to know, if we do it the right way, it's going to have some great views of Mount Nittany, great views of Beaver Stadium, on the back side, it's going to have great views across campus. It really is a unique place, and we're going to be able to build the building partially into a hillside, so it allows us to bring in fans at the concourse level and at the event level, which I think is pretty cool to be able to do that. So we're excited, it's been a tough thing, I can tell you we've read more about architects in the last two months than I've had to do since I was an engineering student in my dreams back as a freshman. But it's been fun, we're excited, they have a terrific team that they've put together, and when we got down to the three finalists, I think most of us would have been happy with any of the three. It was a very tough competition among them, and at the end of the day, we're going to end up with a state-of-the-art world-class facility."

So it sounds like we're going heavy on the windows on the side facing University Drive (which also faces Beaver Stadium and Mount Nittany). Man, I feel smart. We also got a little bit about the points of entry and the hillside construction. By the way, you know what set up that answer? Penstone stating that an architect was selected today. It wasn't even a question! Little-known fact: in journalism heaven, people only have to interview Joe Battista. Penstone next asked a when, what's next question, and Battista presented both an updated timeline, and an unusual challenge that will need to be addressed.

"They're going to have about a year, fast-track it nine months, to design - put everything on paper, well, on computer, it's all 3D modeling these days, which is really amazing stuff, but I think the decision that Penn State - we have to make is do we want to break ground before or after football season next fall? You know, you gain three months if you break ground in August, but now you're taking off line a lot of parking, you know, it's just - I don't know. One way or another, for two years, you're going to have construction going on outside the Bryce Jordan Center, so you've got to do it at some point. Maybe there's a way to get it so that we can do some things without disrupting the football parking and the traffic and that sort of stuff. [Penstone: Much like they've done with that ladies softball stadium.] Absolutely. The difference again is that, if you look at where we're building that, it's going to take off line the ADA parking, some of the bus parking. We'll come up with a solution, but once again, people have to be patient because there's a lot of moving parts to this. But it's all good, it's exciting, in a couple weeks we're going to pick the CM, you know, we want the CM and the architect to work together very closely right from the start, and again, hopefully we're designing a building that'll be great not just for the men's and women's hockey teams, but for the whole community."

I'll gladly park my car in Boalsburg for football games if it helps get this done quicker. Who's with me? Anyone?

Board of Trustees Names Architect

Penn State Live, the university's official news source, has reported that the Board of Trustees gave Crawford Architects, with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, the job of designing the Pegula Center.

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson worked on the just-under-construction Biobehavioral Health Building at Penn State, and they have a litany of projects on other campuses under their belt - they clearly know the ins and outs of the university environment (red tape included, I'm sure). Their style seems to me to be modern but not overbearingly so, although they clearly know visual impact as well. And while their portfolio is light on sports-related projects, well, that's where Crawford comes in.

Crawford...you remember them, right? They were the ones behind this press release, which leaked in early 2009, then was quickly removed from their site, leading to the strongest "Penn State hockey to NCAA" rumors ever (well, until the "real" ones).

Crawford Awarded Ice Hockey Arena Study for Penn State University
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (November 18, 2008) – Crawford Architects announced today that the firm was selected for the study to design the Ice Hockey Arena for Pennsylvania State University.

Penn State’s new hockey arena will allow Intercollegiate Athletics to develop a Division I men’s and women’s varsity program and continue the recreational skating program.

The program includes new a 6,000-seat venue for Varsity Hockey and other events, as well as an additional sheet of ice. Full services amenities will be included, such as premium seating options and provisions for a wide range of events.

According David Murphy, Principal at Crawford Architects, “The challenge is to design a facility that enhances the surrounding campus, functions smoothly, and meets all the needs of a Division I program.”

Where Bohlin Cywinski Jackson gently treads into modern territory, Crawford marches in with a bazooka, as evidenced by Vector Arena in Auckland, New Zealand or a proposal for Samsan Arena in South Korea. I'm guessing that their mission statement reads as follows: "Be sleek." Just a guess on my part, but those looking for a classic hockey barn might be disappointed.

It doesn't appear that they have any college hockey venues to their credit, although they worked on a proposal to upgrade Notre Dame's Joyce Center Rink (the university ultimately went in a different direction).

While those arenas look great, I'm more interested in a different project. Check out this picture of the outside of the Branson Convention and Exhibition Center (more available at the link):

I don't know about you, but do you know what that looks like to me?

Overthinking it? Maybe, but then again, maybe not. Maybe the answer's staring us right in the face. Can't wait to find out.

UPDATE: The Collegian wrote up a blurb on the architect selection (with more coming Monday), and gave the hardest number we've seen as far as seating capacity: 5,600.