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Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

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  • Originally posted by techtodenver View Post
    Do you think it is his fault or is it that he has no backing from the administration/alums, while I feel it's time for Whittet as well because 8 years is plenty to form your program into something I don't think it's all his fault and in order to be a successful Ivy League coach I feel you need to have established recruiting relationships and something to sell. I think Whittet is a good recruiter but the school he's at it's not possible to be a good recruiter when you have very little to show for with the on ice product coupling that with the academic stress. I'm with you because if you look at Princeton who was in a similar spot after Gadowsky and then Fogarty got a few good classes in and they should be up around the top half in future years.
    I've made previous posts about the administration's lack of support for the program/overal ineptitude. I certainly don't blame Whittet entirely, and I emphathize with him in many ways. He seems like a truly great person, and is a great representative for Brown who loves his alma mater.

    But that doesn't absolve him of his failure to elevate this program. He needs to go, and the athletics department needs to commit more resources to the program to A. Find the right coach, and B. Give him what he needs to compete.

    Certainly, Whittet has proven himself to be an apt recruiter. He was undoubtedly hurt by the MANY players who either decommitted from Brown (Kevin Roy and Phil Kemp), didn't get in to Brown (Miles Wood) or didn't receive a desirable financial aid package due to the Ivy League's rule against scholarships (Blake Weyrick).

    But he's also had a team with THREE NHL draft picks on it for three years now and has seen his win total depreciate each season. A number of his former players play professionally but achieved no success while at Brown. He gets talent. But he doesn't get it to perform. That should be a dealbreaker for any coach.

    Firing Whittet won't heal all wounds. But it's a start. And it needs to happen immediately.

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    • Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

      I'm not sure how to begin but I'm very sure of how to end. For four years we have all witnessed the demise of the Brown hockey program. I will refer to him as Whittit as coach does not belong in front of his name. We have watched him yell on the bench, throw his arms to the air (when they are not crossed which is 90% of the time) and whisper to his assistants as another play goes bad. The humiliation he tried to put on the players only shines on him.

      I wrote a post three years ago when you saw the pattern of his coaching of sitting seniors and living and dying with his freshman class. I mentioned in the post " it will never work out playing your freshman class and to give the juniors and seniors their team back". My comment was not warmly received but I am content to witness my words played out. In this senior class alone - how do you sporadically play Rossi for four years, Doane for three, sit Wood for his senior and destroy Bryzbeck, Middleton and Ernst along the way. All recruited and talented players that never felt the development of the game but only the passion of the sport taken from them. To sit Rossi and Wood in the stands as seniors when you are 59th in the country out of 60 is disturbing.

      So man up AD and watch the films of the past four seasons and the embarrassing body language of your hockey coach as 22 players sat destroyed in front of him. Stop the humiliation of Brown hockey and the student athlete. End the bleeding.

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      • Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

        I'm not ready to quit on Brendan. He can coach as shown by what he did his first year with players such as Harry, Volpatti, Pietrus that were underperforming with Grillo. He developed Lorito, Lappin, Hathaway, Farnham, harry Z and Robertson. Sure, we have been going downhill but I would like to know what support he is getting from Brown, admissions, financial support for the program and asst coaches. (Brown sports overall over the past few years, except lacrosse), have declined. I really liked Mark White as his asst but it looked like he couldn't afford to stay on. He has been hurt by poor goalie play over the past few years; his only goalie recruit that worked out was Borelli and he sat for 3 years before he started to play. The team has been hurt by taking poor penalties. But I am troubled by the play of the special teams this year and the loss of players over the past few years, Doherty, Scherer, the Dman from Northwoods 4 years ago whom I though was a keeper.

        Maye the key is whether he has the support of his team. I don't know the answere to that.

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        • Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

          I've seen a fair share of Brown games over the years and there just doesn't seem to be an identity, year in year out you have some productive players but no depth. The defense is troubling for sure, I thought Nieto looked great in juniors and I don't believe he is as bad as his numbers show but the defense lets up grade As left and right. While the 3 draft picks are great to have they also were young coming in and the ECAC has a lot of older teams, Brown struggles to find bottom 6 talent that can skate play a tough hard two-way game, I always see it with Brown teams 3-4 guys with 30-40 points and then a significant drop off after that, Lafferty, Willman, Corcoran are solid players, Bird as well I'd say but the production isn't there, the others produce but it's not enough, I never see a Brown team being tough to play against they always seem to want to go north south. I am a Clarkson fan and under Casey Jones we have been a bigger physical team that likes to grind it out in the corners so that always seems to trouble a team like Brown but still you would figure things would change over the years, Casey has transitioned Clarkson and we are starting to become a balanced team with some top end skill and it all starts with recruiting.

          This is one thing that always has shocked me with Whittet as when he burst onto the scene as a young coach I thought of Brown as a potential sleeper and that he will really be able to make an impact on the recruiting trail and relate to these younger guys and get them to commit in the program. I was dead wrong on that and I will admit it, he has found a bit of success with getting top end guys in Nieto, Lappin, Lorito, and the guys now and I'm sure there are others over the years I can't remember but the role/character guys that will do anything for the team, that can win a important face-off, block an important shot, kill an important penalty just aren't there. Going forward Luke Kania seems like he has the potential to push Nieto and hopefully solidify things in net and then Chris Berger looks like a promising recruit along with Colin Burston who is putting up good numbers on a good Wenatchee team, I also see there are a few USHL 97/98s that could be for next year so that's always promising because the pace in the USHL is the best simulation to the college game, the recent get of Dorian Dawson will help in terms of being tougher to play against, who knows maybe it just has taken Whittet a long time to establish recruiting connections but he has to be on thin ice.
          Last edited by techtodenver; 03-05-2017, 10:28 PM.

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          • Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

            It's like the BDH knew we were talking about this and needed some more data!

            http://www.browndailyherald.com/2017...form=hootsuite

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            • Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

              RPI fired Seth Appert today. Appert had a significantly better record at RPI than Whittet has had at Brown in roughly the same time period. C'mon, Jack.

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              • Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

                Where is the pride in athletics at Brown? Not to be found on the admission office's Web site, where Brown positions itself for prospective students. The web page deservedly praises the academic achievements of Brown varsity athletes. But there is no rah-rah mention of competitive success:

                VIEW BOOK TEXT: A member of the Ivy League, Brown has the nation’s fourth largest collegiate athletic program (and first largest program for women), with 900 athletes competing on 37 varsity sports teams — 17 for men and 20 for women. Brown’s athletes are high-achieving students active in many areas of campus life and the community. In 2012, for example, the NCAA honored 20 Brown teams with awards for academic achievement.

                From the corresponding page in Princeton's online view book:
                We have one of the largest and most successful athletic programs in NCAA Division I; Princeton teams have won more Ivy League championships than any other school during the last two decades, and several Princeton teams have won national titles. A number of Princeton athletes participated in the 2016 Olympics, and one brought home a gold medal. About 18 percent of undergraduates participate in varsity sports. Varsity teams practice and play in the University's superior athletic facilities.


                There is a glaring absence of institutional appreciation for varsity sports at Brown, and it infects all parts of the community - administration, faculty, students, and increasingly, alumni. Success is the one proven way to turn around this bad attitude. What we're seeing, folks, is the result of chronic neglect and administrative apathy.

                Yuge disappointment ... bigly. Sad. Bad.

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                • Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

                  "I'm not ready to quit on Brendan"...oh please - be part of the solution not part of the problem. Its responses like this that give him another year. He was given talent and destroyed it. The students that decomitted did it with obvious reasons - coaching. The talent was there but the coaching was obsolete. Put the blame on whatever or whoever you want. He was dealt talent that most schools would of killed for and he found a way to destroy them. Fire him to start the rebuilding of a program that he solely killed.

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                  • Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

                    Jack who? lol he's on the lacrosse field

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                    • Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

                      Listen this is very simple, the coach is an idiot and needs to be fired ASAP.

                      The AD who cares very little about hockey program needs to wake up.

                      Sitting Tyler Wood throughout season, probably your best defensive defenseman when you give up more than 6 goals a game is idiotic, why? Kid plays close to 90 games over 3 years and during his senior season, you screw the kid and sit him, just dumb.

                      Sitting Ernst last series weekend, a senior witch an impressive Goals Against, playing for a horribly coached team should count for something. Again why?

                      Its simple, this idiot needs to be fired now, I will go so far as to offer $50,000 donation to Brown Hockey Program if they fire this clown. Everyone loves Assistant Coach from Northeastern, Jason, make him the coach, he gets it, he is respected, simple answer.

                      I sat through so many games this season "steaming" from the bafoon coaching from head coach. Just a joke.

                      My name is Eric Schnairsohn, I am not hiding from anyone, 50K to program if they can this clown, NOW.

                      Its that simple.

                      Eric

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                      • Originally posted by eschnairsohn View Post
                        Listen this is very simple, the coach is an idiot and needs to be fired ASAP.

                        The AD who cares very little about hockey program needs to wake up.

                        Sitting Tyler Wood throughout season, probably your best defensive defenseman when you give up more than 6 goals a game is idiotic, why? Kid plays close to 90 games over 3 years and during his senior season, you screw the kid and sit him, just dumb.

                        Sitting Ernst last series weekend, a senior witch an impressive Goals Against, playing for a horribly coached team should count for something. Again why?

                        Its simple, this idiot needs to be fired now, I will go so far as to offer $50,000 donation to Brown Hockey Program if they fire this clown. Everyone loves Assistant Coach from Northeastern, Jason, make him the coach, he gets it, he is respected, simple answer.

                        I sat through so many games this season "steaming" from the bafoon coaching from head coach. Just a joke.

                        My name is Eric Schnairsohn, I am not hiding from anyone, 50K to program if they can this clown, NOW.

                        Its that simple.

                        Eric
                        Hate to pile on but went to Brown game in Providence. 50 max attendance.why would anyone play there? In addition watched 3 games this year vs Q. Have never watched a worst coached team than Brown. Talent exists on team....no systems, and kids quit in 2nd period . Coach might be worst I have ever watched. I have been around College hockey since 76. Brown was once the pride of hockey

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                        • Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

                          Originally posted by n View Post
                          Jack who? lol he's on the lacrosse field
                          He can be found at the Piz supporting basketball. Look for the starched empty white shirt.

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                          • Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

                            Originally posted by Hank81 View Post
                            Hate to pile on but went to Brown game in Providence. 50 max attendance.why would anyone play there? In addition watched 3 games this year vs Q. Have never watched a worst coached team than Brown. Talent exists on team....no systems, and kids quit in 2nd period . Coach might be worst I have ever watched. I have been around College hockey since 76. Brown was once the pride of hockey
                            Yep. It wasn't always this way. Brown has had attendance issues for as long as I can remember, but there used to be a solid season ticket holder base and most games would have a decent student contingent. Meehan would typically be about 2/3 full in the late '90s and early-to-mid '00s. Now we're dealing with youth league crowds. Friends, family, a handful (literally) of loyal longtime diehards, and the visiting fans.

                            I was vehemently anti-Grillo in his final years at the helm, but at least those teams competed. Brown was often at the bottom of the standings, but did not exclusively reside there. Now we do. It's shameful. I'm not sure how Brendan managed to have a few competitive teams in his first few seasons (they improved each of his first two seasons and then made a huge jump in his fourth) but can't seem to establish an identity or even a system today. It's truly bizarre, and it's gone on long enough.

                            I'm glad to see some people coming out of the woodwork on here to express their concern, though I can't say I agree with (or have enough inside knowledge of the situation to comment on) some of the more...er... "strongly worded" sentiments. People care about this program. They've just had no reason to do so recently.
                            Last edited by kdiff77; 03-07-2017, 08:38 AM.

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                            • Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

                              Originally posted by eschnairsohn View Post
                              I will go so far as to offer $50,000 donation to Brown Hockey Program if they fire this clown. ... My name is Eric Schnairsohn, I am not hiding from anyone, 50K to program if they can this clown, NOW.
                              Eric, not a single person with any internal sway at Brown reads the USCHO forum. PLEASE communicate your offer in writing to those in charge.

                              Patricia Watson, Senior Vice President for University Advancement - Patricia_Watson@brown.edu
                              Jack Hayes, Director of Athletics - Jack_Hayes@brown.edu
                              cc to: Christina Paxson, President - Christina_Paxson@brown.edu
                              (Paxson's email is screened, of course, but you should still CC her)

                              In addition, send signed hard copies in business letter format to all of the above. (Brown University, Providence RI, 02912)

                              Money talks! (Hardline arm-twisting may put people off, so make sure your tone is positive)

                              Others on this board, especially alumni and parents, can and should write letters describing their dismay about the state of Brown hockey and Brown's anemic commitment to varsity sports, and send to the president and the AD. Maybe leave out the "fire Brendan" aspect so it doesn't seem like a witch hunt. With recent press coverage, we may benefit from some momentum and generate pressure.

                              Squeaky wheel, etc.

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                              • Re: Brown Hockey 2016-17: The Importance of Being Ernst

                                I think its great that all these opinions are being written but lets not hide them on the dboard. AD email is on the Brown site. Fire him your thoughts - I did.

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