Mazzoleni out of Harvard?

[peterg]

Well, of course!  Mike is the "Jay R. Bloom ’77 Head Coach of Men’s Hockey"

[billhoward]

[Q]{rampant speculation}
If Mike wanted to coach in the NHL some day, wouldn't Boston be a better launch pad, both in terms of media exposure and in demonstrating success at a school other that his alma mater?
{/speculation}[/q]


Media exposure is for Heisman Trophies. I think for head coaching prospects, you go see the prospect where he is. And the conventional wisdom currently is that the best pro head coaches spend a couple years as pro assistant coaches so they learn the ropes and don't make rookie mistakes of their own. If true, Ned Harkness was doomed going from college to the pros because he didn't have a chance to acclimate himself to the NHL. Maybe he would have learned over 2-3 years that the pros weren't motivated by the same things that motivated college hockey players. OTOH, Ned never would have left Cornell to be an assistant in the NHL.

[O.S.B.]

It's official http://www.uscho.com/news/2004/06/16_008541.php

[David Harding]

The Green Bay Press Gazette has caught up with USCHO.
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/sports/archive/sports_16553269.shtml
They touch on all the elements mentioned here and in the USCHO article - the unusual apparent step backward from DI to juniors, the family ties to Green Bay, the friendship with the GBG president, the pushy parents, the administration's professed diappointment - but with some additional quotes.

[billhoward]

[Q]David Harding Wrote:

 The Green Bay Press Gazette has caught up with USCHO.
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/sports/archive/sports_16553269.shtml
They touch on all the elements mentioned here and in the USCHO article - the unusual apparent step backward from DI to juniors, the family ties to Green Bay, the friendship with the GBG president, the pushy parents, the administration's professed diappointment - but with some additional quotes.[/q]

>>> Mazzoleni, however, wouldn’t completely deny there were a few problems with some of his players and their parents during the past year. "Unfortunately, in today’s environment people can go on the Internet and write whatever they want. It’s up to the person who reads it to decide if they want to believe it or not."

Damn that Internet! Now it's usurping the job of journalists. This is so totally unfair.

[jeh25]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

>>> Mazzoleni, however, wouldn’t completely deny there were a few problems with some of his players and their parents during the past year. "Unfortunately, in today’s environment people can go on the Internet and write whatever they want. It’s up to the person who reads it to decide if they want to believe it or not."

Damn that Internet! Now it's usurping the job of journalists. This is so totally unfair.

[/q]

I guess he could do what they do at the end of Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back and visit every internet blowhard in person and put the smackdown.

Of course, then everybody here would probably have to move...

:-P

[Josh '99]

[Q]jeh25 Wrote:
I guess he could do what they do at the end of Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back and visit every internet blowhard in person and put the smackdown. [/q]"YOU are the ones who are the ball lickers!"

[marty]

Monday the 28th's Times Union:

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=261424&category=SPORTS&BCCode=&newsdate=6/28/2004

Coach mum on Harvard job
Union's Leaman may be candidate for hockey opening  
 
By MATT GRAVES, Staff writer
First published: Monday, June 28, 2004
 
The surprising resignation of Harvard hockey coach Mark Mazzoleni has left one of the most attractive jobs in the Eastern College Athletic Conference open with a wide variety of candidates being considered to replace him.
Former Union coach Kevin Sneddon isn't expected to be one of them. Sneddon left the Schenectady school last season to become Vermont's head coach, and last week declined an interview offer at Harvard.
 
 "Harvard University and its hockey program will always be dear to my heart, however, the University of Vermont has presented a great opportunity for our coaching staff as well as our student-athletes, and I am proud to be leading the program," Sneddon said. "I made a commitment to UVM and plan to be here for a long time."

Current Union coach Nate Leaman, a former top Mazzoleni assistant, said he would not comment on the job this week, but a source close to the selection committee said Leaman was called for an interview.

Union traditionally offers only one-year contracts to its head coaches.

"We have a pretty strong candidate pool," said Harvard sports information director Jamie Weir, who said school policy was to not discuss any specifics regarding candidates or interviews. "We're going forward, and I believe we're going to move pretty quickly."

Athletic director Bob Scalise already has some qualified Mazzoleni assistants to consider in Gene Reilly and Sean McCann, a 1994 Harvard graduate.

Another viable candidate emerged this week when Colgate named a new athletic director, allowing veteran coach Don Vaughan to return to the hockey team and leaving interim replacement Stan Moore -- another former Union coach -- available. Moore was named ECAC Coach of the Year last season for the second time in his career.

Current Yale coach Tim Taylor was a finalist for Mazzoleni's job in 1999, but pulled himself out of the running. Also named as possible candidates on college hockey Web sites are former Northeastern coach Ben Smith, a 1968 alum who left Northeastern to coach the U.S. Women's National Team, and Harvard alumni Ted Donato and Steve Dagdigian, currently the head coach at St. Sebastian's prep school.

Other prospective candidates named include Ron Rolston, an assistant at Clarkson, Harvard and Boston College; Dave Peters, Dartmouth's top assistant and a finalist for the Princeton opening; Bill Gilligan, another finalist for the Princeton job; and St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh, Harvard's choice the last time there was an opening.

Mazzoleni resigned to take the head coaching job with the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL, the nation's top developmental league for players on their way to college. Former River Rats coach Red Gendron recently took a similar post with the Indiana Ice.
 

[Al DeFlorio]

If anyone hasn't seen, interesting stuff in Jayson Moy's column here--especially in the sidebar:

http://www.uscho.com/news/2004/06/29_008580.php