LSSU hockey 2013-14

[DM2SM]

Re: LSSU hockey 2013-14

DM2SM. You make some good points. An outgoing pres. is unlikely to fire a coach and an incoming pres. likely would not do so early in his tenure either. That could be two years. The AD might not have the power to fire the hockey coach (probaby typical for a small university) but if she wanted to she could make her case to the president. The case can be made to make a coaching change - I would not deny that. We just saw a couple of coaches surprisingly released.

My understanding is that is how it works at LSSU. The A.D. can make the recommendation but the President has to approve. My point is that the LSSU A.D. is perceived to play a bigger part than she actually does and this is unfair to her. She doesn't have the power to hold up a $5M renovation project, she can advise. She cannot fire the Hockey Coach, she can advise.

[Bill]

Re: LSSU hockey 2013-14

My understanding is that is how it works at LSSU. The A.D. can make the recommendation but the President has to approve. My point is that the LSSU A.D. is perceived to play a bigger part than she actually does and this is unfair to her. She doesn't have the power to hold up a $5M renovation project, she can advise. She cannot fire the Hockey Coach, she can advise.

I think the delay in the Norris Center Project was at least partly due to someone wanting some non-hockey related changes.

[Truth Serum]

Re: LSSU hockey 2013-14

Next season will be the best season yet for Lake Superior. Look at all the strides they have made under him the past 8 years and how unfair it is for a small school inheriting a decimated program how much he gets paid the way the refs are rogue linesman threatening him, the small athletic budget, and the bad bounces and breaks over the years. Jim Roque brings in money through his donor friends is a master tactician motivator and inspiration on and off the ice and is a gentleman in every sense of the word. Roque is consistent fair with everyone even tempered and open to criticism or being challenged. The college president up there knows a good coach when he sees one as does the athletic director and smart hockey people at that college and this coach is deservedly locked up for three more years and will be around for a long time. The majority of people who aren't negative and hateful on this forum agree Jim Roque is the direction the only direction for this team to go. I'm just echoing what most of you people have already said for many many many years.

[AnchorsAway]

Re: LSSU hockey 2013-14

My understanding is that is how it works at LSSU. The A.D. can make the recommendation but the President has to approve. My point is that the LSSU A.D. is perceived to play a bigger part than she actually does and this is unfair to her. She doesn't have the power to hold up a $5M renovation project, she can advise. She cannot fire the Hockey Coach, she can advise.

So let me get this straight, we have an AD that is making $67,000 dollars per year to oversee LSSU athletics and make recommendations when the time comes for the real decisions to be made?? Why don't we make the AD a part time job since the school president is apparently making all of the important athletic decisions anyways, pay $30,000 in salary take the spare $37,000 and add it to the hockey coaches salary, increase the price of pop and popcorn at the game by 50 cents and take all the revenue that that created and also add it to the hockey coaches salary...pretty soon you're looking at close to $50,000 more in the coaching salary budget than we have now, dump Roque and go get a real coach, because a $130,000 will likely perk up quite a few more ears about this job than $80,000 will!

[DM2SM]

Re: LSSU hockey 2013-14

So let me get this straight, we have an AD that is making $67,000 dollars per year to oversee LSSU athletics and make recommendations when the time comes for the real decisions to be made?? Why don't we make the AD a part time job since the school president is apparently making all of the important athletic decisions anyways, pay $30,000 in salary take the spare $37,000 and add it to the hockey coaches salary, increase the price of pop and popcorn at the game by 50 cents and take all the revenue that that created and also add it to the hockey coaches salary...pretty soon you're looking at close to $50,000 more in the coaching salary budget than we have now, dump Roque and go get a real coach, because a $130,000 will likely perk up quite a few more ears about this job than $80,000 will!

You sound either annoyed or surprised. With the turmoil, litigation, etc. that has surrounded Laker Hockey do you honestly think that the Board of Regents is not going to protect itself and leave this up to the sole decision making of the A.D.? I am quite sure that it is public knowledge that it was the president of the University that ordered the removal of Coach Anzalone. Most people on here are aware that LSSU Coaches are relegated across the board to 1-year renewable contracts. Do you think the A.D. authorized the change in policy so that Coach Roque could have a multi-year deal or did it go through the President and the Board of Regents? Regarding the renovation, would the University let a $5M donation walk away because a basketball team did not get a new locker room as people are suggesting? My understanding is that at most any Division II school the A.D.’s primary responsibility is the budget and fund raising while overseeing the compliance issues and over-all health of the staff and by that I mean adherence to policies and procedures. If the current A.D. is holding up the renovation I would suspect that it is due to something stated above such as compliance to athletic regulations (Title IX). Other than that, I bet more time is spent with individuals from the Foundation office or the Head of the Physical Plant Operations than with the A.D.

[Lakers2Glory]

Re: LSSU hockey 2013-14

So let me get this straight, we have an AD that is making $67,000 dollars per year to oversee LSSU athletics and make recommendations when the time comes for the real decisions to be made?? Why don't we make the AD a part time job since the school president is apparently making all of the important athletic decisions anyways, pay $30,000 in salary take the spare $37,000 and add it to the hockey coaches salary, increase the price of pop and popcorn at the game by 50 cents and take all the revenue that that created and also add it to the hockey coaches salary...pretty soon you're looking at close to $50,000 more in the coaching salary budget than we have now, dump Roque and go get a real coach, because a $130,000 will likely perk up quite a few more ears about this job than $80,000 will!

I have my philosophical differences with AD Dunbar, but that is not a fair statement at all. She does a ton of work including compliance and budgeting that is WELL worth the $67,000 salary she is making.

Do you think if the time ever comes that Mark Hollis could fire Tom Izzo without the MSU Prez's ok? Bob Knight was fired by the President at Indiana. I'm not saying Roque is Izzo & Knight (don't even go there, Truthy). But, on a much smaller scale, the head coach of LSSU's only D-1 team (no matter who it is) is just as important to LSSU as those guys are to their respective schools. LSSU's coach is basically the only ambassador we have in the national media, so it does not surprise me one bit that it's the President's call and not the AD. To make a call like that potentially affects the ENTIRE University, so in my opinion it wouldn't seem fair to the AD to have to make that choice herself anyway. Most people in town don't even know when a golf or tennis or track coach get the boot, but when the Hockey coach goes, word spreads like wildfire.

[Lakers2Glory]

Re: LSSU hockey 2013-14

Regarding the renovation, would the University let a $5M donation walk away because a basketball team did not get a new locker room as people are suggesting? My understanding is that at most any Division II school the A.D.’s primary responsibility is the budget and fund raising while overseeing the compliance issues and over-all health of the staff and by that I mean adherence to policies and procedures. If the current A.D. is holding up the renovation I would suspect that it is due to something stated above such as compliance to athletic regulations (Title IX).

Just to clarify, I don't think anyone was suggesting the A.D. would let money walk out the door. I, personally, was saying the project was delayed due to disagreements over the design (non-hockey facilities).

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU hockey 2013-14

So, who is coming back next season that is going to be able to score any goals ?

[Lakerblue]

Re: LSSU hockey 2013-14

So, who is coming back next season that is going to be able to score any goals ?

. . . . this is a recording.

[Lakerblue]

Re: LSSU hockey 2013-14

Can I be honest: I don't trust AD Dunbar. It has been my experience that Basketball people tend to carry deep-rooted confusion, and some outright hostility, towards hockey.

In most high schools around the country, football and basketball are the Big Two sports. ESPN blabbers on and on all day, every day, 24 hours a day, almost exclusively about BB and Football. So the people who excel in BB generally have within them the feeling that BB is the most important Winter sport. Oh, there are kids who play hockey, and tennis, and run track, etc . . . . but the real top-dog athletes in high school are generally BB and football players.

And my experience has shown, that when BB people arrive in "Hockey" school, there is great confusion. A "Hockey" school runs against the normal national grain. And suddenly, basketball people are relegated. And I have noticed that they do-not-like being second-banana.

It worries me. It worried me when she was hired. It continues to worry me.

And I just don't entirely trust her to do the right thing vis-a-vis hockey.

[DM2SM]

Re: LSSU hockey 2013-14

Just to clarify, I don't think anyone was suggesting the A.D. would let money walk out the door. I, personally, was saying the project was delayed due to disagreements over the design (non-hockey facilities).

Sorry Mr. Lakerblue. I got the impression you were saying that the A.D. was trying to push more of the project away from Hockey and towards the other sports and this was causing the delay. I bet Coach Roque is more connected across campus and has more input on the project than Mrs. Dunbar. The Facilities Manager and Foundation Rep. Even more than both.

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU hockey 2013-14

I thought Lake State made a 10 year commitment to the hockey program recently and now we can't trust the AD . Seems we have mind readers who somehow know the true intentions of anyone involved with the hockey program. Hats off to you and your ability to know what others are thinking .

[Lakerblue]

Re: LSSU hockey 2013-14

Sorry Mr. Lakerblue. I got the impression you were saying that the A.D. was trying to push more of the project away from Hockey and towards the other sports and this was causing the delay. I bet Coach Roque is more connected across campus and has more input on the project than Mrs. Dunbar. The Facilities Manager and Foundation Rep. Even more than both.

I never commented on the Norris Project at all, delays, or reasons behind any delays.

My comment was just an honest, although quite unfounded, life-affirming policy to not trust baskeball people when it comes to hockey. And not meant to be in relation to the Norris Project.

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU hockey 2013-14

Here a lot of us thought the problem at Lake State lied in coaching and the inability to see players improve over the four years they are there and now it seems we are talking conspiracy at the highest levels to keep hockey down .

[Lakers2Glory]

Re: LSSU hockey 2013-14

I never commented on the Norris Project at all, delays, or reasons behind any delays.

I think DM2SM meant me.