|
Home
Message Board
CROSSLinks
CROSSChat
Football
Men's Basketball
Women's Basketball
Ice Hockey
Archives |
Originally Posted in July 2002
Q. What is your view of the overall status of athletics right now at Holy
Cross?
A. That is not a question that can be answered simply. I would like to
believe that there has been some progress
in the past several years. Historically, our most visible sports have been
men's basketball and football and the
fortunes of those two sports have certainly improved in the last few years.
However, there are a number of other
examples where things have either maintained their high level or improved.
For example, women's basketball
continues to excel. Another of our other high priority sports is Field
Hockey. They have won the League
championship two out of the past four years and last year they finished in
first place before being upset in the
League championship. So we certainly feel good about that. Soccer is another
sport that we want to emphasize
and both of those have strengthened over the past several years. Our women
went to the NCAA's last year and
our men finished in first place during the regular season before losing in
four overtimes to American University in
the championship game. As I have said, soccer is a very important sport to
me and at Holy Cross so I feel very
positive about what we have accomplished there. I am also pleased with the
progress we have made in Ice
Hockey. Our men's program has an uphill push in that they are one of only
two schools in the MAAC that does
not offer scholarships. However, we have a very good coach who can both
recruit and coach and we finished
fourth out of eleven this year. Our women have only been a varsity sport for
three years but this year they were
12-12-3.
Our Crew program has been extremely strong and that is a great sport that we
want to highlight. This year the
men's varsity team won the New England Championships and the women's varsity
boat finished first in the Avaya
Intercollegiate Regatta which is a national tournament attended by boats who
do not participate in the Eastern
Sprints. Unfortunately, our spring sports have a long way to go. Frankly,
baseball and softball have not
improved over the past few years nor has men's lacrosse. Women's lacrosse
has had some good years but they
seem to go up and down. Track has been a perennial doormat in the Patriot
League and they are slowly showing
some signs of improving. Our men finished fifth out of seventh this year and
while that is not good, it is an
improvement. I did not mention all the sports but in summary I guess I would
have to say that I am generally
pleased with the progress we have made and want to make certain that sports
which have improved, such as
football, do not backslide in the coming years.
Q. What is your view of the support for athletics by the Administration -
specifically Fr. McFarland and the
Board of Trustees?
A. What exactly would you expect me to say? I am glad to report that Fr.
McFarland is a huge fan of athletics in
general. He makes it a point to get to as many athletic events as possible.
Sometimes it is just fifteen minutes here
or twenty minutes there but he is a true fan of sports - and virtually all
sports. At the same time, he understands
what Holy Cross is all about. We are a small liberal arts college and he
realizes that we cannot do some of the
things that other schools do. One of the things that I have come to realize
since I have been back at Holy Cross is
that relatively speaking, the academic rigor here is quite high. We simply
cannot admit some of the
student-athletes that other schools do. So on balance, I would tell you that
both Fr. McFarland and the Board of
Trustees are supportive of the Athletic Program. They want a competitive
program however they made it clear to
me that we need to get this done with our existing resources. There is a lot
of focus at Holy Cross right now on
matters such as faculty initiatives, student housing, and other academic
needs which are priorities. Simply put,
they expect me to do the best I can with the resources we currently have
allocated to athletics. I can live with that
- it was made pretty clear to me when I accepted the position.
Q. What are the major challenges facing the Patriot League today and what
changes might be expected in the
near future?
A. Our recent expansion to include American University brought us from seven
to eight teams. That addressed
one of the League's most basic challenges - growth. It helped tremendously
to provide stability and more size to
the League. In a perfect world, we would love to have one or two more
schools. From Holy Cross' perspective,
we would love to have another school in New England. Frankly, we feel a bit
isolated up here in Massachusetts.
Q. What future changes do you see for the Patriot League and for Holy
Cross' place in the Patriot League?
A. As I indicated in the last question, ideally we would like to have one or
two more colleges but I wouldn't look
for anything to happen in the very near future. When we talked to American,
we also talked to William & Mary
and Richmond. At that time, neither of them were ready to make that move and
Richmond subsequently moved to
the Atlantic 10. If we were to expand, we would want it to be a good
academic school. We have discussed the
Patriot League quite a bit internally and what it really comes down to is
that we would prefer to be in a League
with schools that share our academic priorities. In other words, we want to
operate with colleges who worry
about matters such as the amount of missed classes.
Q. There has been a lot of talk recently about League/Conference
realignments. In your view, what
opportunities does this present for Holy Cross?
A. When I first got to Holy Cross almost four years ago, the hot rumor at
that time was that the Big East was
about to implode, with the basketball schools going in one direction and the
football schools going in another.
Four years later, it seems no closer to reality than it was four years ago
and I still would not bet much money that
it is going to happen. On the other hand, you never know. Recent changes in
NCAA rules regarding automatic
qualification for NCAA tournaments have made it more difficult for colleges
to move among conferences. In the
next year or two, I don't expect to see any major conference realignment.
However, all it takes is for one or two
schools to make a move and that can start a chain reaction. At the moment,
we are relatively comfortable in the
Patriot League. We think it is the perfect place for our football program.
It is not as ideal for basketball, on the
other hand, our women have gone repeatedly to the NCAA's and our men have
now gone two years in a row.
That is one of the good points of being in the Patriot League. Our current
focus is to strengthen our programs
and keep our options open for the future. However, as I said, I don't expect
to see any movement in general or
specifically involving Holy Cross for the next few years.
Q. Have you been following postings of the Holy Cross Crossports message
board and are there any comments you want to make about the viewpoints
expressed there?
A. To be honest, I usually don't check message boards. Once, someone
apparently signed my name to a comment
I did not make. Occasionally, someone will see something interesting and
call my attention to it. Then I will go in
and read several messages. I would guess I did that perhaps two or three
times this past winter. I recognized
several of the e-mail addresses. On one or two occasions, I have reacted to
something and thought about
responding but realized once I started doing that, there is no end to it
so?.
Q. You have frequently stated that your objective is to establish
basketball as a premier sport at
Holy Cross. Are you satisfied with the progress made to date and what are
your current
near-term goals?
A. While some schools formally established tiers for their sports, we don't
formally tier our sports at Holy
Cross. Having said that, certain sports clearly receive greater emphasis and
funding than other sports.
Basketball is the only sport where we offer scholarships so clearly we've
made that our highest priority. I
am very pleased with the current state of both the men's and women's
programs. The women have been
to the NCAA Tournament six out of the last eight years. Ironically, I think
that losing last year may help
us in the longer term as it will provide us with a greater incentive to take
that program to the next level.
With respect to the men's program, I don't think I would be overstating it
when I say that they have made
tremendous strides in the last few years. I couldn't be happier about what
we've accomplished there. Our
short-term goals are to qualify for the NCAA's as often as possible and win
at least one game in the
tournament. We have to keep in mind that, like most conferences, the Patriot
League is a "single bid"
conference. In other words, we can have a great season, but if we get upset
in the League tournament,
we won't be going to the Big Dance. Realistically, I don't think we can
expect both programs to win as
frequently as the women have in the past six or seven years. If I thought we
could win two out of three
years in the short-term, I would be happy.
Q. What is your view of the future of football at Holy Cross and the
economic realities that must
be addressed?
A. Football remains a high priority sport at Holy Cross. As you might guess
from my background, I am a
"football guy". Further, much of our activities at Holy Cross revolve around
football games -- e.g.,
Homecoming, Parent's Weekend, President's Council, etc. I think that one of
the biggest mistakes the
NCAA ever did was split Division I into I-A and I-AA. I really think it's
hurt the sport of football. I've
got a question for the readers of this interview: who was the national I-AA
champion last year? Actually,
I have a better question: who cares? For the record, it was Montana or so
I'm told. The economic
reality is that football is an extremely expensive sport compared to
anything else we do. We spend a lot
more on football than we do on men's and women's basketball combined.
Somehow we need to find a
way of controlling the cost of football, particularly given the needs of our
other twenty-six sports.
Q. What is your view of the most impressive accomplishments of the other
sports at Holy Cross and what significant challenges do you see?
A. There are a number of accomplishments I think I could talk about but
three or four come to mind. First would be the
success of our field hockey program. They have either finished in first
place or won the League tournament in each of
the last four years. It's one of our highest priority sports and I'm pleased
with what they've accomplished and I'm also
very optimistic about what we'll do in the next few years. Also, our men's
and women's soccer programs have been
successful. Last year was an off-year for the women's team which was
hampered by a number of injuries throughout
the year. However, in the previous year they went to the NCAA Tournament and
they've been one of the stronger
teams in the league over the past four years. The men's team hasn't been to
the NCAA's although we finished first in
the League twice in the past few years. Patriot League soccer is extremely
competitive as American demonstrated when
they won the first two games in the NCAA Tournament last year and made it to
the sweet sixteen. Soccer is a very
important sport at Holy Cross and a sport we intend to emphasize. I think
I'd also like to call attention to the men's ice
hockey program. There are eleven schools in the MAAC League and Holy Cross
and UConn are the only ones which
do not offer scholarships. When the League was first formed three years ago,
we won the League tournament.
However, once the other schools loaded up their rosters with scholarship
players, it became a tough struggle for us.
Coach Paul Pearl has done an outstanding job recruiting and coaching and
last year we finished fourth in the League
only a few points out of second place. He has a very impressive class of
recruits coming in and I'm optimistic that we
will continue to be challenging for the top of the table despite our lack of
scholarships. As I said above, there have
been a number of other accomplishments but you did ask me for the "most
impressive" so I think I'll stop here. With
respect to significant challenges, there are several but let me talk about a
few in particular. Men's lacrosse has been a
real uphill push. They're in a very competitive league with at least three
teams in the top twenty five in the country and
we simply don't have the tradition that some of the other schools do. We
also don't have the resources or funding for
this sport that I would like. I think that we will get there eventually but
it's going to take some time. Women's ice
hockey is going to be another challenge over the next few years. We've
essentially been playing a Division III schedule
for the first three years of the program's existence and we've done pretty
well. Having said that, the typical divisional
distinctions don't mean quite as much in ice hockey as they do in other
sports. Within the next two or three years we
will need to slowly migrate to a Division I schedule and that will be a
challenge. The other challenge I should mention
concerns football. Lehigh and Colgate are spending dramatically more on
financial aid than we are in this sport. Right
now, we are spending as much as the College's budget can handle. We are
going to need to find some way of bridging
the gap if those schools keep up with their current level of spending.
Q. Holy Cross has stated its objective to raise the quality of coaches
for its teams. Which coaches deserve special recognition for outstanding
achievements at Holy Cross?
A. You realize this is a difficult question to answer because somehow or
another anything I say will filter back to the
coaches and any coach who isn't mentioned is going to feel slighted. Meg
Galligan has done an outstanding job with
the Field hockey program. Let me also mention three other coaches in
particular. When you consider where our men's
basketball program has been for most of the 90's, what we've accomplished in
the NCAA Tournament in the past two
years is nothing short of phenomenal so Ralph Willard would be one who
deserves notice. As I mentioned in response
to the last question, Paul Pearl has done an outstanding job in light of
what he has been up against. Finally, you really
couldn't talk about accomplishments at Holy Cross and not mention Bill
Gibbons for the overall excellence of his
program for an eighteen year period. If I had to give an honorable mention
here, I'd probably give it to Elvis Comrie, our
men's soccer coach. Mary Blair has done well in women's soccer also. Let me
say in general, I'm very happy with our
coaches. I think we've strengthened them in a number of sports in the last
four or five years, track being a good
example.
Q. What efforts are being made to increase publicity and marketing for
Holy Cross sports?
A. This is an area we are going to need to focus on this year. When I first
arrived, we did a number of things in this
area. We changed the school's logo, we took several steps to increase the
entertainment at our games with things such
as the interactive end-zone for children but in the past year or two, we
haven't kept up the pace. This is a high priority
for me in the coming year. Despite the success of our basketball programs,
we still have too many quiet nights in the
Hart Center and we're not getting the real home court advantage we should.
Pricing is not the issue, as our tickets are
very reasonably priced. We need to do a better job reaching out to people in
areas such as group sales. Also, while
our student attendance has improved over the past three or four years, it's
still not where it should be. That will also be
the subject of much focus this year.
Q. What essential messages would you like to get across to potential
student-athletes considering Holy Cross?
A. I'm inclined to agree with Father Brooks in this area, who has long held
the views that coaches have a tendency to
push their program rather than the College itself. I guess the message that
I would like to try to convey to
student-athletes is that we intend to have very competitive athletic
programs and we will be successful but that Holy
Cross is a special place. Each potential student-athlete should ask himself,
what happens if I were to sustain a career
ending injury in my first month of school: where do I want to spend the next
four years? Like most people who I
assume will read this interview, I firmly believe that Holy Cross is a very
special place. The attention and concern that
we give to our students as we help them develop into productive members of
society, regardless of the direction they
intend to go, I truly believe is unrivaled. The type of person who wants to
come to Holy Cross is usually a very good
person. When I conduct exit interviews with senior athletes, generally they
comment on what great friends and what
great people they met both among the student-body and within the faculty and
administration. That's the message I
would like to convey.
|