Women's Hockey

[HockeyMom]

DAWN FROATS RESIGNED!!!!!

What?! Edit.....I heard you, you don't have to repeat it.

Any inside info on where she's going.

[stafford_rules]

omg omg omg omg omg.

[SIOUXYOU]

omg omg omg omg omg.

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

[1337]

Froats is headed home, Canada, to work with Marketing, Communications and Player Development with her former high school Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, SK. After many years of being away from numerous friend and family happenings in Canada, Dawn wanted to get back home. The hockey seasons, recruiting and school kept her away from being there for a lot of things and life is too short to miss out on anymore of those events. She strongly believes in this program here at UND, coaches, players and the future to come. Dawn will continue to stay in touch and be a key supporter even from Canada. As a friend of Dawn I'm sad to see her leave, but completely understand wanting to be closer to her family. She did many things in helping build this program and won't be forgotten. The rest of us must emdody her spirit and dedication to make this the most successful women's hockey program we can! Dawn's request!

Thank you Dawn for eveything you've done. We will miss you. Best of luck!

[The Sicatoka]

Froats is headed home, Canada, to work with Marketing, Communications and Player Development with her former high school Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, SK.

Home is hard to beat.

The silver lining is that it's never bad to have a friend in a hockey factory like the Hounds have.

[Pony1976]

Question: Does the transition to division I potentially, or really hurt the women's program when it comes to future / available scholarships? Not that there was ever any assurance of more being added but now I'm reading just 14 will be added for all women's sports with bball & Volleyball taking priority over the hockey team. I'm sure it costs a great deal of $$$ to transition all sports to D-I but it does seem, or sound as though the transition could be especially costly to women's hockey...available scholarships being a big key to becoming more competitive in the WCHA.

[star2city]

Question: Does the transition to division I potentially, or really hurt the women's program when it comes to future / available scholarships? Not that there was ever any assurance of more being added but now I'm reading just 14 will be added for all women's sports with bball & Volleyball taking priority over the hockey team. I'm sure it costs a great deal of $$$ to transition all sports to D-I but it does seem, or sound as though the transition could be especially costly to women's hockey...available scholarships being a big key to becoming more competitive in the WCHA.

By 2007-8, the women's hockey team is scheduled to be maxed out in scholarships. Women's BB and volleyball scholarship additions would begin the following year, 2008-9. So the answer is "no", the number of women's hockey scholarships will not be hurt by the DI move. As far as being competitive in the WCHA, it seems there's "more" than scholarships at issue.

[Pony1976]

By 2007-8, the women's hockey team is scheduled to be maxed out in scholarships. Women's BB and volleyball scholarship additions would begin the following year, 2008-9. So the answer is "no", the number of women's hockey scholarships will not be hurt by the DI move. As far as being competitive in the WCHA, it seems there's "more" than scholarships at issue.

Thanks, appreciate the rapid response and clarification. As far as being more competitive, yeah UND may have issues beyond available scholarships (I'll take the word of others on that) but those scholarships, equal in numbers to other programs is pretty significant I believe. Damn hard to compete without them.

[supersioux]

Thanks, appreciate the rapid response and clarification. As far as being more competitive, yeah UND may have issues beyond available scholarships (I'll take the word of others on that) but those scholarships, equal in numbers to other programs is pretty significant I believe. Damn hard to compete without them.

IMHO that scholarships aren't the even close to the biggest reason that we can't compete. The Ralph should make up for some difference in scholarship dollars. I mean would you play at Bemedji State for an extra 1000 or 2000 dollars over UND?

Also are we so positive that everyone in the WCHA is fully funded? Mostly SCSU, Bemedji, or others?

[Pony1976]

I don't agree. Regarding players out of Minnesota high school only (those of D-I caliber), I speak with enough of them, and their parents to safely say the varied scholarship offers are a very large factor in their ultimate decisions, often regardless of facilities. Ever been to All Seasons at MSU? It's a major dump, yet they have landed many of the top players available in state via scholarships offered to those players.

BSU will have 16 scholarships in 2006-07, 18 thereafter. Another big factor for many players is location...more so than facilities (great facilities don't hurt tho). Location may hurt BSU more than their rink, which is much nicer than All Seasons Arena.

[supersioux]

I don't agree. Regarding players out of Minnesota high school only (those of D-I caliber), I speak with enough of them, and their parents to safely say the varied scholarship offers are a very large factor in their ultimate decisions, often regardless of facilities. Ever been to All Seasons at MSU? It's a major dump, yet they have landed many of the top players available in state via scholarships offered to those players.

BSU will have 16 scholarships in 2006-07, 18 thereafter. Another big factor for many players is location...more so than facilities (great facilities don't hurt tho). Location may hurt BSU more than their rink, which is much nicer than All Seasons Arena.

I just don't think that having a few less scholarships is a huge deal. For instance if a team is at 15 instead of 18 that would mean that each player gets about $1,300 less than the team that is allowed 18 scollies. I do buy that location may be a big factor especially for female athletes and ND is turing out a ton of DI W hockey players. I'll buy that location may be a factor but I don't see a kid turning down the Ralph for MSU's All Seasons (and yes I've been there) for $1,000 unless there are other reasons (one of which could be location for twin city kids).

[UND Fan]

I just don't think that having a few less scholarships is a huge deal. For instance if a team is at 15 instead of 18 that would mean that each player gets about $1,300 less than the team that is allowed 18 scollies. I do buy that location may be a big factor especially for female athletes and ND is turing out a ton of DI W hockey players. I'll buy that location may be a factor but I don't see a kid turning down the Ralph for MSU's All Seasons (and yes I've been there) for $1,000 unless there are other reasons (one of which could be location for twin city kids).

Please explain how you get to the $1,300 amount.

[supersioux]

Please explain how you get to the $1,300 amount.

It really is rough math, I just figured that a full scholarship is about 11,000 (ND & MN) I know that out of state is more but it's the same principal. I used a roster size of 24. Simply divide 33,000(value of 3 schollies) by 24 and you get about 1,300. That's assuming that your entire team absorbs the lack of scholarships.

Note: I'm no expert so if it's not that simple I appologize. I do know that there are many teams that in all divisions that compete with less than the max. For instance if UND football gets to 57 and not 63 is that a reason to not be successfull?

[Pony1976]

I'm no expert myself, I just know from direct contact with a number of highly sought after recruits & their parents that the various scholarship offers were the primary and biggest factor for many of them. Instances of players going elsewhere (than what had been the team they dreamed of playing for throughout their youth in some cases) because they were offered a 60% scholarship vs. a full ride from other programs. Finances play a big role for many of these players and their families. When the competition for top talent is as heated as it is, and at any given time several programs are going to have full scholarships available to offer those top players, if your program doesn't, you are going to lose out on many top end players. There are exceptions also tho...when a particular player may be dead set on one program, no matter what. Those seem to be an extreme minority though. Facilities alone aren't going to do it where many players are concerned, again, when those same players are being offered better financial deals elsewhere.

As far as ability to compete in the WCHA, when you're competing (for recruits) with the likes of UMD, UW and Minnesota and the level of talent they routinely recruit my opinion is you better be on level ground with them regarding scholarships available and use them successfully to grab like talent. I just don't think the UND facilities, as outstanding as they are, represent any any kind of huge edge when it comes to recruitment...at least not the kind of edge that's going to make alot of players disregard the scholarship $$$ factor. I will admit to hearing rumors of excellent players originally intending to go to UND changing their minds in the face of the recent coach / player fallout. That kind of atmosphere never helps.

Edit: I don't mean to imply a full compliment of scholarships is the only issue...it's not. Even teams operating with the full 18 scholarships have no schollie money available at times, and "lose out" because of it. Big job administating those funds wisely.

[DI IN FARGO]

What do fans really think?

Womens hockey has fans? I Kid I Kid.

[HockeyMom]

Womens hockey has fans? I Kid I Kid.

I'm the only one.

As for the whole scholarship issue, you can have NO scholarships and have a team the beats a national powerhouse. I've seen it happen. I don't really think it's a valid excuse. You can have a team of average players-that believe in themselves and each other-a good coach, and you can be successful.

I've also been on and seen teams that have a lot of talent that have had conflicts amongst the team/had a coach in over their head and have not been successful.

[Pony1976]

As for the whole scholarship issue, you can have NO scholarships and have a team the beats a national powerhouse. I've seen it happen. I don't really think it's a valid excuse. You can have a team of average players-that believe in themselves and each other-a good coach, and you can be successful.

How about a specific example? It's not impossible, but I did specify "compete" or be "competitive" in my earlier posts which to me means winning more than one game miraculously...which can happen, but in my opinion isn't going to happen often.

If you think UND is going to compete consistently, or become a regular contender for a WCHA title without having a like number of scholarships to use to attract top talent, I can't agree. And that's also likely regardless of who's behind the bench. Any good coach is going to use available scholarships to attract the kind of talent that will allow them to be a contender. Big part of the job...done correctly. UW's Johnson, UMD's Miller & Minnesota's Halldorson aren't going to suddenly stop recruiting and landing national team players from around the world.

I know everyone here wants to point the finger at, hammer and trash the current head coach. It's been going on for some time now. I'm not addressing whether the current coach is competent or not. Nor am I saying a coaching change wouldn't help, necessarily. Frankly, under the circumstances (up 'til now) I don't think she had a fighting chance to build a team capable of beating the rest of the WCHA members consistently. I think to expect that in the little time they've been a member is unrealistic. Virtually every WCHA team has improved dramatically (roster) the last few seasons. It's going to take more than a simple coaching change to keep pace. Simply put, at present a team needs national team caliber talent to contend for conference / national titles, again, no matter who's coaching.

Edit: And that's all I'm gonna say about the Sioux coaching or scholarship situation...I'll bet that's good to hear. Heck, I'm not even a Sioux fan.

Sorry, I lied...back for just a couple more comments. As someone noted the women will have a full compliment of scholarships soon so scholarships as an issue, or a disadvantage becomes a moot point. At that time if UND can't recruit top notch talent (especially with the incredible facilities as someone also noted) and become an annual contender for conference titles and more, then obviously a change is needed (if it isn't already). Because with those facilities the Sioux have an advantage over just about everyone else.

Good luck, I want to see a more competitive conference top to bottom. It's good for the sport.

[redwing77]

Pony- I don't have an example for women's hockey, but I do have several for men's hockey:

DI Hockey- Holy Cross (0 scholarships) defeats UMN (sorry, I don't know how many scholarships WCHA men's teams have... is it the same 18 as women's?).

In the NHL- In 1995, the New Jersey Devils ride a star goaltender (and very little else) to a Stanley Cup victory.

I'm sure there are countless others. Whenever an ECACHL men's team defeats an HEA, CCHA, or WCHA team it will be a team with 0 schollies beating a team with schollies.

[HockeyMom]

Pony- I don't have an example for women's hockey, but I do have several for men's hockey:

DI Hockey- Holy Cross (0 scholarships) defeats UMN (sorry, I don't know how many scholarships WCHA men's teams have... is it the same 18 as women's?).

That's who I was talking about. Holy Cross had a hell of a season this year.....and they finished in the top 8 in the country. 0 schollies.

I know everyone here wants to point the finger at, hammer and trash the current head coach. It's been going on for some time now. I'm not addressing whether the current coach is competent or not. Nor am I saying a coaching change wouldn't help, necessarily.

I don't think that I have bashed the head coach on these boards. I think I've stayed pretty neutral on that one.

I just hope that when the season starts, the Sioux are ready to hit the ice and have a decent season.

[Pony1976]

Has anyone heard anything at all about possible candidates for the assistant position(s)?

[fightingsiouxfan57]

Has anyone heard anything at all about possible candidates for the assistant position(s)?

UND women

[knowsall]

this question is a little confusing to me. When you ask if the program is going in the right direction, what exactly is the right direction? I voted "YES," because to me, the right direction is down the toilet. Thats just my opinion though.

[Pony1976]

this question is a little confusing to me. When you ask if the program is going in the right direction, what exactly is the right direction? I voted "YES," because to me, the right direction is down the toilet. Thats just my opinion though.

Somehow I think the poll and the question pondered is a little less confusing to people who actually have a brain. Just my opinion of course.

[redwing77]

Somehow I think the poll and the question pondered is a little less confusing to people who actually have a brain. Just my opinion of course.

Sssh. i think that he thinks that he was being clever. Don't burst his bubble.

[knowsall]

Sssh. i think that he thinks that he was being clever. Don't burst his bubble.

Come on now, dont start hatin on me just because i am truthful...i would guess that the majority of the people in this town feel the same way...they just wont come on here and say it