Lfc 2015

[Toe Blake's Brother]

H,
Sounds like you have the situation nailed, I believe many ex-players agree and so do interested outsiders. The administration has the whole athletic department locked down with coaches told to keep quiet. The place is run like a large high school rather than a college with a "legendary" AD running things at a "it's acceptable to be middle of the road" mentality. The pulse of Alumni cannot be that dead !!!

The academics are in place, the money is available .... the political will and competent athletic vision is lacking. Most of the students play a sport, why cannot they compete for a top notch education with top notch athletics? Yes facilities (dorm, eating, sports center, Chicago center) needed to be upgraded and that was priority for what attracts students in the first place education. Will not great athletics attract better athletes, more students and provide a better college experience? What about the vision for athletics?

I know nobody will answer because airing things in a public forum is not the LFC way. How is the old way working for you?..... just see Hammer's description of the consistently poor hockey program, enough said.

Is it possible to have a NETWORK experience within the college? I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!

Hammer's comments were spot on. Unfortunately, the same comments could have been made 25 years ago when talking about LF. Nice school but athletics are a step above intramural.

[Hammer]

Re: Lfc 2015

Hammer's comments were spot on. Unfortunately, the same comments could have been made 25 years ago when talking about LF. Nice school but athletics are a step above intramural.

Please make no mistake. I take no pleasure in what I said. Tearing down another man's program does not improve my team one single bit. My comments are based solely on what I've seen in my (extremely limited) observation of this program and its facilities.

Just know this. This is NOT going to be an easy, simple, short build job. This is not a 1 or 2 year fix. As I said before, it took Tim Coghlin 4 years to get SNC from the 10-15 team he inherited into the NCAA's. Adrian had the advantage of starting from scratch, starting from literally nothing. We brought in an entire team in one year. Lake Forest cannot do that. At least I don't think I'd recommend it at this stage in the program. CUW did that four years ago when Wise came to town, and they're still not where you want your program to be.

If you want to change coaches, then fine. Go get the guy you want, give him what he needs (within reason and within budget) and get the hell out of the way for a 4-5 years. But this does not appear to be a coaching issue. The issue goes higher. If you keep flipping coaches every 2-3 years, you'll never get anything built, you'll never have stability, and you'll never get anywhere. It doesn't work that way. This is not XBox, this isn't professional sports, and this sure as hell isn't the Jetsons. You don't just push a couple buttons, and everything is hunky-dory within 2 years. You've got some heavy building to do, and some pretty darn stiff competition in the way.

This is going to be much easier said than done.

[icechips]

Re: Lfc 2015

Nice school but athletics are a step above intramural.

Hammer, - "This is going to be much easier said than done."

A Quote Schutt and Slatts should take to heart as they seemed to embrace it earlier this year.....

"If you want to touch the other shore badly enough, you will. If your #desire is diluted for any reason, you'll never make it."

"FIND A WAY" Nyad

Without engagement from Grads they will not move... there is no vision.

[AVFC]

Re: Lfc 2015

I don't understand why people associated with LFC are constantly *****ing about a lack of institutional support for athletics. Every year we hear these complaints. Do you really think LFC supports athletics substantially less than Northland, Finlandia, Lawrence, Marian, Concordia or any of the other schools in the Midwest Conference? For some reason we don't hear these complaints from the fans and supporters of these other schools.

Adrian is very much an anomaly in DIII sports. While facing declining enrollment their administration decided to commit a very large percentage of their resources to athletics for the specific purpose of bolstering enrollment to the school. Adrian certainly did not cut corners in executing this plan. They are not the norm in DIII athletics and should not be held up as such.

SNC's program was built more by their hockey alumni and Coghlin than the actual school. Alumni are still a major, major source of their hockey budget. If you think that building a program is all about facilities, you should have seen the old barn that SNC played in when they were coming of age.

LFC has a ton going for it. It just happens to be in a super, super good hockey conference.

[XYZ]

Re: Lfc 2015

Adrian is very much an anomaly in DIII sports. While facing declining enrollment their administration decided to commit a very large percentage of their resources to athletics for the specific purpose of bolstering enrollment to the school. Adrian certainly did not cut corners in executing this plan. They are not the norm in DIII athletics and should not be held up as such.

100% correct. Adrian also had a big donation come in from the outside to help facilitate it. Which is a really good thing, but not necessarily something other schools have gotten.

[icechips]

Re: Lfc 2015

AVFC and XYZ you both are correct that facilities are not the answer.

At LFC it is not acceptable or tolerated for Alumni to give specifically to the hockey team. Any donations must be submitted to the 20 year old F.A.N. club and distributed by the AD as she sees fit {with requisite oversight from her hand picked group}. How is this model working, Hammer put it correctly "When you have a beautiful campus, with a wonderful student activities center directly across the street from your arena, and then you take your recruits/players into that arena you have, you immediately send the message that hockey is not important to your school. And that's a problem."
"Lake Forest College has not had a good program for quite some time now."

A team can go a long way with a mandate to WIN and support for bringing in talent and getting out of the way. Honestly, Adrian was on its last legs until they went down the path of supporting athletics and made Winning a priority. Do we honestly believe that LFC cannot compete with Adrian in academics!! .... come on it's no contest. The same can be said of Alumni, I'm positive that there are 1 or 2 alumni hockey players that have done well after school.

If LFC was run on par with the Junior teams they get players from that would be 2 steps up!!

NOBODY - wants to FIND A WAY.

The talent is available, the coaching is available, Hockey Equipment & Facilities could be had ...

[icechips]

Re: Lfc 2015

Boy it would be nice to hear the AD say "I'm spending hours watching over programs that need some recalibration, and hockey is one of those."

But I'm sure it will be more like "I'll tell you emphatically I believe in our plan." "You have to peel back the onion to see some of the challenges and adversity we had to deal with as our PLAN (or lack thereof) has unfolded." A huge senior class gone the underperformed and a huge incoming freshman class that has not produced along with no senior leadership this season.... hmmm I put that on the staff.


So if coach is asked if he feels on the hot seat, I would expect something like "I may be, but that's not for me to determine, so I don't give it that much consideration. To ask me that question is irrelevant. Maybe I am on the hot seat. I don't have time to think about that. With all sincerity that's not something I give much thought to, because that's not my decision." "There's going to be people that aren't pleased, obviously, we're not pleased with our results. But there's a plan in place, as you work though the challenges that come up that aren't necessarily planned for, you just have to readjust, reassess and keep moving."

I believe those reading this understand that there is no quick fix in college hockey recruiting because of the competition between other schools (DI and DIII) but also with Canada Hockey while also throwing in academic criteria too. Is the talent pool too watered down (lack of skill) for the size of the college landscape? Or is it, LFC cannot and does not have the resources/ability/processes/contacts to recruit in the areas necessary to get better talent?

Bottom line, all this falls on the HOF AD that is not doing a great job other than snowing the Administration and Alumni.

Lots of you are reading so it's seems apparent you care, break the imposed silence you have to be frustrated with losing. Where is the forum to give the AD feedback?

[uscho20]

Re: Lfc 2015

Chips,

Have you actually been to the rink recently?

[icechips]

Re: Lfc 2015

yes... do the teams (boys and girls) share a dressing room? Is the lighting poor? Is the ice really bad? Are the boards suspect, especially at the Z entrance? Is there black netting between the fans and the ice? A lobby does not make the rink!

[uscho20]

Re: Lfc 2015

yes... do the teams (boys and girls) share a dressing room? Is the lighting poor? Is the ice really bad? Are the boards suspect, especially at the Z entrance? Is there black netting between the fans and the ice? A lobby does not make the rink!

Nice, so you have seen the lobby.

• As far as I know, the men and women's locker rooms are separate. They built new locker rooms a few years ago when they put in the new stands.
• The lighting is old, but is similar to many other rinks in Illinois as far as quality wise.
• The ice is melting because of the rink problems and old equipment. I think they are replacing it shortly.
• The boards are less than eight years old. Other than cleaning the puck marks on the boards, I don't see a problem with them.
• I agree, the black netting is the worst part of the rink.

[icechips]

Re: Lfc 2015
[LIST][*] As far as I know, the men and women's locker rooms are separate. They built new locker rooms a few years ago when they put in the new stands. [*] The lighting is old, but is similar to many other rinks in Illinois as far as quality wise.

My mistake. The locker rooms are shared with other teams and not solely for the LFC team, so the "NEW" locker rooms of a couple of years ago are showing pretty good wear already.
On the lighting front, I believe it's not acceptable and causes players to loose site of the puck and is down right dangerous.

[altazo]

Re: Lfc 2015

Icechips, what do you think LFC's women's program is doing differently that is allowing them to enjoy so much success? Same facilities...

[icechips]

Re: Lfc 2015

Consistently good leadership.

My impression is the expectations of the women coming into the program have increased which pushes the talent to be of higher caliber. They have seniors who contribute and captains who lead not just political appointments. Their room is great and not factionalized {there are players on the mens team that are not serious about hockey}. They have learned the discipline of winning {for one look @ +/- vs. the men}, they work together as a team should and that says a lot about Carisa and Jamie. The women continue to develop as athletes at LFC .... the men????

The whole facility thing is a "wonderful to have" and makes it better for the athletes to come and compete when they know they are supported, however I recognize it's not the end game.

On so many levels the mens program is in disarray, JS and PK should have to answer for that to the

[icechips]

Re: Lfc 2015

Still lots of views...
A program defining weekend starting tonight against a team with mostly Tier III talent.

Next comes the bottom of the other side that I'm sure will be looking other places for Lion talent and finally the LU which has underachieved and will be dangerous.

Prediction 4-2 in the last six.

[uscho20]

Re: Lfc 2015

I just looked at the boxscore from the weekend. A LOSS TO A 1-18-1 TEAM on Saturday night in Lake Forest. What is wrong with this team?