Mike Schafer retiring 2025

[BearLover]

If Cornell wants to get over the hump and start competing for national championships in earnest, here is what Casey needs to do:

Realistic short term goals:
—Improve the Lynah atmosphere.
The Lynah atmosphere has steadily declined the past two decades. Empty seats, students who sit all game and don't know any of the cheers. Casey needs to talk to the athletics department or whoever makes these decisions about doing anything possible to bring in more fans, particularly students. Season tickets should be way cheaper per game than individual tickets, special packages of multiple games should be good deals too. More giveaways/promotional night if those have been shown to improve attendance. The goal should be maximizing attendance/atmosphere, not maximizing revenue. I doubt Schafer focused any time on this, but I think there is some low hanging fruit here.

—Utilize the transfer portal more.
Casey used the portal all the time at Clarkson.  Schafer has been either unwilling or unable to. I think the team could find a great goalie in the portal if they wanted. The question is, do they want to upset team chemistry? I wouldn't want to overdo it, but I'm pretty sure Cornell could grab one or two good players a year to plug holes. The program has been too successful lately and kids will give it a hard look.

Stretch goal:
—NIL funding.
This might sound nuts, but if NIL is actually becoming a thing in college hockey (I'm somewhat skeptical), there is no reason why Cornell can't be involved. This school has too many rich alumni who care about the hockey program. It makes no sense why a place like BU, Denver, or Quinnipiac should spend more money on hockey than us, these schools have no revenues and way fewer rich alumni. Schafer didn't like the fundraising part of the job, but Casey can make real headway here if he wants.

I don't have the energy this morning to read a too long blathering post about coaching giving advice to the guy he thought had screwed up the Big Red because he was the wrong choice to succeed Mike.  I've tried to ignore you for a couple of weeks but consider how insane this is.

You all but brought the readers of the forum to Hockey 101 telling, asking and surmising what the eff was wrong with the team while pointing to the coaching ad nauseum.

Well Brian where have you gained this insight?  I'm sure pee-wee programs wouldn't put up with your glass 7/8 empty routine.

Did you learn anything from listening to Schafer talk about no one outside the team understanding what a team like Cornell goes through - especially in a season like the one we just watched? I'll answer - YOU DID NOT.

Furthermore what brand and size skates do you wear?  I'm going out on a limb and posting odds in response to your demented 30% chance bull.  Odds are you couldn't even lace 'em up.

How many drinks deep were you when you wrote this lol

[Weder]

If Cornell wants to get over the hump and start competing for national championships in earnest, here is what Casey needs to do:

Realistic short term goals:

—Utilize the transfer portal more.
Casey used the portal all the time at Clarkson.  Schafer has been either unwilling or unable to. I think the team could find a great goalie in the portal if they wanted. The question is, do they want to upset team chemistry? I wouldn't want to overdo it, but I'm pretty sure Cornell could grab one or two good players a year to plug holes. The program has been too successful lately and kids will give it a hard look.

I wish all our programs could utilize this alternative to supplement the recruiting of young players who may or may not succeed academically and athletically at Cornell.  Unfortunately, it is very difficult for a transfer student to get admitted because of the graduation requirements in the various colleges.  I was a faculty member for a number of years, now retired, so some details may have changed but the bar faced by coaches going after transfer recruits is college admissions.  The Arts College, for instance, mandates that a transfer student must spend at least four semesters in residence and complete at least 60 academic credits at Cornell.  An Arts student entering as a freshman must take 100 of the 120 credits required to graduate in the Arts College. I presume that the same requirement applies to transfers so 50 credits in Arts.  That does not address fulfilling major requirements. CALS requires that 55 of 120 credits be CALS courses, pro-rata for transfers.  But, unlike Arts, courses taken elsewhere can fill this requirement [like transferring in Bio courses].  I don't believe any Cornel college accepts transfers who have completed 3 years of study elsewhere.

And these hurdles do not include any thrown up by the Ivy League with regard to eligibility.

Add to all of this the lack of athletic scholarships and uncertainty about NIL payments in the Ivy League and relying on the transfer portal for talent is most likely wishful thinking at this point.

While this is all true and highly relevant, I'm pretty sure I've read about quite a few transfers on other Cornell sports teams over the past year or two: women's hockey, lacrosse, football, for example. More than on the men's hockey team at least.

Derraugh has only ever brought in like 3 transfers, it just happens that there were two in the past two years. Maybe that signals a shift in strategy, but we'll see. Schafer brought in a few here and there to provide depth or warm bodies -- outside of Seger, not sure if any of them had huge impact.

[stereax]

If Cornell wants to get over the hump and start competing for national championships in earnest, here is what Casey needs to do:

Realistic short term goals:
—Improve the Lynah atmosphere.
The Lynah atmosphere has steadily declined the past two decades. Empty seats, students who sit all game and don't know any of the cheers. Casey needs to talk to the athletics department or whoever makes these decisions about doing anything possible to bring in more fans, particularly students. Season tickets should be way cheaper per game than individual tickets, special packages of multiple games should be good deals too. More giveaways/promotional night if those have been shown to improve attendance. The goal should be maximizing attendance/atmosphere, not maximizing revenue. I doubt Schafer focused any time on this, but I think there is some low hanging fruit here.

Check your stats before posting. According to USCHO Lynah attendance this year was 97.9% of capacity. Considering that we don't have standing room, that's about as good as you can get.

Also Sec B and generally A stand. Sec D & E were never great at standing. That's exactly why I started to hand out papers. I started only in D & E to increase enthusiasm. Then it just morphed into the entire rink.

I've attended 4+ home games each of the last 17 years (including 4 years of season tickets as a student). I watch almost every other game on television. I have an idea of what I'm talking about. It's a much different atmosphere, the students don't know the cheers. A is often mostly empty. D never stands (it stood all four years I was there). C mostly sits too. Even if ticket sales aren't much below capacity, the students aren't showing up enough and they aren't getting loud.

Anyway, I sincerely appreciate your service of handing out newspapers etc.

As a Section C denizen, we generally stand on the B side of the section up until around the tunnel (hi! I stand!). To the right of the tunnel people generally sit because they take cues from D, which also sits.

A is marketed towards grad students, iirc. When they released tickets this year, the front half of A was supposed to be for grad season ticket holders. Not many bit. I didn't either, because I figured watching from an end of the rink would kind of suck.

I think a big part of "not knowing the cheers" is because, as far as I'm aware, there's no student hockey organization. The Cornell Hockey Association, from my understanding, skews primarily older. Not to bring up BU here, but my BU friend (boo tomato tomato) is one of the leaders of the "Dog Pound", the BU hockey student organization, and as part of that, he helps promote the team, create signs and pins and such, and distribute what he calls "dirty laundry lists", which are, from my understanding, a sheet of paper with information about the current opponent, chants, and so forth. You expect Cornell hockey fans to come out of the womb knowing the chants. Even the resources online are significantly outdated. Someone, or someones, need(s) to make the information more easily accessible and up-to-date. Word of mouth spreading of chants doesn't work well anymore; people look things up on their cell phones now. Either you need to give them the information (maybe with the newspapers, just a suggestion) or make it easy to find.

(Plus, chants like the Telephone Cheer are fucking impossible to hear...)

Also - thanks for all the papers, Jim! Much appreciated.

(For those asking "how are you friends with a BU fan", the answer is we met on a Devils discord server, haha. Known him and listened to him tell me about BU hockey since before I got accepted to Cornell, so I have an annoying soft spot for their team.)

[Weder]

If Cornell wants to get over the hump and start competing for national championships in earnest, here is what Casey needs to do:

Realistic short term goals:
—Improve the Lynah atmosphere.
The Lynah atmosphere has steadily declined the past two decades. Empty seats, students who sit all game and don't know any of the cheers. Casey needs to talk to the athletics department or whoever makes these decisions about doing anything possible to bring in more fans, particularly students. Season tickets should be way cheaper per game than individual tickets, special packages of multiple games should be good deals too. More giveaways/promotional night if those have been shown to improve attendance. The goal should be maximizing attendance/atmosphere, not maximizing revenue. I doubt Schafer focused any time on this, but I think there is some low hanging fruit here.

Check your stats before posting. According to USCHO Lynah attendance this year was 97.9% of capacity. Considering that we don't have standing room, that's about as good as you can get.

Also Sec B and generally A stand. Sec D & E were never great at standing. That's exactly why I started to hand out papers. I started only in D & E to increase enthusiasm. Then it just morphed into the entire rink.

I've attended 4+ home games each of the last 17 years (including 4 years of season tickets as a student). I watch almost every other game on television. I have an idea of what I'm talking about. It's a much different atmosphere, the students don't know the cheers. A is often mostly empty. D never stands (it stood all four years I was there). C mostly sits too. Even if ticket sales aren't much below capacity, the students aren't showing up enough and they aren't getting loud.

Anyway, I sincerely appreciate your service of handing out newspapers etc.

As a Section C denizen, we generally stand on the B side of the section up until around the tunnel (hi! I stand!). To the right of the tunnel people generally sit because they take cues from D, which also sits.

A is marketed towards grad students, iirc. When they released tickets this year, the front half of A was supposed to be for grad season ticket holders. Not many bit. I didn't either, because I figured watching from an end of the rink would kind of suck.

I think a big part of "not knowing the cheers" is because, as far as I'm aware, there's no student hockey organization. The Cornell Hockey Association, from my understanding, skews primarily older. Not to bring up BU here, but my BU friend (boo tomato tomato) is one of the leaders of the "Dog Pound", the BU hockey student organization, and as part of that, he helps promote the team, create signs and pins and such, and distribute what he calls "dirty laundry lists", which are, from my understanding, a sheet of paper with information about the current opponent, chants, and so forth. You expect Cornell hockey fans to come out of the womb knowing the chants. Even the resources online are significantly outdated. Someone, or someones, need(s) to make the information more easily accessible and up-to-date. Word of mouth spreading of chants doesn't work well anymore; people look things up on their cell phones now. Either you need to give them the information (maybe with the newspapers, just a suggestion) or make it easy to find.

(Plus, chants like the Telephone Cheer are fucking impossible to hear...)

Also - thanks for all the papers, Jim! Much appreciated.

(For those asking "how are you friends with a BU fan", the answer is we met on a Devils discord server, haha. Known him and listened to him tell me about BU hockey since before I got accepted to Cornell, so I have an annoying soft spot for their team.)

One caveat: The Faithful has always (in my lifetime as a CU fan) been meant to evolve, with each generation creating its own chants and traditions. That evolution seems to have slowed significantly in the 2000s, IMO. (The main one that came out of my era was echoing the player names during the goal scorer announcements.) Create your own chants!

[dag14]

If Cornell wants to get over the hump and start competing for national championships in earnest, here is what Casey needs to do:

Realistic short term goals:

—Utilize the transfer portal more.
Casey used the portal all the time at Clarkson.  Schafer has been either unwilling or unable to. I think the team could find a great goalie in the portal if they wanted. The question is, do they want to upset team chemistry? I wouldn't want to overdo it, but I'm pretty sure Cornell could grab one or two good players a year to plug holes. The program has been too successful lately and kids will give it a hard look.

I wish all our programs could utilize this alternative to supplement the recruiting of young players who may or may not succeed academically and athletically at Cornell.  Unfortunately, it is very difficult for a transfer student to get admitted because of the graduation requirements in the various colleges.  I was a faculty member for a number of years, now retired, so some details may have changed but the bar faced by coaches going after transfer recruits is college admissions.  The Arts College, for instance, mandates that a transfer student must spend at least four semesters in residence and complete at least 60 academic credits at Cornell.  An Arts student entering as a freshman must take 100 of the 120 credits required to graduate in the Arts College. I presume that the same requirement applies to transfers so 50 credits in Arts.  That does not address fulfilling major requirements. CALS requires that 55 of 120 credits be CALS courses, pro-rata for transfers.  But, unlike Arts, courses taken elsewhere can fill this requirement [like transferring in Bio courses].  I don't believe any Cornel college accepts transfers who have completed 3 years of study elsewhere.

And these hurdles do not include any thrown up by the Ivy League with regard to eligibility.

Add to all of this the lack of athletic scholarships and uncertainty about NIL payments in the Ivy League and relying on the transfer portal for talent is most likely wishful thinking at this point.

Something I've always wondered, and maybe you know dag14: Do recruited athletes who don't make the cut for admissions get offered guaranteed transfers to enter as sophomores? I'm not sure how much Cornell overall still offers this path to applicants, but it was somewhat common back in my day (1990s).

Guaranteed transfer "criteria" differ depending on the college, since each college admits its own students, rather than having a central, University admissions office.  [Coaches wish this were different, needless to say].  In my experience in CALS and Dyson, the guaranteed transfer is used less than in the past because admissions offices don't like to commit a spot to an applicant when a better one might come along the following year.  I think it is still used to benefit athletes by coaches who can make it attractive to a student.  The best example is the wrestling "grey shirt" program where guys spend a year at TC3 taking courses toward a CALS major.  If they do it right, they come to Cornell with less than a full year of transfer credit so they retain eligibility to compete for 4 years and they can take a lighter courseload to make life easier.   The Spartan Wrestling Club gives them a way to train and compete in this "off year."

[stereax]

One caveat: The Faithful has always (in my lifetime as a CU fan) been meant to evolve, with each generation creating its own chants and traditions. That evolution seems to have slowed significantly in the 2000s, IMO. (The main one that came out of my era was echoing the player names during the goal scorer announcements.) Create your own chants!

I don't disagree... but this also involves some level of coordination, so as not to be the One Idiot Screaming At The Team.

Next year when Yale comes to town, I'm gonna yell at them to challenge every Cornell goal, though

[dag14]

If Cornell wants to get over the hump and start competing for national championships in earnest, here is what Casey needs to do:

Realistic short term goals:

—Utilize the transfer portal more.
Casey used the portal all the time at Clarkson.  Schafer has been either unwilling or unable to. I think the team could find a great goalie in the portal if they wanted. The question is, do they want to upset team chemistry? I wouldn't want to overdo it, but I'm pretty sure Cornell could grab one or two good players a year to plug holes. The program has been too successful lately and kids will give it a hard look.

I wish all our programs could utilize this alternative to supplement the recruiting of young players who may or may not succeed academically and athletically at Cornell.  Unfortunately, it is very difficult for a transfer student to get admitted because of the graduation requirements in the various colleges.  I was a faculty member for a number of years, now retired, so some details may have changed but the bar faced by coaches going after transfer recruits is college admissions.  The Arts College, for instance, mandates that a transfer student must spend at least four semesters in residence and complete at least 60 academic credits at Cornell.  An Arts student entering as a freshman must take 100 of the 120 credits required to graduate in the Arts College. I presume that the same requirement applies to transfers so 50 credits in Arts.  That does not address fulfilling major requirements. CALS requires that 55 of 120 credits be CALS courses, pro-rata for transfers.  But, unlike Arts, courses taken elsewhere can fill this requirement [like transferring in Bio courses].  I don't believe any Cornel college accepts transfers who have completed 3 years of study elsewhere.

And these hurdles do not include any thrown up by the Ivy League with regard to eligibility.

Add to all of this the lack of athletic scholarships and uncertainty about NIL payments in the Ivy League and relying on the transfer portal for talent is most likely wishful thinking at this point.

While this is all true and highly relevant, I'm pretty sure I've read about quite a few transfers on other Cornell sports teams over the past year or two: women's hockey, lacrosse, football, for example. More than on the men's hockey team at least.

I think COVID loosened some criteria and that might explain the appearance of more transfers recently.  That being said, there are always a couple of transfer athletes on campus but they are not high-profile unless they join a high-profile program like women's hockey or they turn out to be a stud.  There are roughly 1200 student athletes on campus and I bet less than 20 transferred to Cornell.

[BearLover]

If Cornell wants to get over the hump and start competing for national championships in earnest, here is what Casey needs to do:

Realistic short term goals:

—Utilize the transfer portal more.
Casey used the portal all the time at Clarkson.  Schafer has been either unwilling or unable to. I think the team could find a great goalie in the portal if they wanted. The question is, do they want to upset team chemistry? I wouldn't want to overdo it, but I'm pretty sure Cornell could grab one or two good players a year to plug holes. The program has been too successful lately and kids will give it a hard look.

I wish all our programs could utilize this alternative to supplement the recruiting of young players who may or may not succeed academically and athletically at Cornell.  Unfortunately, it is very difficult for a transfer student to get admitted because of the graduation requirements in the various colleges.  I was a faculty member for a number of years, now retired, so some details may have changed but the bar faced by coaches going after transfer recruits is college admissions.  The Arts College, for instance, mandates that a transfer student must spend at least four semesters in residence and complete at least 60 academic credits at Cornell.  An Arts student entering as a freshman must take 100 of the 120 credits required to graduate in the Arts College. I presume that the same requirement applies to transfers so 50 credits in Arts.  That does not address fulfilling major requirements. CALS requires that 55 of 120 credits be CALS courses, pro-rata for transfers.  But, unlike Arts, courses taken elsewhere can fill this requirement [like transferring in Bio courses].  I don't believe any Cornel college accepts transfers who have completed 3 years of study elsewhere.

And these hurdles do not include any thrown up by the Ivy League with regard to eligibility.

Add to all of this the lack of athletic scholarships and uncertainty about NIL payments in the Ivy League and relying on the transfer portal for talent is most likely wishful thinking at this point.

While this is all true and highly relevant, I'm pretty sure I've read about quite a few transfers on other Cornell sports teams over the past year or two: women's hockey, lacrosse, football, for example. More than on the men's hockey team at least.

I think COVID loosened some criteria and that might explain the appearance of more transfers recently.  That being said, there are always a couple of transfer athletes on campus but they are not high-profile unless they join a high-profile program like women's hockey or they turn out to be a stud.  There are roughly 1200 student athletes on campus and I bet less than 20 transferred to Cornell.

FWIW, I count at least three transfers on the men's soccer team.

[dag14]

I think COVID loosened some criteria and that might explain the appearance of more transfers recently.  That being said, there are always a couple of transfer athletes on campus but they are not high-profile unless they join a high-profile program like women's hockey or they turn out to be a stud.  There are roughly 1200 student athletes on campus and I bet less than 20 transferred to Cornell.

FWIW, I count at least three transfers on the men's soccer team.

I don't follow soccer closely, but I just looked at their roster.  One of the transfers came from a community college -- that is brilliant recruiting by the coach because CC's are set up specifically to prepare students to transfer to 4-year colleges if they choose.  The player is in ILR -- one of the NYS colleges that is set up to welcome CC transfers.  A perfect academic match!

[Scersk '97]

Derraugh has only ever brought in like 3 transfers, it just happens that there were two in the past two years. Maybe that signals a shift in strategy, but we'll see. Schafer brought in a few here and there to provide depth or warm bodies -- outside of Seger, not sure if any of them had huge impact.

This is Tymchyshyn erasure.

[Tom Lento]

Derraugh has only ever brought in like 3 transfers, it just happens that there were two in the past two years. Maybe that signals a shift in strategy, but we'll see. Schafer brought in a few here and there to provide depth or warm bodies -- outside of Seger, not sure if any of them had huge impact.

This is Tymchyshyn erasure.

Tymchyshyn! I missed the Sancimino era so he's my all-time favorite goal scorer name.

That was super special though, he came through from a disbanded program.

[Tom Lento]

One caveat: The Faithful has always (in my lifetime as a CU fan) been meant to evolve, with each generation creating its own chants and traditions. That evolution seems to have slowed significantly in the 2000s, IMO. (The main one that came out of my era was echoing the player names during the goal scorer announcements.) Create your own chants!

I don't disagree... but this also involves some level of coordination, so as not to be the One Idiot Screaming At The Team.

Next year when Yale comes to town, I'm gonna yell at them to challenge every Cornell goal, though

I don't know if the Lynah crowd still does it but the old grade inflation chant at Harvard was started in the early 2000s and it was definitely a coordinated effort, but only in a very local sense. The group of 6 or so students who started it was either a bunch of trained singers or else worked really hard on it because their enunciation was impeccable.

It took them a couple of tries before it caught on but that cheer became a thing for years. It helps that it was hilarious and timely - this was very shortly after the news story dropped about the median grade at Harvard being an A-.

[stereax]

One caveat: The Faithful has always (in my lifetime as a CU fan) been meant to evolve, with each generation creating its own chants and traditions. That evolution seems to have slowed significantly in the 2000s, IMO. (The main one that came out of my era was echoing the player names during the goal scorer announcements.) Create your own chants!

I don't disagree... but this also involves some level of coordination, so as not to be the One Idiot Screaming At The Team.

Next year when Yale comes to town, I'm gonna yell at them to challenge every Cornell goal, though

I don't know if the Lynah crowd still does it but the old grade inflation chant at Harvard was started in the early 2000s and it was definitely a coordinated effort, but only in a very local sense. The group of 6 or so students who started it was either a bunch of trained singers or else worked really hard on it because their enunciation was impeccable.

It took them a couple of tries before it caught on but that cheer became a thing for years. It helps that it was hilarious and timely - this was very shortly after the news story dropped about the median grade at Harvard being an A-.

I think we did Grade Inflation at the Harvard game this year. And maybe the Yale one too? We definitely gave Yale a nice big Safety School, though. Ditto every women's team for a big game (the ECAC championship vs Colgate and the regional final vs UMD).

[chimpfood]

The demise of lynah is greatly overstated. Just like every generation claims to be more motivated and useful that the one behind them, everyone thinks their college days were the best. There was plenty of noise and plenty of unique cheers this year, i don't have a good sense for how much that comes through on the broadcast though. Frankly it was a good crowd for how bad the team was at some points this year and I think it will be even better next year after this playoff run. The only valid gripe IMO is the stuff that we could actually fix, such as decreasing the piped in music.

[Trotsky]

The demise of lynah is greatly overstated.

I wish we could tag posts and create reports, because "Lynah is Dead" has been posted at least once in every season since the Jacquard loom.