RPI Women's Hockey

[broomball52]

Glad to hear that Welte, Schiff, Rabatin, and Jankowski will get one year at D-I and Aho and Daniels will get two.

As the release stated, RPI will have 18 scholarships. As RPIRED and Ralph pointed out this is a bg difference in the building process compared to Union.

Using Clarkson as a model, they have a team of freshmen, and they have grown from thier experience as a D-I team. Next years recruits will push this years players for their spots and so on for each year afterwards and after 4 years the team should be at least a middle of the road ECAC team. RPI will be a bit different since they have an established program and will have upperclassmen who played D-III. They will get pushed by the new "D-I" recruits. So currnet players who get a chance to play D-I have the talent to play D-I and they will do fine in elevating RPI to a D-I proram.

[purple_and_gold10]

Originally posted by broomball52
Glad to hear that Welte, Schiff, Rabatin, and Jankowski will get one year at D-I and Aho and Daniels will get two.

As the release stated, RPI will have 18 scholarships. As RPIRED and Ralph pointed out this is a bg difference in the building process compared to Union.

Using Clarkson as a model, they have a team of freshmen, and they have grown from thier experience as a D-I team. Next years recruits will push this years players for their spots and so on for each year afterwards and after 4 years the team should be at least a middle of the road ECAC team. RPI will be a bit different since they have an established program and will have upperclassmen who played D-III. They will get pushed by the new "D-I" recruits. So currnet players who get a chance to play D-I have the talent to play D-I and they will do fine in elevating RPI to a D-I proram.

RPI has a huge advantage next year recruiting wise! They are gonna land some very very good recruits because of the D1 move next year...they are gonna land those lesser D1 recruits that will only have to play one year of D3 building up their college experience and probably winning a national championship or coming pretty darn close while waiting for next season's d1 move.....RPI is setting theirselves up for a great send-off year next year...I'd look for them to not only push Manhattanville to the brink but they might also surpass them and make the NCAA's for the first time....

[LoneStar]

P&G10.....While in theory you are correct about the "prospect" of RPI having an advantage in recruiting, I'd say that the impact kids to take them past Elmira, Plattsburgh and Manhattanville won't arrive in September 04.

For the most part, the recruiting year is over and coaches are already looking at the junior class of '05 prospects. If the RPI staff hasn't gotten the apps yet, it's too late.

That is unless the RPI administration goes to rolling admissions which quality institutions like RPI don't have.

[purple_and_gold10]

Originally posted by LoneStar
P&G10.....While in theory you are correct about the "prospect" of RPI having an advantage in recruiting, I'd say that the impact kids to take them past Elmira, Plattsburgh and Manhattanville won't arrive in September 04.

For the most part, the recruiting year is over and coaches are already looking at the junior class of '05 prospects. If the RPI staff hasn't gotten the apps yet, it's too late.

That is unless the RPI administration goes to rolling admissions which quality institutions like RPI don't have.

true...i was thinking about as i typed it...But then i thought....D3 colleges dont have Letters of Intention so i thought that there could still be some undecideds out there...we'll just have to wait and see. RPI has definitely set a solid foundation for their program as they have some great young players like Aho, Welte, and Schiff...Mix in that with what they will be getting next year and the year after and RPI will already have a strong start for their first year of D1 hockey....

[Red Cloud]

Originally posted by LoneStar
For the most part, the recruiting year is over and coaches are already looking at the junior class of '05 prospects. If the RPI staff hasn't gotten the apps yet, it's too late. Bear in mind, though, that the D-I jump has been long expected (I'm not sure we would have landed Aho if had not been for the expectation that she'd get a chance to play D-I hockey for at least a year), and the initial announcement came back in January though the timeline did not come out until now, which gave plenty of opportunity for those who were thinking about D-I hockey but maybe not ready to play for Harvard or St. Lawrence or Minnesota a chance to think about being a D-I pioneer at RPI.

Assuming that next year's recruiting class will be building on the last two years, there are going to be some big expectations in Troy next season. At this point it seems like anything less than an NCAA berth wouldn't be viewed as a successful season, especially with who the Engineers are bringing back for the 04-05 campaign.

[hab]

Originally posted by broomball52
Glad to hear that Welte, Schiff, Rabatin, and Jankowski will get one year at D-I and Aho and Daniels will get two.

As the release stated, RPI will have 18 scholarships. As RPIRED and Ralph pointed out this is a bg difference in the building process compared to Union.

Using Clarkson as a model, they have a team of freshmen, and they have grown from thier experience as a D-I team. Next years recruits will push this years players for their spots and so on for each year afterwards and after 4 years the team should be at least a middle of the road ECAC team. RPI will be a bit different since they have an established program and will have upperclassmen who played D-III. They will get pushed by the new "D-I" recruits. So currnet players who get a chance to play D-I have the talent to play D-I and they will do fine in elevating RPI to a D-I proram.

Great to see the decision made and also happy to see that they are going to spend a year at Div 1 Independent before jumping into the best women's college hockey conference in the world. It will all depend on recruiting success and coaching, but I agree with Broomball that RPI has a head start over where Union and Clarkson were: a small core of current Freshmen and Sophomores who have the capability to compete at the Div 1 level. And don't forget that this team tied both Union and Clarkson this year and beat Quinnipiac. I think that they will find both Union and Clarkson to be a lot tougher if they play them in '04'05. I saw Union late in the season against Dartmouth, and although of course the score wasn't close I was impressed with how much Union has improved after a season skating against some of the best.

[Ralph Baer]

Albany Times-Union article (http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=231292&category=SPORTS&newsdate=3/23/2004)

[Ralph Baer]

Any news about RPI recruits for this fall?

[rpi_fan03]

Well so far I have no definite info on who they are or where they're from...the late timing in recruiting season of the announcement of the timeline to go D1 hurt a little from what I can tell...there were between 8 and 10 girls who were considering RPI and the majority of them were D1 level but decided to go to other schools to play D1 right away because they had not heard one way or the other about when RPI would go....

but I have heard two different stories of girls who ARE going...one had 3 forwards and 3 defence and the other was 2 and 2...so at least the senior class will be replaced (in numbers)...a lot of the girls coming back are very strong so it should be another good year.

[Ralph Baer]

Originally posted by RPI_fan03
Well so far I have no definite info on who they are or where they're from...the late timing in recruiting season of the announcement of the timeline to go D1 hurt a little from what I can tell...there were between 8 and 10 girls who were considering RPI and the majority of them were D1 level but decided to go to other schools to play D1 right away because they had not heard one way or the other about when RPI would go....

but I have heard two different stories of girls who ARE going...one had 3 forwards and 3 defence and the other was 2 and 2...so at least the senior class will be replaced (in numbers)...a lot of the girls coming back are very strong so it should be another good year. There is one recruit mentioned so far on the D-III recruits thread, Kelly Barbera, a defender for the Sound Shore Warriors. She apparently previous played for The Gunnery School. http://www.eteamz.com/soundshorewarriors/roster/index.cfm?season=252667&sport=12&subsite=1378735&league=215908&id=3173725 . I didn't find her stats for last season. I did find this http://www.atlantichockey.org/stats/lev61cume.html which gives a stat line of 16-7-3-10-12. I don't know what this listing represents. I don't think that it is for a season. Interestingly, no forward had as many as 7 goals for the Sound Shore Warriors.

On the negative side, she does not appear on the RPI locator at www.rpi.edu , so maybe she isn't going to attend RPI.

[hockeysb11]

Ralph The Sound Shore Warriors have 2 19U teams one is a tournament team only which is the team Kelly played for, they were the runner ups to Buffalo in the NYS tournament. The other 19U team was a B-team set up to accomodate 3 seniors who were not in prep school who also played for the Tournament Team. The stats you see are only for Atlantic league games.

[Ralph Baer]

Originally posted by hockeysb11
Ralph The Sound Shore Warriors have 2 19U teams one is a tournament team only which is the team Kelly played for, they were the runner ups to Buffalo in the NYS tournament. The other 19U team was a B-team set up to accomodate 3 seniors who were not in prep school who also played for the Tournament Team. The stats you see are only for Atlantic league games. I think that I understand that. I did notice the other 19U team. You are saying that there were indeed additional games.

[starsparents]

Ralph, I saw that Sound Shore Warrior team tie NAHA #1 in the Charles River Tournament, thats a serious team, the Barbera kid is a tall strong offensive defensman type. That team finished second in New York State, I think they only lost to Buffalo? and maybe to Polar Bears, they got a few strong forwards from Northwood (upstate NY Prep School) that can really go, They also have a goalie from Berkshire, Bonanno, who is super, and Beck from Bershire too. If Barbera goes to RPI you`ll get a quality player who can play right away.

Phil

[Ralph Baer]

Originally posted by Ralph Baer
On the negative side, she does not appear on the RPI locator at www.rpi.edu , so maybe she isn't going to attend RPI. She's now on the locator:

name: Barbera, Kelly
curriculum: Management
class: FR
rcsid: barbek

[hockeyfan17]

I've had the oppurtunity to see Kelly Barbera play at Gunnery last year and I was very impressed with her ability to rush the puck and see the game. She's a solid player with graet size and vision, I believe she will contibute alot bext year, and make an impact at the college level.

[leeb]

I did some quick searching for Kelly Barbera and here are some links. Not an abundance of information out there but it sounds like she's got some offensive ability.

The Gunnery (http://www.gunnery.org/gunnery/athletics/teamInfo.aspx?TeamID=186&term=WINTER)

Kelly Barbera - Empire State Games (http://www.pressrepublican.com/Archive/2001/07_2001/07302001s4.htm)

Here's the relevant part for the second link....

"Jessica Matthews scored midway through the first period Sunday to put Adirondack ahead 1-0.

But a roughing penalty gave Long Island a power play with less than seven minutes to go in the game, and the bronze medalists capitalized.

Kelly Barbera blasted home the equalizer from the point on a feed from Samantha Faber with 6:39 left."

[kaven]

Do not worry, she was a top defenceman from a quality club program, we tied Sound Shore Warriors this season, she and they can play

[Ralph Baer]

Well, that's one recruit whom we have had uniformly positive reports about. Does anyone know of any other recruits?

[Ralph Baer]

Originally posted by Ralph Baer
She's now on the locator:

name: Barbera, Kelly
curriculum: Management
class: FR
rcsid: barbek I wonder if RPI going D-I in women's hockey will mean that 90% of the team will be management majors, like the men's team. As a D-III team, there was always a variety of majors.

[hab]

Any word on what RPI's schedule will look like? My first thought was that this is a transition year on the move to Div 1 and that they will probably try to work a number of games in against bottom tier Div 1 teams, like last year. On the other hand, this is their last chance to make it to Div 3 nationals after missing by a whisker the last two years. And it seems that they get hurt in the ranking systems by having a lot of Div 1 games. Last year, some of RPI's best performances were in the match-ups against Div 1 teams, but they don't count in the rankings. And by having those games in their schedule they limited their opportunities for non-conference games against top Div 3 teams. One rumour that I have heard is that their only Div 1 game this year will be against Union, which suggests that they have their sights set on Div 3 impact versus transition to Div 1. Clarkson has published their sched, and RPI isn't on it, so we will have to wait awhile to see that rivalry resume from last year's 2-2 tie. However, I think I agree with the idea of focusing on games against top Div 3 teams this year, if that is what RPI has in mind. Does anybody have any information on what the sched will look like, or any thoughts on what you would like to see?