2020-21 Season *Officially* Delayed

[jeff '84]

An interview with Mike.

Good work by Mike not just giving rote answers.  He considers what he is saying.  Professional throughout and a good balance between facts and a feel for how difficult this has been for his players and their families.

Well done by both interviewer and subject.

And an update from Mike:

Hello Everyone:

Since March we have all had to watch COVID destroy lives, businesses, and families. It has wreaked havoc on people's plans, work and schooling. Having to tell our number one ranked team last year that we would not be finishing the season and then telling this year's team we would not play at all, were the hardest things I have had to do in my 25 year coaching career. Watching other teams play right now while our team has to sit out the season is difficult to swallow.

I recently spoke to someone who I respect a great deal. He tried to give me some perspective about the lives, business and institutions devastated by this terrible virus. He reminded me to put canceled seasons into the larger perspective. In many ways I agree with him. I am also mindful that we all face challenges in life and the focus must be on what we can impact.

There are things I've accepted during my career - Ivy practice and playing opportunities which are more limited than the NCAA allows, for instance - but I can no longer accept the negative impact of the Ivy rule regarding graduate student participation in varsity sports.  The heartbreak I've witnessed in recent months has sharpened my resolve to do better by Ivy League student-athletes.  Let me explain.

The NCAA has granted all fall and winter student-athletes an additional year of eligibility this year and our guys are obviously not using any eligibility since our 2020-21 season is canceled.  Ivy League rules are more limiting than the NCAA rules and Cornell has lost five players because of restrictions on graduate student participation. Each case is unique, but the outcome so far is that seniors Matt Galdjda, Cam Donaldson and Tristan Mullin have all decided to transfer to play out their eligibility as graduate students elsewhere. In addition, two juniors, Mike Regush and Joe Leahy also decided to transfer after accelerating graduation plans because of the Ivy rule. All of these players have gone from playing a number one ranked national team to leaving the school, hockey program and the teammates that they loved. Their decisions to leave broke their hearts and mine. In their eyes, the Ivy League let them down by refusing any opportunity to continue to play here while they reclaimed eligibility from canceled seasons because of the pandemic.

The topic of Ivy graduate student eligibility has existed my entire career and I will push to keep the renewed debate alive.  It confounds me that only our league will not support qualified student-athletes to pursue post-graduate educational and athletic goals. I will share updates on my efforts to affect change to serve our students and university.

Mike Schafer
mcs14@cornell.edu
607-327-1069

[ugarte]

hnnnnghh

[upprdeck]

The ivy has some strange ideas on what makes a student athlete.. the inability to let kids play 5 yrs and get Grad degrees seems the opposite of what they stand for.

[redice]

The count is now up to 10 players from the team, that we last watched, will not be returning.  That is devastating.

[Trotsky]

The count is now up to 10 players from the team, that we last watched, will not be returning.  That is devastating.

Gotta assume the Principled Eight are all in the same boat.

You know, if Mike was ever going to consider a clean break...

I know, I know, I'm shutting up.

Maybe he relishes the challenge of building us back to #1 one last time.

[upprdeck]

gonna be lots of quality kids floating around in 2 yrs as all these kids who get extra yrs will want to play somewhere and schools run out of scholies

[abmarks]

An interview with Mike.

Good work by Mike not just giving rote answers.  He considers what he is saying.  Professional throughout and a good balance between facts and a feel for how difficult this has been for his players and their families.

Well done by both interviewer and subject.

And an update from Mike:

Hello Everyone:

Since March we have all had to watch COVID destroy lives, businesses, and families. It has wreaked havoc on people's plans, work and schooling. Having to tell our number one ranked team last year that we would not be finishing the season and then telling this year's team we would not play at all, were the hardest things I have had to do in my 25 year coaching career. Watching other teams play right now while our team has to sit out the season is difficult to swallow.

I recently spoke to someone who I respect a great deal. He tried to give me some perspective about the lives, business and institutions devastated by this terrible virus. He reminded me to put canceled seasons into the larger perspective. In many ways I agree with him. I am also mindful that we all face challenges in life and the focus must be on what we can impact.

There are things I've accepted during my career - Ivy practice and playing opportunities which are more limited than the NCAA allows, for instance - but I can no longer accept the negative impact of the Ivy rule regarding graduate student participation in varsity sports.  The heartbreak I've witnessed in recent months has sharpened my resolve to do better by Ivy League student-athletes.  Let me explain.

The NCAA has granted all fall and winter student-athletes an additional year of eligibility this year and our guys are obviously not using any eligibility since our 2020-21 season is canceled.  Ivy League rules are more limiting than the NCAA rules and Cornell has lost five players because of restrictions on graduate student participation. Each case is unique, but the outcome so far is that seniors Matt Galdjda, Cam Donaldson and Tristan Mullin have all decided to transfer to play out their eligibility as graduate students elsewhere. In addition, two juniors, Mike Regush and Joe Leahy also decided to transfer after accelerating graduation plans because of the Ivy rule. All of these players have gone from playing a number one ranked national team to leaving the school, hockey program and the teammates that they loved. Their decisions to leave broke their hearts and mine. In their eyes, the Ivy League let them down by refusing any opportunity to continue to play here while they reclaimed eligibility from canceled seasons because of the pandemic.

The topic of Ivy graduate student eligibility has existed my entire career and I will push to keep the renewed debate alive.  It confounds me that only our league will not support qualified student-athletes to pursue post-graduate educational and athletic goals. I will share updates on my efforts to affect change to serve our students and university.

Mike Schafer
mcs14@cornell.edu
607-327-1069

Regush and leahy?   Hadn't seen this before. Where's they go?

[Noneya Business]

It doesn't fundamentally matter where they have gone.

As a reader here forever, the typical response from the exalted members will certainly indicate the boorish stupidity to play anywhere but CU.  

However, these kids at CU will all be paying for 4 years of school to play only 3, when they could all receive a quality education elsewhere on scholarship and still play 4.

These are weighty decisions for young men and their families, so lets not chirp about how it may impact your fandom.  Its the IVY's fault.

[ursusminor]

The count is now up to 10 players from the team, that we last watched, will not be returning.  That is devastating.

Gotta assume the Principled Eight are all in the same boat.

You know, if Mike was ever going to consider a clean break...

I know, I know, I'm shutting up.

Maybe he relishes the challenge of building us back to #1 one last time.

It may have been said here somewhere, but are the Cornell players allowed to practice, either with or without supervision, at Lynah rink?

[marty]

The count is now up to 10 players from the team, that we last watched, will not be returning.  That is devastating.

Gotta assume the Principled Eight are all in the same boat.

You know, if Mike was ever going to consider a clean break...

I know, I know, I'm shutting up.

Maybe he relishes the challenge of building us back to #1 one last time.

It may have been said here somewhere, but are the Cornell players allowed to practice, either with or without supervision, at Lynah rink?

Ursaminor, is RPI allowing practice?  Based on the shutdown of RPI's fraternities my guess is no.

[Weder]

The count is now up to 10 players from the team, that we last watched, will not be returning.  That is devastating.

Gotta assume the Principled Eight are all in the same boat.

You know, if Mike was ever going to consider a clean break...

I know, I know, I'm shutting up.

Maybe he relishes the challenge of building us back to #1 one last time.

It may have been said here somewhere, but are the Cornell players allowed to practice, either with or without supervision, at Lynah rink?

Ursaminor, is RPI allowing practice?  Based on the shutdown of RPI's fraternities my guess is no.

Ivy teams are allowed to practice and use training facilities. I think the Cornell teams have been practicing in small groups.

[ursusminor]

The count is now up to 10 players from the team, that we last watched, will not be returning.  That is devastating.

Gotta assume the Principled Eight are all in the same boat.

You know, if Mike was ever going to consider a clean break...

I know, I know, I'm shutting up.

Maybe he relishes the challenge of building us back to #1 one last time.

It may have been said here somewhere, but are the Cornell players allowed to practice, either with or without supervision, at Lynah rink?

Ursaminor, is RPI allowing practice?  Based on the shutdown of RPI's fraternities my guess is no.

They are not allowing it on Institute property. If the players want to pay themselves for ice time elsewhere, it is apparently OK. After seeing the trouble that schools who are playing are having with playing games, I can't complain about the season being cancelled, but I feel that the players should at least be allowed to practice in small groups. (BU will finally play its first game today if it is not cancelled at the last minute.)

BTW, it's ursusminor, not ursaminor. Thanks to someone here for pointing out to me close to 20 years ago that ursa, like alumna, is a feminine form. Much to my mother's chagrin, I was not required to study Latin for eight years. :-D

[marty]

The count is now up to 10 players from the team, that we last watched, will not be returning.  That is devastating.

Gotta assume the Principled Eight are all in the same boat.

You know, if Mike was ever going to consider a clean break...

I know, I know, I'm shutting up.

Maybe he relishes the challenge of building us back to #1 one last time.

It may have been said here somewhere, but are the Cornell players allowed to practice, either with or without supervision, at Lynah rink?

Ursaminor, is RPI allowing practice?  Based on the shutdown of RPI's fraternities my guess is no.

They are not allowing it on Institute property. If the players want to pay themselves for ice time elsewhere, it is apparently OK. After seeing the trouble that schools who are playing are having with playing games, I can't complain about the season being cancelled, but I feel that the players should at least be allowed to practice in small groups. (BU will finally play its first game today if it is not cancelled at the last minute.)

BTW, it's ursusminor, not ursaminor. Thanks to someone here for pointing out to me close to 20 years ago that ursa, like alumna, is a feminine form. Much to my mother's chagrin, I was not required to study Latin for eight years. :-D

Sorry about the name error.  That lesson is likely the only Latin I'll ever learn.

RPI looks like a ghost town when we drive through.

[abmarks]

It doesn't fundamentally matter where they have gone.

As a reader here forever, the typical response from the exalted members will certainly indicate the boorish stupidity to play anywhere but CU.  

However, these kids at CU will all be paying for 4 years of school to play only 3, when they could all receive a quality education elsewhere on scholarship and still play 4.

These are weighty decisions for young men and their families, so lets not chirp about how it may impact your fandom.  Its the IVY's fault.

You must not read too carefully on this forum or you'd see that I've not criticized a single player for leaving.  

I actually give these guys credit for being able to make what must be a difficult decision to uproot and leave a team I'm sure they are deeply attached to.  I'm sure they are making decisions that are in their best interests along with the input of their families and advisors.

Speaking for myself, I'm interested in where they are going and wish them well.  And I suspect that most people who posed about the guys who leave will do the same.

Thanks for the pre-judgement. Perhaps NonyaBusiness should follow their own advice and not pontificate on other's motivations...because it's a f*#$@_ing message board and our motivations are NonyaBusiness.

[Trotsky]

These are weighty decisions for young men and their families, so lets not chirp about how it may impact your fandom.  Its the IVY's fault.

Every single person here knows this is the Ivy League's fault.  But thank you for your brave words in defense of a controversial position every one of us takes for granted.