The Philadelphia native is certainly not a stranger to head coach Josh Brandwene, as the two were together at the West Hartford, CT prep school from 2008-2011. McCullion was Brandwene's assistant/goaltending coach with the girls hockey team for two seasons, then slid into the head coach position in 2010-2011 when Brandwene moved over to the boys' side.
"I am incredibly excited to be working with Casey again. She is an outstanding goaltending coach and a terrific assistant coach," said Brandwene. "The value she places on education and her experience as a teacher, advisor and mentor to young student-athletes will be a tremendous asset to our program at Penn State."
KO is a Division II prep school that plays a tough schedule, including more than its share of DI teams and featured three players not yet of high school age during McCullion's season in charge, so a 4-14-1 record is understandable under those circumstances. Penn Staters Sarah Wilkie (Williston-Northampton), Jess Desorcie and Taylor McGee (Taft) all opposed the Wyverns - great nickname - in 2010-2011. In fact, Desorcie and McGee both scored in the Taft's 3-2 overtime win, with Desorcie tallying the winner.
When former associate coach Mo Stroemel was reassigned last month, the job posting for his replacement made it clear that "high-level goaltending coaching and instruction" and "collegiate goaltending playing experience" would be required. McCullion offers that in spades.
She was a four-year starter at Holy Cross (a Division III program in women's hockey) from 2003-2007, helping the Crusaders to top three finishes in the ECAC Open tournament in each of her final three years. McCullion boasts a career 2.98 goals against average and a 0.893 save percentage, and both marks are among the top five in program history. Her 34 wins (third) and 2023 saves (second) are as well. Additionally, she was a three-time ECAC East All-Academic selection and graduated with a psychology degree.
McCullion also has quite an extensive background in education, especially for someone her age. She was a teaching fellow in mathematics at Deerfield Academy right out of college in addition to coaching duties, then taught math during her time at KO (where she coached field hockey and girls lacrosse in addition to ice hockey). She recently completed her master's in elementary education at the University of Pennsylvania, which included a student-teaching stint at Penn Alexander School in Philadelphia.
Stroemel (left) is moving to a third job in the last three years.
Mo Stroemel, the man who quite possibly has filled as many roles as anyone else in the history of Penn State hockey, will add yet another to the list: director of hockey operations and video coach for the women's program. He has been removed from his previous role of associate coach.
Stroemel joined former Boston University star Gina Kearns on Josh Brandwene's Lady Icers staff in 2011-2012, after serving as head coach of the program from 2007-2011. He interviewed to be the first head coach of the NCAA Division I women's program and lost out to Brandwene but was retained on staff.
Following those events last June, Stroemel indicated to The Daily Collegian's Christine Newby that he was grateful to stay involved with the program in any capacity, an outlook that hopefully has not changed.
“I think the university is behind me, and they are going to find a role for me at this point. I appreciate that. I think they’re willing to recognize the role that I had in getting us to where we’re at, at this point.
“I think it’s an honor and a privilege to be allowed to continue on with the program in some manner.”
Prior to his tenure as head coach of the Lady Icers, he was an Icers assistant under both Joe Battista and Scott Balboni from 2004-2007 and also spent ten years (1994-2004) as an assistant and head coach with the ACHA Division 2 Ice Lions (for more detail on Stroemel's resume, check out Head Coach Candidate: Mo Stroemel, a post that examined his worthiness of the position that eventually went to Brandwene).
The remainder of the post is pure speculation, just to be unambiguous about things.
The emphasis on goaltending requested by the posting, as well as Stroemel's new title, may indicate some shifting of responsibilities elsewhere in PSU hockey as well. Director of Hockey Operations Bill Downey, for example, is no longer listed on the women's roster and, while he probably retains oversight over both programs, he may begin spending more of his time on the men's program. Additionally, Josh Hand has been a goaltending consultant for both men's and women's programs, but his duties as head coach of the Ice Lions significantly limit his availability in that capacity.
One also has to wonder about the behind-the-scenes machinations that led to this move occurring now. It's curious that administration would make a point of building a staff to lead the program through a final ACHA season and get a running start into NCAA competition, only to make a significant change after year one. Was Stroemel forced on Brandwene and the two just couldn't make the previous arrangement work? Considering the relatively small number of pre-2011 Lady Icers expected to make the NCAA roster (my estimate: 2-3), was Stroemel only kept as top lieutenant for continuity with those he had coached previously, becoming expendable once they graduated?
Whatever the case, it's an unfortunate turn of events for a guy who has served PSU hockey quite capably for a lot of years, and who sacrificed diverse non-hockey interests (his position in the School of Theatre as one example) to fully commit to the women's NCAA program.
In a move that had me slapping myself for not considering the possibility, Penn State named Icers and ACHA Hall of Famer Josh Brandwene the inaugural coach of its NCAA women's program today. Brandwene, of course, in addition to playing for the Icers (including on the 1990 national championship team) was a long-time ACHA coach and executive leader whose career path took him to the head coaching jobs with three frequent Icers opponents - West Virginia, Delaware and Michigan-Dearborn. He's also the only four-term president in ACHA history. After departing collegiate hockey, he gained experience with the women's game on the prep scene at the Kingswood Oxford School from 2008-2010.
Just to contribute something original to this post, here's Brandwene's Icers Hall of Fame write-up from the 1996-1997 Icers program:
Josh Brandwene, an Icer from 1987-1991, won the Outstanding Defenseman Award in his first two season with Penn State hockey. He was an ICHL first-team all-star three times, and a member of the 1990 ACHA national championship team. In 1990, he was team captain and president of the Hockey Management Association. He received the PSU Most Valuable Player Award, the ICHL MVP, and made the ACHA first team at the national tournament. Josh received his degree in Exercise and Sport Science in 1991...he lives with his wife Leona (PSU '91).
Steve Penstone is reporting that Lady Icers coach Mo Stroemel will have a role with the program as well.
On that note, I'll dump it off to a slightly truncated PSU release at this point, which is as comprehensive as you'd expect for something about a guy who's known Joe Battista for a long time.
Veteran coach, former Icer and ACHA Hall of Fame inductee Josh Brandwene has been named Penn State's first varsity women's ice hockey coach. Brandwene will lead the Nittany Lions' transition into NCAA Division I competition, which starts in the 2012-13 season. Brandwene brings 20 years of coaching and administrative experience at the international, collegiate and prep school levels to Penn State. He most recently was the head coach of the girls' ice hockey team (2008-10) at Kingswood Oxford School in West Hartford, Conn. Brandwene was then asked to re-build the Kingswood Oxford boys' ice hockey team, serving as head coach in 2010-11. "We are proud to welcome Josh back to Penn State as the first head coach of the women's varsity ice hockey team," said Tim Curley, Penn State Director of Athletics. "His wealth of experience and unique hockey background have prepared him to build our program and we are excited to have him on board." "I am honored, humbled and thrilled to return to Penn State to lead the women's ice hockey program at this amazing time in the hockey program's history," said Brandwene. "I truly love every aspect of building a successful program. To have the opportunity to build a program the `Penn State Way,' here at this place that has meant so much to me and shaped who I am as a person and as a coach is a dream come true."
Brandwene's previous coaching experiences included a stint as the assistant coach of the Team USA men's ice hockey team at the 2003 World University Games as well as the head coach of the men's ice hockey teams at ACHA power Delaware and top New England prep program Northfield Mount Hermon (MA) School.
Brandwene's accomplishments include an ACHA runner-up finish with Delaware in 2001.
A standout defender for the Penn State Icers, Brandwene was a member of the 1990 ACHA National Championship team. He earned team Most Valuable Player, league MVP and first team All-Tournament honors his senior season, and broke the Icers' career record for points by a defensemen (previously held by former Icer head coach and current Associate Athletic Director for Ice Hockey Operations Joe Battista).
"I have known Josh and his family for almost 25 years," Battista said. "He was my first recruit as an Icer coach in 1987 and a big part of our early success. He has the perfect skill set to be a successful coach and mentor to the student-athletes in our women's hockey program. He has incredible passion for Penn State and coaching and has impeccable values, boundless energy and enthusiasm, and shares our culture for Success With Honor. "Josh has been a builder everywhere he has been, taking each team to unprecedented levels of success," Battista added. "His accomplishments reach beyond any one team or institution as evidenced by his impact on a national level as the only four-term president of the ACHA and a member of the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) Board of Governors. We are proud to welcome him home." During his tenure as the girls' hockey coach at Kingswood Oxford, Brandwene helped re-build a program devastated by graduation and led the New England Division II prep school team to a runner-up finish at the Canterbury Invitational Tournament and four victories over Division I prep programs. In 2004-05, Brandwene began a three-year stint as the head boys' varsity ice hockey coach at the Northfield Mount Hermon (MA) School. Brandwene led the program to the New England Prep School Hockey Conference-East Championship (2004-05). In three seasons with the program, Brandwene coached and helped place more than 20 graduating student-athletes who have gone on to play Junior A and collegiate hockey. Brandwene began his coaching career immediately after graduation in 1991 as the head coach at Farmington High School in Connecticut. His three seasons at Farmington included the program's first state tournament berth in five years and a 1993 trip to the state tournament semifinals. While at Farmington, Brandwene was also a two-time Gold Medal winning coach at the Nutmeg State Games.
Fetter and former Wayne State goalie Lindsey Park, after the two helped helped the West team win the NCAA Skills Challenge at the 2010 Frozen Four in Detroit
Fourth in a series taking uninformed, uneducated guesses at the candidates to become the first head coach of Penn State's NCAA women's team. Previously: Mercyhurst coach Mike Sisti, Lady Icers coach Mo Stroemel, Minnesota-Duluth coach Shannon Miller.
It turns out that I timed this short series perfectly, because with this post, I've officially exhausted the list of names I've seen associated with the Penn State women's job (and this connection is of the particularly weak message board variety). But the good news: according to Mark Horgas, the final interviews are this week, and the coach should be named by this weekend. As we saw on Easter, you can't go on break from 5 p.m. Friday until 8 a.m. Monday, weekends and holidays are fair game for an announcement.
So are any of the four coaches I've mentioned among the final interviews? I have no idea. Unlike with the men's coaching search, this one's been all about jumping on absolutely anything I see, put together with more guessing than even I'm accustomed to. So in the likely event that I haven't posted about the person who gets hired, I'll first post the PSU press release, then follow up by digging a little deeper, as I try to do in these posts.
Anyway, today's subject is Wayne State head coach Jim Fetter, a Waterloo, ON native and 1995 University of Lethbridge graduate who has resided in Detroit since August 2003.
Most men who coach women's hockey can trace their history with the women's game to a very specific point. Fetter's no exception. He got into coaching right out of college with a couple different (men's) midget programs, but quickly grew frustrated and decided to take a year off to evaluate his career choices.
In 1998, after taking a year off from coaching, his alma mater was just starting out its women’s hockey program. For weeks leading up to the new season, Fetter received continuous phone calls requesting he take the position as head coach, yet he refused.
“I kind of wanted to take the year off to evaluate what I wanted out of coaching if I wanted anything out of it, and during that time I was looking to go to major junior,” Fetter said.
Fetter admits he was skeptical about women’s hockey. By late August, Fetter received yet another phone call asking to help run a weekend practice.
“I went out to run practice on a Saturday, it was an hour and a half, and I was kind of impressed,” Fetter said. “Came back the next day designed the practice a little tougher, kind of put on a test physically, mentally and again they rose to the occasion and kind of impressed me.”
He never looked back. After that first year with the Pronghorns, he made one more transition - to U.S. college hockey - as one of Rick Filighera's assistants at Maine in 1999-2000. That turned out to be another single-season stop on the way to Mike Sisti's staff at Mercyhurst from 2000-2003.
We've already seen the tremendous success the Lakers have experienced, and Fetter was pretty close to the ground floor as he started there in year two of the program. More specifically, he was there for the beginning of Mercyhurst's ridiculous (and still active) ten-year streak of winning both the regular season and playoff championships, first in the GLWHA, now in CHA.
It's not uncommon for women's hockey coaches to have experience starting a program in the relatively new sport, but Fetter has helped get two off the ground. Perhaps Wayne State AD Rob Fournier had that in the back of his mind when hiring him from Mercyhurst in 2003. After all, the Warriors had a pretty new program themselves (founded 1999), but original head coach Tom O'Malley stumbled to a 21-86-5 record, leading to the job opening.
On the surface, it was a slow build at WSU - the Warriors lingered around .500 for Fetter's first four years. But underneath, there were signs of progress. In Fetter's third year (2005-2006), he was the CHA coach of the year as the Warriors finished second in the CHA standings, but had a pair of freshmen - Melissa Boal and Sam Poyton - tie for the league scoring title and take home first-team all-conference honors. The next year brought a trip to the conference championship game, WSU's first-ever win against a ranked program, and a co-CHA coach of the year honor for Fetter.
Former captain Lindsay DiPietro
The major breakthrough was 2007-2008 with a 22-9-3 mark. The Warriors snapped a 33-game winless streak against Mercyhurst - and even chipped away at their conference dominance by tying for the CHA regular season title and winning the top seed for the playoffs by virtue of a winning record against the Lakers.
Boal, boosted by playing for an improved team, elevated her game to an even higher level and was named a Patty Kazmeier Award top ten finalist. Boal and linemate Poyton were again first-team all-CHA, along with senior goalie Valery Turcotte. And yes, Fetter was coach of the year for a third straight time. However, the dream of winning an NCAA tournament at-large bid (remember, no autobid for the CHA) ended with an overtime loss to the nemesis Lakers in the CHA championship game.
21-9-2 was the follow-up to that in 2008-2009, but once again, Mercyhurst blocked the way to even greater success - WSU was 0-5-0 against the Lakers, the last defeat again coming in the conference title game. To be fair, Mercyhurst made the NCAA championship game that season, so there are worse teams to go 0-5-0 against.
After that? The bottom completely fell out. 17-39-6 is what the last two seasons have produced. So what happened? You can probably start with losing 2009's senior class, which included Boal, Poyton, captain Lindsay DiPietro and defender Natalie Payne - the team's top four scorers by a wide margin (Payne had 1.6 times as many points as fifth-place Veronique Laramee-Paquette). You can probably continue with the fact that Wayne State isn't the easiest place in the world to win - the school dropped their men's program after 2007-2008, and the team plays at an off-campus public rink with 500 seats.
Basically, the facilities, finances and name recognition at Wayne State aren't bottom of the barrel. The barrel is in fact resting on top of them. The death of former Warrior Brandi Frakie undoubtedly put a damper on this past season as well.
Really, guys?
Whatever the case, I'm pretty sure Fetter didn't forget how to coach overnight. If that was the case, he wouldn't keep receiving calls from Hockey Canada.
In the summer of 2006, he was selected to Hockey Canada's National Women's Program Coaching Pool. Fetter served as an assistant coach for Team Canada's Under-18 squad for 2007-08 and has also worked summer evaluation camps with the U-22 and National women's team. For the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons, he was chosen as an assistant coach for the Under-22 team before being selected head coach in 2010-11.
Fetter would be a nice hire in my opinion - one who has been successful, one who could blossom with the chance to be a part of a big-time athletic department, and perhaps most importantly, one who won't cost all that much. We'll find out soon enough if the Penn State administration agrees.
Third in a series taking uninformed, uneducated guesses at the candidates to become the first head coach of Penn State's NCAA women's team. Previously: Mercyhurst coach Mike Sisti, Lady Icers coach Mo Stroemel.
If you don't follow NCAA women's hockey, you probably have no idea who Minnesota-Duluth head coach Shannon Miller is, despite the fact that she's been every bit as successful as her much-better-known rival in Madison and is one of the pre-eminent coaches in the sport. Since I'm pretty much guilty on that count as well, I'll learn along with you.
Right up front, I have to admit that there's not a whole lot tying Miller to Penn State other than an apparently keen interest on our part in everything UMD has to offer - including the arena and the men's coach. And also right up front, I really don't see much incentive for her to leave. She's paid better than Mark Johnson (even post-extension), and she's proven that she can win multiple national championships in Duluth. I suppose there's always the challenge of building something new and the possibility of even more money though.
Through following our pursuit of Scott Sandelin, we know a couple things:
Duluth AD Bob Nielson, who doubles as their football coach, is tight-fisted either by necessity or by choice.
Miller made more money than Sandelin, a situation that had to be unique in college hockey - until Sandelin finally signed a recent extension. But before that, Sandelin pulled in a $160,000 base salary while Miller makes a base of $180,000 (for what it's worth, Miller's contract is through 2013, so some buyout would have to take place, although possibly not a monumental one).
Those two facts lead to two assumptions on my part:
If Penn State wants Miller badly enough, Penn State can get Miller. UMD will not win a bidding war...
...although there might be a certain expectation of PSU on Miller's part. She's obviously not used to being treated like a second-class citizen.
While it's presumed that a guy like Johnson would only leave the Wisconsin women for a men's job, Miller seems to be more attainable for this particular situation. Really, and this goes for all candidates, I think the hire will say a lot about our athletic department's goals for the women's program. Are we gunning to be one of the nation's elite, or is this a matter of "well, we had to do this for Title IX, we're just trying not to lose too much money on the deal?" I hope it's the former, and hiring Miller would obviously be a sign of that being the case.
Miller is a 1985 University of Saskatchewan graduate and was a police officer in Calgary from 1988-1996. Of course, she was also involved in hockey during this time, including founding and coaching the 18U Alberta Women's Hockey team (the first girls minor hockey association in Calgary) in 1989 and continuing with Team Canada both in the Women's World Ice Hockey Championships (1992, 1994) and in the Olympics (1998).
On September 10, 1997, Minnesota-Duluth announced that it was starting a women's hockey program, and on April 20, 1998, Miller was hired as the first coach of the program fresh off of her silver medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics as head coach of Team Canada - not a bad way to start a program.
Here's a shameless copy/paste of UMD's Miller bio (with some minor updates from me since it doesn't include 2010-2011), because it does a good job capturing her Bulldogs career, and the spoils that come with her 313-87-34 career record:
As the only head coach UMD has ever employed, Miller...has led the Bulldogs to [ten] NCAA playoff appearances and four NCAA Championship titles, including three straight (2001, 2002 and 2003). She has led UMD into six NCAA Frozen Four berths, including two NCAA Championships in the past [four] seasons (2010 and 2008). No other hockey program in the country has won five titles, let alone three consecutive NCAA trophies.
Aside from her record haul of NCAA titles, Miller reached her [300th] career win faster than any other head coach in NCAA Division I history on [Nov. 20, 2010]. As the third winningest coach ever in Division I women's hockey, Miller is just one of two NCAA Division I coaches ever to have collected 200 wins after just eight seasons behind the bench. Miller is also just the fourth head coach ever to win 250 games while remaining at just one, very lucky, NCAA Division I program.
For her efforts, Miller was named the 2000 and 2003 Western Collegiate Hockey Association Coach of the Year and the 2003 American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) Women’s Division I Coach of the Year. Along with the incredible NCAA runs, her Bulldogs have captured [three] WCHA regular season titles (2010, 2003, 2000) and five WCHA playoff titles (2010, 2008, 2003, 2001, 2000).
That's pretty big time. Here's a link that goes into more detail on some of the highlights of Miller's tenure.
Eleven former Bulldogs have participated in the Olympics, but interestingly, only three played for the United States (Jenny Potter) or Canada (Caroline Ouellette and Haley Irwin). So much like we saw with Mike Sisti, Miller has a demonstrated ability to go where the players are.
Potter is the leading scorer in US women's Olympic history.
One other Olympian, Sweden's Maria Rooth, returned to Duluth this past season as Miller's assistant. She still stands as the program's all-time goals leader, and while the Patty Kazmeier award has never visited the UMD campus, Rooth was a three-time top 10 finalist (2000-2002). Of course, one other international player, Russia's Iya Gavrilova, might be a reason why Penn State won't touch Miller. I'll let the Minnesota Daily explain:
Duluth forward Iya Gavrilova, a freshman from Krasnoyarsk, Russia, is currently under investigation by the NCAA and the school. Gavrilova played on two teams in Moscow, where players have been known to receive payment, food, board and transportation.
That would be a serious violation of NCAA regulations and could result in the Bulldogs forfeiting every game Gavrilova made an appearance in, a total of 19 WCHA wins.
Ultimately, according to Duluth play-by-play man Bruce Ciskie, UMD had to forfeit their 2007-2008 WCHA regular season title and the wins, although they were allowed to keep their 2008 WCHA playoff and NCAA championships.
I'll venture to guess that even if PSU were willing to lay out to get Miller, that would scare them off. A whiff of impropriety, even if Miller was completely without blame in the situation, is surely the last thing the administration wants, right now or ever.
And basically, we're talking about one of the top programs out there, with Wisconsin really the only other school with an argument for the No. 1 spot in women's college hockey history. Just in case that wasn't completely obvious by this point. Like I said at the top, I'm not sure there's much incentive for Miller to leave that situation short of wanting a new challenge and a massive payday (that I'm not sure we'll be offering on the women's side) - but there's no doubt that this hire would set the new program off to an explosive start in the unlikely event that it happens.
Another trio of gems from Andrew Dzurita gets three-star recognition this week. Maybe the most encouraging thing about this recruiting class is the way each seems like a "Penn State type of guy." Thanks to these piece, we now know Venoit, Russo and Linaker fit as well.
These are highlights from Maine's juggernauty 1992-1993 season, running an hour total, conveniently divided into ten parts and put on YouTube. Why this? Well, 42-1-2 and a national championship was year 16 of the program's existence for one thing - and prior to 1993, the Black Bears had already been to six consecutive NCAA tournaments, including three Frozen Fours. Someone explain to me why Penn State can't equal or better that timeline. Oh, and it's narrated by Gary Thorne, so there's that.
Of course, a dozen years later, a guy by the name of Joe Wunderler had a chat with Chris Hansen and ruined everything. I could do without that part.
Wunderler isn't facepalming because he got caught chatting with a 13-year-old, he's just sick of asking who Chris Hansen is, and the reply of "I'll get to that in a minute."
I don't mean to be redundant with a second Linaker article, but I chose this one mainly for these passages:
"Coming back and playing with the scholarship makes it that much easier,” said Linaker Wednesday morning. “I know where I’m going next year, so I can come in and work hard, but have fun at the same time. That’s huge from my aspect."
“For [Penn State] to step up and offer me something was pretty huge,” he said.
Sounds to me like we may have the first scholarship player in Penn State hockey history. I can't say I know if anyone was offered one prior to now, but I do know that all recruits except Linaker are paying for at least one year of college, since everyone else committed to this point is coming in this year.
Linaker will play this season with the AJHL's St. Albert Steel.
There's part of me that feels a little guilty about stealing a high-end coach like Guy Gadowsky from Princeton. So it's nice to see them fill their unexpected and kind of late opening with the long-time St. Lawrence assistant, who's highly respected in the coaching community. In fact, some of that respect comes from Gadowsky:
"I am thrilled to hear of the hiring of Bob at Princeton," Gadowsky said. "He's a great all-around guy and he is a man of a lot of substance. I have really enjoyed watching his teams compete and play over the past seven seasons. They play an exciting brand of hockey, which will fit in perfectly with what Princeton fans and alumni have come to expect in the past few years."
And of course, this part isn't new information, but it's still fun to read:
Prier will take over a Princeton program that is currently in its best five-year run in program history. Princeton last three graduating classes have each completed their college careers as the winningest class in program history.
"The Princeton hockey program is in a terrific state," Prier said. "As a coach in the league, I have witnessed first hand the quality of player on the Princeton roster. They work hard and are fun to watch. Guy Gadowsky and his staff have done a fabulous job building the program. I appreciate it very much and look forward to continued success."
Want to hear even more nice things about Gadowsky? I can do that.
Bob Prier knows the kind of person he is following as head coach of the Princeton University men’s ice hockey program.
"I had the opportunity to go into the office today and I was looking around the office," Prier said at his introductory press conference on Tuesday. “I opened up a cabinet with a white board behind it and Guy (Gadowsky) had left me a wonderful note of congratulations and under that note on the white board there were a few ties.
"That is the kind of guy he is, thinking of other individuals. I’m actually wearing one of the ties he left me. There was a watch there as well and I’m hoping he meant to leave it and didn’t just forget it."
Michigan averaged 6,673 fans last season in a barn that seats 6,637, so don't ask me how the "higher ticket sales" thing works unless they're jacking up prices. Still, it's nice to see one of the three loaded-with-tradition Big Tenners (sorry Sparty, you miss the cut there) express something resembling excitement about the conference. It sure ain't coming from Minnesota.
Whalers captain, Olympic hero. It seemed unlikely that Mark Johnson could earn any more points with me - until he made his blowhard boss look like an idiot in the media.
So of Mark Johnson and Barry Alvarez, one's a first-rate coach and a better human being, and the other is a big, fat liar. I'll let you decide which is which.
Speaking of clearing up the craziness of Easter weekend...
Sandelin also said he was not offered the job. It was reported, elsewhere, that he withdrew his name from consideration. He did not. He was called by Battista on April 24, with Battista saying Sandelin was not Penn State’s choice.
There's only one problem with that. "Reported elsewhere" wasn't exactly me or some other blog cracking an egg of speculation - it was straight from Joe Battista's mouth:
The search committee debated for close to 16 hours on Saturday, according to Battista, who said one finalist, Scott Sandelin, took his name out of the running and return to Minnesota-Duluth, where he just won the national championship.
I'm going to have to back Battista on this one. Quite simply, he has less reason to lie about it. In fact, I'm surprised he'd admit to it at all, because one would think he'd want all of us to "know" that Gadowsky was picked over two well-qualified candidates who wanted the job.
Sandelin, on the other hand, is still negotiating an extension at UMD. And it seems to me that admitting he backed out costs him a ton of leverage in those negotiations. Where's the incentive from Bulldogs AD Bob Nielson to give Sandelin what he wants if he's not even willing to walk for the best opening in the country this year? If he's not leaving for Penn State, where would he go? North Dakota? Good luck waiting around for that job.
I can't honestly say I care though. Regardless of who was offered (or not), regardless of who backed out (or not), the road led to the best candidate, in my opinion. So I'm declaring this the end of me talking about it.
Since there’s not much to discuss along the lines of Penn State football this week, we’re going to talk some hockey.
Awesome, let's do that. Please continue.
There’s a buzz in Happy Valley with Division I-A hockey coming to town. In today’s edition of Morelli OnLion, we’ll explore the possibility of something very exciting.
OMG what?!?!? I NEED TO KNOW!!!
The time is right to play the Winter Classic at Beaver Stadium.
I hate you.
It's not that I don't want to see a Winter Classic in Beaver Stadium (who doesn't?), it's that a) I'm sick of that being the only "Penn State hockey" topic mainstream writers are capable of discussing and b) He tricked me. Not cool.
Anyway, although a signed contract and an official announcement are still pending, Nick Seravalli's brother is reporting that Flyers-Rangers at Philly's Citizen's Bank Park is a essentially a done deal, so don't get your hopes up.
Second in a series taking uninformed, uneducated guesses at the candidates to become the first head coach of Penn State's NCAA women's team. Previously: Mercyhurst coach Mike Sisti.
When I started this series on the men's side, I led off with Icers coach Scott Balboni. I suppose that it's now safe to admit that I did so mostly as a courtesy. I knew he wasn't going to be the guy and I'm sure he knew he wasn't going to be the guy too.
However this post, about Lady Icers coach Mo Stroemel, isn't the same thing. If the administration's goal is a splashy hire, or someone with proven success at the highest levels of NCAA women's hockey, he's obviously not going to be the guy. However, if you want a well-coached team that wins games, headed by a loyal Penn Stater, you could do a lot worse. And because Stroemel, uniquely among candidates, comes from a club background, he'll be able to do all of that efficiently - which may prove an important factor in all of this.
The West Chester native who played defenseman in high school tried out for the Icers in 1976, but didn't make it, and at one point gave up playing hockey altogether for 13 years. But as we all know, it's pretty much impossible to stay away from hockey forever. He re-entered the game through adult leagues in the late 1980s, then made his triumphant return to PSU as a member of the faculty. It didn't take very long for him to sign on as an assistant with the ACHA Men's Division 2 Ice Lions, a post he held from 1994 through 1997 before assuming the team's head coaching job. In Stroemel's final season as an assistant, the Ice Lions finished in the runner-up spot at the ACHA National Tournament, Penn State's best finish ever.
Stroemel was the Ice Lions head coach through 2004, and the nutshell version of his tenure reads as follows:
While coaching the Ice Lions, Stroemel piled up a 131-62-11 record, led his team to four national tournament berths, a final four appearance, and claimed the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 ACHA Men's Division 2 Northeast Region Coach of the Year awards.
That final four appearance came in his final season of 2003-2004, where forward Ryan Tocicki and goalie Dan Koletsky helped PSU roll through Miami (OH), Colorado State and Central Michigan before a 1-0 overtime heartbreaker against New York University eliminated them in the semifinals.
I think Stroemel's level of success with an ACHA D2 program is quite impressive in light of a couple facts:
ACHA Division 2 is dominated by schools like Life University, Davenport (when they were in D2) and Grand Valley State (the current champ), where the teams are the highest level of hockey played on campus. In fact, to date, Penn State is the only D2 program in history to play for a national championship while an ACHA D1 program also existed at the school (a few others have done so with an NCAA Division I program taking away the attention, but at the same time, there's no competition for players in that scenario).
Division 2 has, depending on the year, roughly three or four times as many teams as Division 1, yet only 16 make the national tournament (others are eliminated in four regional tournaments). So four trips to nationals in seven seasons is outstanding in my view.
He moved from the Ice Lions to assisting with the Division 1 Icers for three seasons, 2004-2007, spanning both the Battista and Balboni regimes. I'm going to assume some knowledge on your part there and just quickly point out PSU's record of 85-22-5 with Stroemel as an assistant, as well as the fact that the Icers played for the ACHA national championship in each of those seasons.
Following Penn State's 2007 title game loss to Oakland, Stroemel flipped over to the women's side, and he recently completed his fourth season behind the Lady Icers' bench. It was in this present position where he's shown some ability to build. In his first two years, PSU was 15-34-0, far off the pace the Lady Icers had established as one of the solid programs in women's Division 1.
By Stroemel's third year, however, things started to click. Penn State went 12-13-1 in 2009-2010, and gained the No. 7 ranking at the end of the regular season - good enough for the Lady Icers' first trip to nationals since 2007. And while things didn't go quite as planned there, the program's foundation had been re-set.
One only needs to recall this past season to see Stroemel's expertise in play. While on the surface 11-14-2 and missing the ACHA National Tournament looks like a step back, I'd argue that not completely bottoming out was a tremendous achievement in many respects. Consider:
While only one senior was lost from 2009-2010, that senior was Alicia Lepore - not only PSU's leading scorer, but the individual responsible for 26 percent of the Lady Icers' goals.
The Lady Icers were still extremely young last season, with only two seniors.
The team suffered a rash of concussions during the last three weekends of the season, with Kate Christoffersen, Amanda Yost and Abby Miller all going down. Christoffersen's concussion ended her career.
And of course, Stroemel and four of his key players were selected to compete with the first women's hockey team sent to the World University Games by USA Hockey. Notably, those four players included both of PSU's goalies during a crucial time of the season.
Still, Stroemel and Pat Fung (who took over bench duties while the head coach was in Turkey) guided the team to an 8-4-0 fall semester record, and PSU remained solidly in the national championship picture until an inexcusable snub put them out of the tournament. Meanwhile Stroemel, goalies Heather Rossi and Katie Vaughan, defender Lindsay Reihl and forward Denise Rohlik helped Team USA finish fourth at the WUG - the highest finish ever at the event, by either the men or women, since USA Hockey re-opened its participation in 2001.
Allie Rothman was Penn State's leading scorer among defenders as a freshman last season. She's one member of an extremely young team hoping to make the jump in 2012.
While all of this sounds pretty solid, there's one major issue with Stroemel that I don't think I've had to raise with any other HCC post: he has substantial interests outside of hockey. For example, he's a faculty member in Penn State's School of Theatre, specializing in technical theatre. Here's his resume in that area:
MFA and BA from Penn State. Technical Director for more than fifty productions over the last fifteen years. Production Stage Manager, Stage Manager, Technical Director South Jersey Regional Theatre; Propsmaster, Claridge Hotel and Casino, Atlantic City; Technical Theatre Specialist at Penn State; Guest Lecturer, Stockton State College, Pomona, NJ. Set design for Take Note, WPSX-TV. Local crew for National Tours of Les Miserables, CATS, and Sesame Street Live; Ongoing design and technical consultation with local high schools, businesses and other organizations. Member USITT (United States Institute for Theatre Technology), SETC (Southeastern Theatre Conference).
It's one thing if that's it. It's quite another when...
Stroemel has been writing and performing for over twenty years. Based in Central Pennsylvania, he has appeared in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Nashville, New York, Atlantic City, Florida and London. His songs connect with people of all ages and his personable and easy-going style make his live appearances fun and intimate.
Mo currently performs as a solo act and as a bass player with the Family Brew (formerly the Phyrst Phamly), a house band with a 40 year tradition at the Brewery in State College, PA.
He has performed at festivals including The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts and The People's Choice Festival.
He's independently released a couple albums as well, which draws from influences like Bob Dylan, Slaid Cleaves and Townes Van Zandt.
Maybe I'm wrong (I certainly have been before), but that doesn't sound like the type of passion you scale back for the demands of coaching at the NCAA level.
Since the hiring of Guy Gadowsky on the men's side, I had every intention of devoting most of my attention to the still-open women's job. But quite simply, I haven't seen dirt kicked around for the opening on nearly the same level as with the men. And to be brutally honest, I don't know the women's scene well enough to make educated guesses (it's a work in progress), as I did with a few of the men's Head Coach Candidate posts. So what I'm attempting to do now: drop the three to five of these that I might be able to squeeze out over the next couple weeks, then scramble to put together something on the man or woman who gets the job, which hopefully won't happen until after I'm done.
Mercyhurst coach Mike Sisti qualifies as the most-rumored candidate by virtue of being mentioned by two different people in message board posts (here and here). Granted, that's not exactly much to go on. But we do also know that Joe Battista and crew were at the women's Frozen Four this year, which Mercyhurst hosted. Said Battista:
That weekend I attended the NCAA Women's Frozen Four Hockey Championship in Erie, hosted by Mercyhurst College. I visited with an old hockey friend, Mercyhurst Women’s Coach Mike Sisti, who worked hockey camps for me years ago.
So Sisti and Battista are friendly and have worked together. The last time Battista was that open about speaking with a coach at a Frozen Four, it was Scott Sandelin. I've gone with worse than that.
There is some shared history with Sisti and the PSU men's program as opponents as well. As a player at Canisius (then an NCAA Division III team) from 1986-1990, Sisti went 2-0-0 against the Icers, including a 6-2 win at the Geneseo Invitational on November 4, 1988, against Battista's second team as Penn State's coach. Sisti had a great career for the Golden Griffins, putting up 163 points in 120 games, good enough to be inducted into the Canisius Hall of Fame in 2002.
A four-year letter winner in ice hockey, Sisti ranks fourth at Canisius in career scoring (163 points), third in career goals (74), and sixth in career assists (89). He shares the school record for single-game goals with four and holds the mark for single-season hat tricks with six...Sisti posted 13 goals and 19 assists to help the Griffs to a 21-11-0 record in 1986-87. He led Canisius in goals (33) and points (57) in 1988-89 and was named the team’s top forward.
With a resume like that, he undoubtedly had little problem getting a job behind the bench as a part-time assistant with his alma mater from 1990-1993. Canisius improved its record each season during that time, culminating in 1992-1993's 18-11-1 and ECAC West championship game appearance. Also included: another win against the Icers.
He left Buffalo in 1993, making the short trip down I-90 to Erie, and was an assistant coach with the Mercyhurst men's program from 1993-1999. Two more wins against PSU (we're up to 5-0-0 if you're counting) and an NCAA Division II runners-up slot (in 1994-1995) later, he was offered the chance to help start the Lakers' women's program.
After studying the situation and the state of women’s collegiate hockey, Sisti decided it was an offer too good to pass up.
“It was an awesome opportunity to be a head coach and not have to move,” Sisti said. “I love it. It turned out to be a great decision.”
It was a great decision for Mercyhurst, too. Sisti’s teams have averaged 25 wins a season for the [then] 10 years of women’s hockey, own a 74-3 record in College Hockey America and have been ranked in the top 10 in the coaches’ polls the last eight seasons. That success and ambitious scheduling has allowed little Mercyhurst to compete with big-time schools such as Wisconsin and Minnesota and prestigious institutions such as Brown, Colgate, Harvard and Syracuse.
Before I continue talking about Sisti's run coaching the Mercyhurst women, I think it's important to underscore all of it with what Mercyhurst College is: a Catholic school of about 4,400 students. In athletics, they're a Division II school (other than in men's and women's hockey), and basically anonymous outside of their immediate region. Yet Sisti has their women's hockey program rubbing shoulders with giants like Wisconsin, Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth. That's noteworthy.
During the first three seasons of the Lakers' program, Mercyhurst played in the Great Lakes Women's Hockey Association. They got up to speed quickly, winning the 2001 and 2002 regular season championships, as well as the 2002 playoff championship. When College Hockey America formed for 2002-2003, Mercyhurst jumped at the chance to be a charter member and they remains in CHA today, along with Niagara, Robert Morris, Syracuse and Wayne State (there's also a lot of talk that this will ultimately be Penn State's conference).
Constructing a CHA championship history is actually quite easy: write in Mercyhurst for every single regular season and conference tournament title in history, including this past season. Done. In the last seven of those seasons, the Lakers have also received a bid to the NCAA tournament, which should be considered a separate achievement, as the CHA does not receive an NCAA autobid due to only having five teams. While a championship has been elusive to this point (2009's title game loss to Wisconsin is the closest Mercyhurst has come), the Lakers are far from your typical overmatched small-conference team - other than that championship game, they've only ever lost one NCAA tournament game by more than a goal.
Sisti, for his part, has taken home his share of accolades in all of this. His 311-84-26 record means that he's the fifth-winningest women's Division I coach of all time, seventh across all divisions. He was the 2006-2007 USCHO coach of the year, in addition to taking home 2004-2005 honors from the AHCA.
Agosta just sniped. Or she's mad at me for not using a picture of her pounding Molson after Team Canada's gold medal win in the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Before you think Agosta was a one-woman program, consider that the Lakers made the Frozen Four in 2009-2010 without her, as she took the year off from school to train with the Olympic team. This is a program that runs surprisingly deep for a small school.
Players like Canadians Bendus, Bram and Agosta also highlight one particularly impressive thing about Sisti: his ability to recruit internationally. This past season, Mercyhurst's roster included just nine Americans and 14 from north of the border. Sweden, which has given Sisti players like former defender Johanna Malmstrom, has been another recruiting base in the past. While on the surface that seems to contradict the "Pennsylvania's a great hockey state, we can recruit within the region" party line, I think it shows great resourcefulness. He's finding the players to be an elite program wherever he can, with a budget that's undoubtedly significantly smaller than Mark Johnson's.
For 11 consecutive years, the team’s cumulative grade point average has been above a 3.0.
Pep talk? A little unoriginal, but sure.
Sounds like everything's in order for a quality hire, should PSU decide to go in this
direction. So let's jump out of this one with some more inspirational words from Sisti. Enjoy.
Guy Gadowsky, the man who will lead Penn State's push into the world of men's NCAA hockey, was formally introduced today via press conference.
Following a flattering introduction from Athletic Director Tim Curley, he began his segment of the event by discussing PSU's stellar reputation for academics. "Penn State does things right," he said. "When you hear about Penn State on ESPNEWS or in the news, it's about great things, it's not about bad things." Then later: "We're going to have perfect graduation rates, that's the goal," as well as "Penn State doesn't do things 99 percent."
So coach, why come to Penn State? "After meeting [Joe Battista] for five minutes, you just want to jump on board and come here," Gadowsky told the assembled audience, which included many members of the Icers.
While making numerous references to the spirit at Penn State that also helped draw him into the job, Gadowsky demonstrated an awareness of the large task at hand, as well as the confidence needed to get there eventually, saying that while the other programs in the Big Ten have a "head start," Penn State will join them eventually.
"They don't have our spirit," he said. "So, I think we're going to catch up sooner than people think. Hey, there's going to be some tough times. But you know what? I know we're going to have a lot of fun times during those times.
"And when we finally get this thing rolling, I think we're going to look back at those years when we've only been a few years in, and we're getting possibly shellacked by one of the Big Ten schools that have had championships and a lot of success, and they're going to enjoy that time because I think they know that payback's going to be coming."
At the same time, Gadowsky said, "I don't look at it actually like we're building from scratch at all, we have a great tradition here. So I think we're well ahead of the game."
Many of the questions focused on recruiting to a "non-hockey state," which has always been cited by outsiders as a major issue facing the fledgling program. But Penn State's newest coach talked up PSU's draw to recruits by saying that Canadian student-athletes are "going to love it here, they're just going to eat it up." He also cited the fact that the Mid-Atlantic Region and Pennsylvania are underrated for producing hockey players by saying "There's great hockey here...you can do a tremendous job here - and just wait until the rink comes."
Also in attendance at the press conference: Gadowsky's wife Melissa, the couple's two sons Mac and Magnus, as well as daughter Mia. Melissa's sister Kelsey McDonald is a Penn State sophomore.
Penn State has confirmed the hiring of now-former Princeton head coach Guy Gadowsky as the first-ever coach for PSU's men's NCAA team. My understanding at this time is that a press conference will take place at 3:00 p.m. Monday in the Bryce Jordan Center's Founder's Room.
Gadowsky comes to Penn State after successful NCAA coaching runs at both Princeton and Alaska, as well as a bevy of experience elsewhere prior to that.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; April 24, 2011 - Penn State Director of Athletics Tim Curley has announced the hiring of Guy Gadowsky, formerly of Princeton University, as the first head coach of the men's ice hockey program. The 2008 Inside College Hockey National Coach of the Year, Gadowsky brings 15 years of head coaching experience to lead the Nittany Lions into NCAA Division I competition starting in 2012-13. Gadowsky has spent the past seven years leading Princeton's resurgence, which includes NCAA Championship berths in 2008 and '09 and the 2008 ECAC Hockey Championship. A native of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, he was head coach at Alaska-Fairbanks for five years prior to taking the reins of the Princeton program and has earned league coach of the year honors at each of his three head coaching posts. "Guy is the perfect choice for Penn State," said Penn State President Graham Spanier. "He has been immensely successful, is a great motivator, knows how to build programs, and has strong academic values." "Pursuing success with honor. Building tradition. Achieving excellence. As we launch our hockey program at the Division I level, these are the on and off-ice expectations, and Guy Gadowsky has successfully accomplished these goals and more throughout his career. We welcome Guy and his family to Hockey Valley," said Curley. "I am absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to lead Penn State hockey during this transitional period and into Division I," Gadowsky said. "I am truly honored to join Penn State and the spirit, pride, passion, class and professionalism found within its students, staff and alumni. I am humbled by the tremendous gift by the Pegula family and the commitment by Penn State. This is a very exciting time for college hockey and Penn State and our family is thrilled to be joining the Penn State family."
In September 2010, the University announced an $88 million gift from Terrence M. and Kim Pegula, the largest private gift in Penn State's history, which was intended to fund a state-of-the-art, multi-purpose ice arena as well as help to establish an NCAA Division I men's hockey program. In conjunction with the gift, Penn State will establish an NCAA women's hockey program.
"I am very impressed with Guy, his pursuit of the challenge at hand and plans for Penn State hockey, stated Terry Pegula. "We are thrilled to have successfully courted a coach from such a strong academic institution with the passion, energy and the perfect demeanor for Penn State," commented Joe Battista, Associate Director of Athletics for Ice Arena and Hockey Development. "Guy has outstanding recruiting connections across North America and with USA Hockey and Hockey Canada and has built or revived programs in college and professional hockey." Appointed to the NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Committee through 2013, Gadowsky took over a Princeton program that had won a combined eight games in the two seasons prior to his arrival for the 2004-05 campaign. During his initial five seasons, the Tigers improved their win total each year, topped by a program record 22 victories in 2008-09. Gadowsky led Princeton to two of its three all-time NCAA Championship berths in the 110 years of the program, in 2008 and 2009. As a collegiate head coach, Gadowsky has helped develop nine players who have played in the National Hockey League, including three of his former Princeton players who have played in the NHL this season: Mike Moore (San Jose), Darroll Powe (Philadelphia) and Kevin Westgarth (Los Angeles). A 2011 Princeton senior, AHCA second-team All-American Taylor Fedun, signed with the Edmonton Oilers, after the Tigers' season was completed. Among some of Gadowsky's accomplishments as Princeton's head coach: - In 2007-08, the Tigers won their first outright Ivy League title and the ECAC Hockey Championship to earn their first NCAA Championship berth in 10 years. Gadowsky was selected Inside College Hockey National Coach of the Year, ECAC Coach of the Year and was a finalist for the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) National Coach of the Year;
- In 2008-09, Princeton earned its second consecutive NCAA berth after finishing third in the ECAC standings and tournament, winning a school record 22 games;
- Princeton has had seven All-Americans all-time, four of whom were coached by Gadowsky. The Tigers' Lee Jubinville (2008) and Zane Kalemba (2009) were ACHA All-Americans, as well as Princeton's first ECAC Players of the Year. They also were Princeton's initial finalists for the 2009 Hobey Baker Award, presented to the nation's top collegiate hockey player. Baker was a Princeton graduate;
- A total of 65 Princeton hockey student-athletes were named ECAC All-Academic Team members during the past six years;
- Led 2011 seniors to a program record 72 victories over the past four seasons;
- Posted a 105-109-15 record during his seven years with the Tigers and has the highest winning percentage among all Princeton head coaches since 1934. In seven years, Gadowsky ranks fourth in victories all-time for a program that began in 1900-01. Gadowsky re-built the Alaska-Fairbanks program from 1999-2000 through 2003-04. Taking over a program that lost at least 20 games in each of its five seasons as CCHA members, by Gadowsky's third season the Nanooks were 22-12-3 and ranked No. 11 nationally at the end of the 2001-02 campaign. He was a finalist for AHCA National Coach of the Year honors and was the CCHA Coach of the Year in 2002. Alaska-Fairbanks won 15 and 16 games, respectively, the next two years and hosted the first round CCHA playoffs twice for the first time in program history under Gadowsky's direction. One of 10 members of the NCAA's Regional Advisory Committee, Gadowsky was head coach and Director of Hockey Operations for the WCHL's Fresno Falcons for three years. He led Fresno to the WCHL playoffs all three years, was named WCHL Coach of the Year in 1987 and was the franchise's winningest coach when he left for Alaska-Fairbanks. Gadowsky played at Colorado College from 1986-89, earning a degree in economics. As a senior, he was the team captain and was selected winner of the team's Rodman Award, presented for Outstanding Leadership and Sportsmanship. Gadowsky was a three-time WCHA All-Academic Team member.
Gadowsky played professionally for seven years upon graduation, including stops with Richmond (ECHL), San Diego (IHL) and St. John's and Prince Edward Island of the American Hockey League. He also played with the Canadian National Team for a portion of the 1993-94 season and played professionally in Sweden, Holland and Austria. In 1995-96, Gadowsky joined Fresno and was selected the WCHL's Most Valuable Player and a first-team All-Star. He scored 52 goals and had 29 assists in 51 games as a player/coach, retiring as a player to become the Falcons' full-time head coach in 1996-97. The Penn State men's and women's ice hockey teams are slated to begin competition in the 2012-13 season as NCAA Division I independents. The directors of athletics of the six Big Ten Conference institutions that sponsor men's ice hockey will recommend to the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors in June the establishment of men's ice hockey as a conference sport with the 2013-14 season. Conference affiliation for the Penn State women's ice hockey program is to be determined. Pegula Ice Arena is slated to open in late 2013 and will be built on the corner of Curtin Road and University Drive, directly west of the Bryce Jordan Center. The new 200,000-square-foot, multi-purpose ice arena will be the only major rink within an 80-mile radius and will be on par with the best collegiate facilities in the country. It will include two ice sheets and other features that will allow it to be used for a broad range of campus and community activities, from commencement ceremonies to kinesiology classes to public skating sessions and camps for youth.
Gadowsky and his wife, Melissa, have two sons, Mac and Magnus, and a daughter, Mia.
Well, that was certainly an interesting 24 hours for me to say the least. I checked my phone every 12 seconds looking for an update. I became famous in Duluth. And College Hockey News earned first priority on linking stuff here in perpetuity by asking me for my opinion about stuff.
It short, I felt like an actual media person. And it was pretty cool, I won't lie. The net result was that my post about Scott Sandelin is already my fourth most viewed ever, even though it just went up early yesterday morning.
The unfortunate part is that those who are being introduced to me because of that might have the wrong impression of who I am and what I'm trying to do here. So in that spirit, let's take a step back and review.
Here's what we know about the men's coaching search. This is the common-knowledge stuff:
Interviews took place this past week.
There were three candidates interviewed (as well as three for the women).
Here's what I believe about the men's coaching search. This is all unconfirmed and based on what I've heard around the rumor mill, from people I trust:
The original plan - prior to the interviews - was to make an offer yesterday, then an announcement Monday.
Sandelin was the preferred choice going into the interviews and still is the preferred choice coming out.
Here's what threw a wrench into the second bullet point in that last group, at least in my opinion:
Joe Battista was at the Sabres-Flyers game last night with Terry Pegula. Obviously the possibilities for topics of conversation between the two are pretty much infinite, so there's really no point in guessing about that, but spending your evening doing that doesn't strike me as the action of someone who is working out the final stages of a coaching agreement.
Then again, Battista's a human dynamo and can fit a week's worth of activity into a day.
But realistically, I'm less confident in an announcement Monday than I was 24 hours ago. That puts us back to the original timetable on that: either early next week or possibly just after the American Hockey Coaches Association convention, during the week of May 2nd.
Hopefully that helps clarify my position on maybe the hottest discussion topic in all of college hockey right now.
UPDATE 2:20 P.M.: College Hockey News has confirmed that the announcement will not be made until after the AHCA convention.
Right off the top, I want to thank Penn State hockey booster and former coach Mark Horgas for his assistance in piecing things together, both for this post and with the coaching search generally. Anything I say in this post that sounds like good information and doesn't have a link probably goes back to him in one way or another. The guy is a tremendous asset to Penn State and Pennsylvania hockey, and knows everyone involved in both. If you're not following him on Twitter (@MarkHorgas), you're missing out.
This post is probably going to look slightly different than others in the series, for the simple reason that this isn't me guessing a name (or seeing one printed in some random place), it's me taking an ironclad known candidate, one widely believed to be the leader for the job, and exploring the situation a little. I'll do a quicker-than-normal rundown of the biographical stuff (or at least I'll try, I know brevity is not my strong suit), then get into the fun stuff that's probably the real reason you want to read posts like this one. So without further ado, here's the playing career:
Season Team Lge GP G A Pts PIM
-------------------------------------------------------------
1982-83 U. of North Dakota WCHA 30 1 6 7 10
1983-84 U. of North Dakota WCHA 41 4 23 27 24
1984-85 U. of North Dakota WCHA 38 4 17 21 30
1985-86 U. of North Dakota WCHA 40 7 31 38 38 1985-86 Sherbrooke Canadiens AHL 6 0 2 2 2
1986-87 Sherbrooke Canadiens AHL 74 7 22 29 35
1986-87 Montreal Canadiens NHL 1 0 0 0 0
1987-88 Sherbrooke Canadiens AHL 58 8 14 22 35
1987-88 Montreal Canadiens NHL 8 0 1 1 2
1988-89 Sherbrooke Canadiens AHL 12 0 9 9 8
1988-89 Hershey Bears AHL 39 6 9 15 38
1989-90 Hershey Bears AHL 70 4 27 31 38
1990-91 Hershey Bears AHL 39 3 10 13 21
1990-91 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 15 0 3 3 0
1991-92 Kalamazoo Wings IHL 49 3 18 21 32
1991-92 Minnesota North Stars NHL 1 0 0 0 0
-------------------------------------------------------------
His senior year at North Dakota was nothing short of a massive awards haul: Hobey Baker finalist, first-team All-WCHA, second-team All-American, team MVP and captain. Unfortunately for Sandelin, North Dakota won national championships the year before he showed up and the year after he left, but not during his time in Grand Forks. He did make one trip to the Frozen Four, but then this happened (Sandelin is No. 5 for UND):
A pretty substantial professional playing career followed for the defenseman from Hibbing, MN, spent entirely in the NHL and AAA-level minor leagues. That three-season run with Hershey towards the end of his career is particularly significant, because...
Sandelin's wife, Wendy, is from the Central Pennsylvania area and a [1988] Penn State [nursing] graduate. The two met while he was playing with Hershey, then the AHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers.
After a chronic back injury forced the end of his playing career, Sandelin served as GM and coach of the Fargo-Moorhead Express of the American Hockey Association in 1992-1993, a league that didn't even survive long enough to declare its first champion. But at least the Express were in first place at the time, so give Sandelin credit for winning while probably worrying whether he'd be paid. The next season he coached juniors, also in the Fargo-Moorhead area.
From there, six years (1994-2000) were spent assisting Dean Blais (now Nebraska-Omaha's coach) at North Dakota, where he'd make up for the missing out on the NCAA championship thing. Twice. What's pretty impressive about that run is that in its entire storied hockey history, the Sioux have only suffered three consecutive losing seasons twice. Blais and Sandelin arrived in town following the latter of those stretches, and by year three, 1996-1997, they were national champions. And in Sandelin's last four seasons there, they won either the MacNaughton Cup (WCHA regular season title), the Broadmoor Trophy (WCHA tournament championship) or both each season, as well as another national title in 2000.
Not surprisingly, Minnesota-Duluth, which had fallen off significantly since the time of Brett Hull, took a shot on the guy who had played a huge role in most areas of the Sioux program, and head coach of the Bulldogs has been Sandelin's job title for the last 11 years of his life. Those seasons divide pretty neatly into three stages.
In each of the first four, Duluth's record improved, culminating with a 28-13-4 record in 2003-2004, which included a Spencer Penrose Award (coach of the year) for Sandelin, a Hobey Baker Award for right wing Junior Lessard and a Frozen Four run.
Next up were four consecutive losing seasons, the only major blemish on Sandelin's resume. Things got kind of rough up Duluth way, even to the point where firing Sandelin was considered a viable option (in the comments, not the original post), although it seems like he had supporters throughout as well.
Finally, there's a reload starting with 2008-2009 and a Broadmoor Trophy that year and including players like Jack Connolly, Mike Connolly and Justin Fontaine (who formed one of the best lines in college hockey) and Pittsburgh-native goalie Kenny Reiter. We all know how that second reload ended:
Two more things you need to know about Sandelin: 1. He was just named as one of Blais' Team USA assistants for the World Junior Championships this coming December and January, a tremendous honor for any college hockey coach, and 2. He's entering the final year of his contract with UM-D and is currently negotiating an extension.
Sandelin, 46, has one year remaining on a two-year UMD contract. He finished the 2010-11 season 26-10-6 in winning the Division I title April 9. He’s 192-200-52 in 11 seasons at UMD.
He talked about a UMD contract extension last Friday with athletic director Bob Nielson, and is to meet again Tuesday.
“We’ll continue to talk and see where that goes,” Sandelin said of discussions with Nielson.
“Our desire is for Scott to be our hockey coach for a long time,” said Nielson. “He’s done a great job and we are working toward a new contract, but I also know that successful coaches have opportunities to talk to other schools and explore other possibilities. I’ve never faulted a coach for doing that.”
What adds some intrigue is that Sandelin's interview at Penn State took place yesterday, two days after the meeting with the Duluth brass. Undoubtedly, Sandelin came to Happy Valley armed with what he was being offered at UM-D, and so far, there's no indication whatsoever that Joe Battista and company blinked.
So how does Penn State go from a tight budget to possibly hiring away a guy who just won a national championship and is leveraging competing offers against each other? Well, look no further than Penn State's wrestling program, Cael Sanderson and Ira Lubert for that answer.
Of course, when it comes to Penn State hockey and deep-pocketed boosters, Terry Pegula heads the list. And if Pegula likes the guy Battista wants to hire, I think it's obvious that he'll help pay the difference between the budget and the demand - not to mention any of the other accommodations that might be required to draw a guy like Sandelin away from the upper midwest for the first time in his coaching career. Even beyond the money, people from all around the hockey world have taken note of what's been going on in Buffalo since Pegula took the reins. The franchise has been reborn in its 40th year, and has almost instantly gone from also-ran to chic destination. People, even national championship-winning coaches, want to be associated with a guy who makes things like that happen. Some people even go so far as to name blogs after them.
One of the possible accommodations I alluded to? UM-D assistant Derek Plante is a former Sabre. The idea that he might be part of the Sandelin package probably didn't hurt when selling the plan to Pegula.
Is Scott Sandelin the Cael Sanderson of Penn State hockey? If he's ultimately the guy, I certainly hope so. While a national championship in year two might be asking a little much, getting there eventually is the goal. And Sandelin's been there already. Three times.
If you squint, you can almost picture this being the Pegula Ice Arena - and quicker than some would have you believe.
Horgas believes that the hire will be made before the American Hockey Coaches Association convention, which begins on April 28th, better known at this point as "next Thursday." Based on the agenda, and the fact that meetings start early that day (with a couple things the evening before as well), Wednesday seems like a travel day to me. Not to say that a flight to Florida and a press conference can't be done in the same day, but it seems a little less likely.
In other words, I should probably acknowledge that this post possibly concludes this series. If Horgas is right, by next Wednesday we'll either have a head coach, or the noise about an announcement will render another post pointless.
If this in fact it, I hope that you've found these posts as informative as I have - researching them has provided me with a great opportunity to learn a lot, not just about some of the best coaches out there, but also about some of the programs that make up the great sport of college hockey. It's been a great run, and it's made me even more excited to be a part of the NCAA picture in 2012.
Former Kingswood Oxford School head coach Casey McCullion has been hired as an assistant for the women's team. 
