Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / Building a new program with Delaware coach Allison Coomey

Transcript

Building a new program with Delaware coach Allison Coomey · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Usccho dot com. We're back with another edition of the
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: off Season Podcast. I'm Todd Maleski here with Nicole Hosey
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: from usho dot com. Our guest today is Alison Komi
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: from the University of Delaware, which maybe you aren't familiar
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: with unless you've paid a lot of attention to what
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Nicole has written over the last you know, a year
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: ago and going back before that. But the University of
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Delawares is getting on the ices of VRC program for
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the first time in twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: and there's just so many fascinating things that have to
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: happen as part of getting a new team on the ice,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: and Nicole are We had a really great conversation with
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Alison about that, and I wonder, like, how why that
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: was important to you to kind of get get that
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: out there of what it takes to do this.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Well, I think, you know, the simple as answer is,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: we want more women's hockey programs. And I feel like
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: I was lucky enough that it was reached out to
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: me that before Delaware was announced to like sort of
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: put the you know, have the exclusive and tell that
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: story and from the get go, the excitement from Delaware
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: and the sort of like they were like, well, we
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: have an arena on campus, so like, why wouldn't we
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: have women's hockey, And they were just very sort of
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I feel like we've heard a lot about programs about
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: how hard it would be to add women's hockey, and
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: so I thought from the get go it was really
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: cool how much Delaware was just sort of like, well,
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: of course we're going to do this. It's not that
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: big of a deal. So that part was nice. And
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: then just talking to Alison for people to see sort
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: of the the nitty gritty of what it takes to
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: put a team on the ice, but even Alison talking,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, they're obviously not to employ that there was
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: not a ton of hard work and all that sort
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: of stuff. But I think I hope that people and
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: administrators and stakeholders and the ones that made decisions hear
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: this and see that like, maybe this is a feasible
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: thing we can do, and that like this is what
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: helps women's call collegiate hockey keep growing. So I mean,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: just from a hockey nerd perspective, it was fun for
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: us to get to learn a little bit of what
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: goes into the last year right, because she's just had
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: the job a little over a year, so we thought like, hey,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: what what has she been doing, What does that look
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: like before she hits the ice, before she gets too
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: busy to have that conversation, And Yeah, I just I
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: hope that it the Delaware I hope that there's a
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: little bit of a blueprint here for for programs in
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: the future, because I was just really struck from the
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: get go from the administration about how they were sort
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: of like, yeah, this is a no brainer.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, from from getting players to scheduling games, getting equipment
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: and doing all these kinds of things, there's there's so
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: much that has to happen to get from the idea
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: and you know, yes, we're going to have a team
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: to actually putting players on the ice and having the
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: stand at the blue line for the national anthem, which
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: is something that Alison talked about, which you can tell
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: is something that she's really looking forward to that opening
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: night and getting out there to see that happen. And
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: I feel like that's that's such a huge moment for
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: any new program, and to kind of get the inside
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: of what it takes to get there was really interesting
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: for me.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I mean, the way she talked about it made
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: me wish, like, well, I want to be there when
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: that happened, Like I think it would be cool to
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: be in the building. But yeah, I agree. It's just
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: there's clear passion there and I think, you know, it's
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: just really interesting to go from that, mean I asked her,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: but like sort of the hypothetical of I am starting
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: a program, we're starting a program to actually hitting the
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: ice and sort of all of the things that come
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: in between. So we really hope you enjoy this conversation.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: We really appreciate Delaware and Alison partaking the time to
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: allow us a little bit of insight on this process.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: So, without further ado, here is our conversation with Alis
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: and Koumi.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Allison, thanks so much for being with us. We I,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: you know, first had the story of Delaware is being
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: added and so now we're just wanting to come back
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: to you, you know, sort of on the verge of
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: hitting the ice and talk to you a little bit
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: about what it takes to build a team and so
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: maybe do you just want to start a little bit
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: and like where things stand for you guys right now.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, again, thanks for having us on really excited to
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: be back. It's it's crazy, it's a full year almost
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: a little bit over that since since we started, since
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: I got here. But we actually just finished our roster
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: and the last week, so we're up to twenty two players.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: We feel that's a good number for for year one,
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: and we already have some commitments for a year two,
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: so we're we're pretty set on our next two years
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: in terms of our roster.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: So really excited about that. Players from all.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: Over, so excited to bring you know, uh experience from
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: you know, some other countries and that to the program
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: as well. So yeah, and we just completed our staff
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: as well. So really, really have things have gotten moving
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: since since last year?
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: At this time when you come in with a blank slate,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: what surprises you? What has surprised you in terms of
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: things maybe you have had to do that you didn't
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: know you'd have to do to be prepared for fall
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: of twenty five being on the ice.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the first thing is like we don't
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: have anything to sell, right, Like we don't have we
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: don't have a record to sell to incoming players, and
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: so really relying on our staff's experience was a big
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: thing that I guess I didn't really know.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: I didn't really.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Think that that would be something that you know, it
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: surprised me a little bit in terms of having to
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: you know, having to focus in different areas to really
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: get recruits excited about this place. You know, coaches here
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: when I got the job were like, you just got
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: to get recruits to campus, and I think that was
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: a big thing for us, getting people here to see it.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: Obviously it's not a hockey school. Uh it's new to
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: the hockey world, not to the club world. Our club
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: programs are are very strong, but getting you know, getting
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: recruits here with something that we really focused on.
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: You know, our our athletic.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Department has done an excellent job of just preparing themselves
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: for in the university for for hockey, and so I
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: was really happy to know everything that was involved in
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: just like before I got hired, like communication with strength
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: coaches in the country, equipment managers, like how do we
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: run our day to day operations for this program? And uh,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: you know that it it made me feel really confident
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: about where we're at and where the school's at, and
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: so that those are things that you know, as I
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: look back, really happy with how Delaware has has prepared
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: themselves to to add woman's ice hockey.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: They're not a hockey school yet, Right, that's the keyword.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: What what was it about this opportunity that made you
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: want to you know, you've been in assistants for several years,
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Like what was it about the opportunity here at Delaware?
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Maybe some of just what you said with with how
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: the university was so excited about it, But what was
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: about this chance that that made you say, like, this
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: is this is how I want to take on this
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: head coaching role.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah. A big thing to me is support in academics.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: You know, I've been I've been fortunate to be at
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: institutions that really value those two things. If you don't
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: have one, it's really hard to sell all of the other, right,
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: And so to me that that was a big part
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: of it. I do like the fact that it's a
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: little bit of a smaller not smaller school. It's a
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: big school, but the athletic department itself is a community
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: and I really felt like that was something we could
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: leverage here as well. And so those those are the
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: biggest things for me, Like is the education good? Can
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: I sell it to the international students who are going
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: home taking this degree home in athletics, like is it
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: important here? And I can say both of those things
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: are very important. So those are the two big things
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: for me.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Your most recent stop was a newer program. I don't
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: think we can call Penn State a new program anymore
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: because it's been long enough, but on the newer side.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: So I wonder if from the experience there of building
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: that program, not especially from scratch, but from building it
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: to where we've seen it in the last couple of years,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: what were you able to take out of that and
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: who can you lean on in terms of, you know,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: if you need to know what you need to do
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: to build a program, but who are the people you
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: talked to to maybe get an encouraging word here or
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: there or some advice.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, yes, Penn State was fairly new to
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: a certain extent when I got there. I think there
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: were six years old somewhere around there, so fairly new.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: Hadn't really jumped jump to that next level. It did
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: take us a few years to get to that point.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: And you know, they're in a good spot now, but
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: you know, in terms of starting a program. Brian da
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: Rocher's one like worked for him, and you're three of
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: the program at BU, so he had he had started
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: it from scratch. I talked to Tara Wachhorn, who I
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: coached at BU and is now back at BU, but
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: was coaching at stone Hill and started the program there.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: My former college coach started the program when I.
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: Played, so I was part of a new new program.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: So I have I have a lot of people to
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: kind of lean on and ask questions of Guy Gadowski.
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: I you know, I talked to him last week, so
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: I'll be reaching out to.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: Him as he started the program at Penn State on
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: the men's side. But yeah, so so many resources that
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: I have to lean on. Obviously it's a little bit
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: different now than maybe it was ten fifteen years ago,
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: but the same you know, the same challenges, the same excitements,
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: Like all of those things are are similar in terms
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: of what you're getting out of student athlete experience.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: How to ask what surprised you but maybe what would
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: surprise outside people about what this last year has entailed
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: and maybe kind of tied into that, what are I
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: don't want to say best and worst, but like maybe
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: like what's been the coolest thing of the last year,
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: and what's been one of the more difficult things about
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: doing what you're doing.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you know, when you're typically recruiting a
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: regular like recruit in a given year, you know, you're
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: juggling the balance of like of games and bringing recruits
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: in and trying to do all all of those things.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: And I think the great thing about starting a program
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: is you have the benefit of really focusing on the
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: one thing that's going to be so important to your program,
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: and so spending time with parents and recruits like that
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: was probably my favorite thing. Really getting to know, you know,
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: the people that are going to come in and make
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: a big impression on our program from from the beginning,
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: and so having those conversations really you know, really getting
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: to know families, uh, was really important to us. The
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: weird thing was not having games, and so like I
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: spent a lot of my weekends if I wasn't recruiting,
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: just watching other college games filling the void of that.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: But it was fun to see, you know, it was
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: fun to not have that pressure also, and like I
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: can just be a spectator.
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: I went to I went to a few.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: College games to watch as a spectator, and it was
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: nice to to not feel the pressure of having to
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: win a game, or are the moments in the game
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: where you're feeling stressed.
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: I didn't have that.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: When we talk about differences between as an assistant coach,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: you're obviously you know, you're different. You're involved in a
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: lot of different things than you are as a head coach.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: And maybe I don't know if you can answer this yet,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: but what kind of things have there been, you know,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: in that in that jump for you that have made
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: you say, oh, let me take a step back and
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: see how I would handle this, you know, as an
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: assistant and how it is different how I handle it
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: as a head coach.
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: I think the biggest thing right now is just everything
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: kind of falls on what on me right So, like
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: we could have and right now, I only I have
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: Melissa Samit'skovitch. We've been working together all year as my assistant.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: But we'll talk about things and at the end of
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: the day, I've got to be the one to you know,
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: to say yes or no or make a decision on it.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: So that's probably the thing I feel the most now
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: and I'm I'm assuming that's something that will be the
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: same when we have a team next year. But you know,
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of decisions to make too, and so
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: like trying to trying to make sure I'm not I'm
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: thoughtful enough, but I'm not like overthinking, you know, every decision,
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: because that's that that won't help us either move forward.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: As you've mentioned, like you don't you don't have games
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: to take recruits to you you know, you're you're sort
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: of in that, so I would imagine that you're recruiting.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: It becomes recruiting a bit of a character in terms
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: of like someone that understands the benefit of being part
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: of what's being built and that may like your recruit
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: profile may evolve, but right now, like can you tell
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: a little bit about like sort of what you're looking
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: for and what maybe you know, what you were seeing
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: to recruits and what you saw to them. That sort
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: of is what is building the foundation for you all,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: because you're not just saying like you're a good player
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: and we're a good team, come to come play for us, right,
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: Like it's a little more complicated when you're starting.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I I give a lot of props
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: to all of our our players that have committed here.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: You know, they've taken a chance on something they know
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: nothing about, and to me that that says a lot
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: about them already.
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: But you know, obviously we're looking for talent.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: I think we've we've done a good job of finding
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: maybe some players that have gotten missed or developed late,
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: or had injuries during the time they should have been recruited,
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: and so we've.
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: Benefited from that.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: They've obviously benefited with the opportunity to play Division One.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: But you know, watching watching them play, talking to coaches,
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: really getting a sense of their character has been has
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: been great too, Like just to know.
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: You know when we're going to face adversity, because we will.
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: It's it's inevitable.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: We've got seventeen first year players, so we're going to
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: be playing against a lot of experience most of the time,
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: and so making sure that you know, we have the
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: right characters to be able to face that adversity. It's
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: not going to be perfect, and we're going to work
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: on it, and but I'm really excited about the group
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: we have to be able to.
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: Do that together.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: One of the other things about being a head coaches,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: you're out there looking for non conference games too, and
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: I wonder what that's been like for you trying to
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: build build out that part of your schedule and how
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: we how challenging it has it been to get on
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: people's radar and say, hey, we'd love to have a
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: couple of games.
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I've been fortunate, like I have some
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: really good friends in the coaching world that you know,
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: are excited about playing us and being a part of
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: our first season, and so that hasn't been as challenging
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: as I thought it would be.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: Now looking at twenty.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: Six, it's a little bit more challenging because of some
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: things that have shifted. But but yeah, it's been great
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: to I'm actually we're playing holy Cross and Kati las
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: Chappelle I played like played for technically she was my
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: assistant coaches and when I was in Niagara we worked
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: together for a long time at BEU, and so when
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: I got the job, she was like, I want to play.
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: I want to play you guys.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: So so we're going to play holy Cross and and yeah,
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: we've pretty much filled our schedule. We do have an
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: open weekend. I'm keeping it open because I want an
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: extra week for our team to develop, so we might
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: play one less uh one less set of games.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: One of the things in your background that I find
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: fascinating and I think would love to dig in more
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: at some point, is that you were a scout for
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: USA Hockey. Could you a maybe just give a real
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, I understand we all know what scouts are,
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: but what what that role was for you and how
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: that has informed who you are as a head coach
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: and your ability to to quote and recruit this first year.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, for for the most part, my role
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: as a scout with TMOSA was basically scouting other other teams.
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: But I feel like I've learned a lot through that.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: Uh you know, obviously you're watching other teams, but you're
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: also watching TMSA and the tendencies of those players.
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: And I mean just.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Even being a part of a program like that with
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: the best players in the world was pretty special. But
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: I feel like I did learn a lot about the
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: game just from watching video and going over things and
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: seeing patterns, and it was it was great too. It
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: was great to interact with the team. You know, a
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: lot of driven players there, and I think that's something
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: that translates over to what I'm looking for. Like, obviously
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: that's another level of investment, but but players that are
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: all passionate about what they do and want to you know,
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: want to win and be competitive, and that's something I
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: you know, I feel I gravitate to that winning mentality.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: So it was an It was a great experience, and
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: I did it at the eighteen level and also the
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: national team Olympic level. So yeah, really really cool experience
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: and uh, definitely cherish my time there.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: How has the you know, I don't know how much
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: you've been able to get into the transfer portal for
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: to try and bring players in for maybe you know,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: people that are looking for a different kind of path
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: or different start and you can give that to them.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: You've got a start off essentially. Does that speak to people?
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Has that spoken to recruits? Has has that spoken to
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: people have gone through a college experience and and maybe said,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: you know, I'd love to be part of something new.
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's the interesting part, right, Like the portal
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: has so many players that they all want different things.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: We actually got four players from the portal and we
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: feel like they're going to be great fits in terms
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: of just their character, leadership, you know, what they what
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: they bring on the ice, and and more importantly, what
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: they'll bring to us off the ice.
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: And so we had to find that group.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: Like, you know, there's certain players that are maybe a
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: you know, maybe a top line thirty point player. They
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: might not be looking at a place like Delaware because
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: it's brand new and they don't know what to expect, right,
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: So really trying to find find the right people to
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: help us build our program.
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: And we feel like we've done a really good job
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: with that.
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: And again they've taken a chance again on a new
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: program after leaving some someplace that's that they're very comfortable with.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: So yeah, we have some local a local player that's
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: coming back towards home and she's excited. She had mentioned,
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: you know, when I heard that Delaware was starting a program,
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: my heart was kind of set on it, and that
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: to me, that says a lot, you know, about her
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: and and what we're getting.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: When generally, like a team will talk about like they're
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: they have a motto or a sentence or a couple
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: of words that sort of guide this season. When you're
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: getting this brand new group, is that something that you
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: foresee sort of like setting as the tone for your
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: season or do you think that that will come sort
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: of more naturally once you have the players on the ice.
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: I think part of it will come.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: You know, we talk a lot about first here, obviously
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: Delaware being the first state, you know, with the first
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: woman hockey program. So we're going to celebrate the you know,
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: the first goal, the first win. I think those are
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: the and that's a word that that resonates with all
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: of us because it is very it's gonna happen, It's
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: gonna happen.
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: It's gonna be a lot of firsts.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: And so with that specific word, I would say yes,
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: I think in terms of like what else we're going
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: to bring, don't have to have to let the team
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: figure that out.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: The you know, support from administration is critical when you're
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: talking about starting something new. Uh, support from people in
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: the community, support from people in hockey is a big thing.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Where have you felt that the most in terms of uh,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: you know, if I know there was an event with
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: the Philadelphia Flyers at that you know kind of at
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: launch at that at some point there. How can that
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: help in getting this off the ground.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: I mean it's huge and I think even just talking
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: with our club programs here and the importance of ice hockey,
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: like they get quite a few fans at their games
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: and so you know, we're hoping to piggyback off that,
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: to be honest, piggyback off the success of Delaware already.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: But you know, the the time I felt that most
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: was probably to what you're speaking to. Like, the Flyers
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: did a community caravan last summer and they stopped in
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: all these different areas in Delaware. In our ud was
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: like the last spot, and they said that that was
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: the most attended.
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: Community outreach. So that was to me, like, I mean,
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: it was packed. I was walking around. I'm like, I
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: don't even know half these people.
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: But but it was really exciting to see that in
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: the buzz around it, and I think, uh, you know,
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: our marketing team was like, how can we do this again?
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: Just right leading up to your game, you know, to
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: your first game.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: So I think that obviously being you know, pretty close
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: to to the Flyers organization and now being connected.
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: With them, I do you think that's going to help
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: for sure?
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: When the program was announced, they really like talked about
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: sort of being in this this untapped market close to Philly,
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: like despite the East Coast being maybe not et cetera,
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: but having a ton of women's hockey programs that like
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: Delaware like the the ability of you all to fill
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: in in one of the gaps. And I guess I
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: just wanted to ask, sort of a year on from
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: everybody talking about that and having that ability if you're
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: if you're really finding that and feeling like you're familiar
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: with your conference, you're familiar with women's hockey, Like, how
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: do you feel about sort of how that was, you know,
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: how we talked about that and have you felt that,
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: like you guys, you have this pocket and you're really
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: fulfilling you know, a need there.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you're just talking to club coaches, you know,
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: from the Washington Pride, the Junior Flyers, like they're they're
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: so excited, you know, and I and I would imagine
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: teams will come down or come over, come up, you know,
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: to what it's playing, because because we are the closest
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: to them, you know. I think about it now, like
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: we have employees of Delaware that live in Maryland, Pennsylvania
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: and New Jersey and community here every day, and so
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: it is a you know, there's also a lot to
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: live here, but like there's so much there's so many
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: places close to us and organizations close to us that uh,
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: you know when I was growing up. Cornell was the
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: closest to where I lived from Sarah, like just outside
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: of Syracuse, and I remember driving to go to those
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: games and how how much impact that had on my,
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: you know, my career. And obviously I'm still coaching now,
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: so I'm like still part of it.
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: But if we can.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: Create an avenue for you know, players to either play
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: or just love hockey more like, we want to do it.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: I think we all hope, all of us who follow
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: the game hope that there are more schools like Delaware
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: that are willing to invest in women's hockey right that
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: that we hope that there's more growth getting from you know,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: the mid forties and somewhere over fifty teams and then
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: we're talking you know, some some a real pathway then
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: for an expanded, you know, competitive level of Division one's hockey.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: And I wonder what, whether you is there anything that
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: you can think of there that you would say could
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: help in that in in fostering more of a an
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: environment where it's maybe easier for schools to say, yeah,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: we can do that. Having gone through this now for
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: for a year, is there anything that you know would
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: have made it easier?
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: I guess, yeah, that's a great question.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: I mean I think about the p up in how
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: they you know, how they go to Detroit or where
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: else have they gone obviously like Seattle and Vancouver. You
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: know they've done those takeover tours, and you know, if
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: if we did something like that, how would that resonate?
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: You know, we take our games to maybe some schools
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: that don't have women's hockey and really you know, bring
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: the community to those those sites and see what happens.
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: Maybe it's it's definitely an exciting game to watch, and
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: I think that's the pro album as people just don't
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: really get out to watch it, and once they do,
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: they notice how how much fun it is. So that
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: would be my suggestion. But I don't know, I don't know,
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: I'm not a higher up.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: What are you? I mean, maybe it's too obvious of
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: a question. So maybe other than getting on the ice,
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: what are you most looking forward to now that you've
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: put in the year of building your team? You said
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: you know you're kind of set now you're like the
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: seasons on the horizon. What are you most looking forward to?
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: Obviously getting everyone together, like we've had one zoom call
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: as a team and that was pretty special. But like, actually,
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: like being physically in the same place is going to
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: be something I look forward to. And I told the
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: team the one thing that I keep thinking about is
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: like our home opener, we'll have twenty We have twenty
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: two players, so everyone's everyone will dress, you know, everyone
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: will be on the line, on the blue line, and
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: just like that moment of just standing listening to the
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: national anthem and just seeing everybody in their Delaware jersey
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: is going to be pretty special. So that's something I'm
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: definitely looking forward to.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: How much of you gotten into the details of like
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: what the sweaters look like and what kind of you
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: know what you know, I know you have a color scheme,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: but what what you can do within that too to
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: make the team brand you know, pop out a little bit.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: What how much that do you get into?
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we actually the jerseys already designed. They're well on
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: their way to being done.
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: For us, it's like, how can we how can we
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: bring our logo, you know out?
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: I think it's a pretty cool logo, so yeah, how
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: do we how do we bring that out?
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: I don't want to get it. It doesn't I don't
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: want it to be too busy.
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: I wanted to be simple, clean, just like here we are.
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: You know, so our equip.
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: Manager has done a great job of designing you know,
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: Samuels has great ideas as well. So I really on
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: the experts to kind of do that. But yeah, those
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: are those are things we think about for.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Sure, maybe because you don't yet and have the team there,
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: But have you had the moment of sort of like
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: because it's all a bit hypothetical at the moment, obviously
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: it's not you have your job, you're recruiting, but like
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: to go from the abstract of hey, I'm taking over
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: and I'm starting a program to the reality of it, Like,
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: have you had any of those sort of weird moments
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: or like being able to just really stop and take
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: it all in. I'm just curious about sort of the
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: It's just gonna be a little bit weird at times
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: to be like this hypothetical of I have a team
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: but not yet but we haven't started playing and all
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: of that bit of it.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny because I was at a tournament. I
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: was at Nationals actually and this year, and we were
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: I think two players maybe three players away from being
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: done with our roster at that time and I was like, wow,
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: this time last year, I didn't have an assistant and
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: I had no commits.
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: So like we're going, I'm.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: Going to Nationals and I'm watching you know, five of
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: five or six of our kids in that tournament this year,
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: and so to me that was like, wow, we've really
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: come a long way. You know, we're not there yet,
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: but like we're we're there. So and I think for
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: the players too, it was fun, you know, after the
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: tournament to see each other and like physically like say hi,
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: or like talk about next year. Those moments to me
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: are the ones that stick out. You know, the first
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: commit for sure, and then the last commit to be done,
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: so all all of those things. Yeah, I'm like, you know,
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: when you're in it, you're just in it, right. It's
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: it's just like a season if you're if you're doing well,
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: you're not even looking at looking back and seeing how
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: well you've done. It's like onto the next game, you know,
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: until until it's over. So uh yeah, I'm still still
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: in it.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Last one for me is if we're looking out a
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: year from now, next next time off season, what what
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: would you hope to have accomplished by by next May
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: or next June or sometime through the through the season,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: but also through the you know, the building into how
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: you kind of move from year one and then take
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: that and make it better and make that everything better
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: kind of after that.
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean for us, like in year one, obviously
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: we want to win, we want to be competitive. We
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: also we also are realistic about it, and so for us,
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: I think making making the experience joyful for everyone, you know,
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: And so at the end of the year, were they
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: are they happy about being a part of it? Were
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: they you know, did they enjoy themselves, did they enjoy
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: each other? You know, did they push each other? Did
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: they get better? And I think those are the things
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: that you know, we might have to dive a little
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: bit into to really feel, but to me, those are
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: the things that are most important, especially for our momentum
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: going in the year two. You know, we have players
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: that can see, like the progress, then they're more hungry
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: for year two and so that's where that's where that's
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: where we want to be.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: I think that's a great note. And thank you so
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: much for your time. We really appreciate it.
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: Thanks for thanks for taking the time to.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: We're really excited to see you guys hit the ice
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: and so excited for you know, the continued growth of
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: of what you guys can do. And I think you
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: know it's how kind of mentioned it's great to see
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: a program put up, you know, adding women's hockey, adding
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: in an area that needed it, and hope that what
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: we see from you all is something we continue to
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: see in the future for women's college hockey. So thank
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: you for telling us all about it.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, same here, same here.