....But the biggest 3 games are yet to come.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
CAPS GOALIE REPORT: HUET IS STEADY EDDY
Our steady Frenchman is continuing his consistent play delivering his fifth straight win. It is clear that the Capitals have a sense of trust with him behind them. Again and again, he has made the stops that are expected of him and has pulled out critical stops at conclusions of games when they need them. The next step for him would be to steal a win or two by himself, which, at this point, the Caps might need as the head into these final four games.Take a look at the highlights below. Karri Ramo made a critical error getting sucked from his cage ending this contest in OT.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
CAPS GOALIE REPORT: HUET PULLS OFF SHOOTOUT
One major area that the Caps got help with when they traded for Huet, was in the shootout. Huet stuffed the 'Canes on their penalty shot chances and Kozlov finished the set upstairs on Cam Ward last night. Starter on Thursday is TBA.
Monday, March 24, 2008
GOALIE NEWS FROM FROM NHL.com: LALIME AND LEGACE
John McGourty NHL.com Staff Writer
From the earliest days of professional hockey, goalies have known that they are no more than one bad stretch, one bad game, one bad period, even one bad play away from obscurity.
Since Ty Conklin fumbled a puck that led to a goal in the 2006 Stanley Cup Final, he has played for five teams. Tiny Thompson lost his job with the Boston Bruins due to a brief eye infection.
Success is not unknown to Patrick Lalime, who set an NHL record by starting his career 14-0-2 in 1996-97 with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was also the top goalie in the IHL in 1998-99, posting 39 wins. But like Conklin, Lalime has spent recent seasons trying to re-establish his reputation. His nomination for the 2008 Masterton Trophy shows he has made big strides in that direction.
After several years of playoffs disappointments, the Ottawa Senators gave up on Lalime, after the one time it really was his fault. He had been terrific on many occasions for Ottawa, particularly in the 2002 playoff victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, when he allowed only two goals in five games. That year, he became one of only four goalies to post four shutouts in the postseason, and he only played two rounds.
But fan frustration had grown by the spring of 2004 and Lalime became the target.
Lalime, who had sprained his left knee in 2000, was bitten by the injury bug again in 2004. He caught his skate in the net and twisted his left knee on March 27, 2004, in a regular-season game against Toronto. He was replaced in that game, but got the start and the win in the first game of the playoffs against the Maple Leafs. The Senators lost the next two games, won Game 4, lost Game 5 and won Game 6 in double overtime.
Building a winning Legace in St. Louis
Please excuse St. Louis Blues goalie Manny Legace while he sets the record straight. ...more
The Senators had a big challenge in trying to win Game 7 in Toronto, but they had confidence in their goalie. But Lalime was shelled for three goals in the first period and was replaced. The Senators lost, 4-1, and the season was over and so was Lalime’s tenure in Ottawa.
"I had some very good times in Ottawa, but the last period I played for Ottawa wasn't the best," Lalime said. "I played well for most of that year but ... it's part of hockey. I had to move on and I have to bounce back. It was a shame because my family, my wife and kids, liked Ottawa and it was close to home.”
He was traded that summer to the St. Louis Blues. Lalime split a disappointing, injury-filled season between St. Louis and its AHL affiliate in Peoria.
"It was tough in the beginning when I got to St. Louis,” he said. “I didn't know a single player on the team and I was facing players in a new conference. I ran through some injuries there and it was a tough year. It was quite a change from being in Ottawa and making the playoffs every year. You learn from experiences like that."
Last season, he signed with the Chicago Blackhawks to be Nikolai
Khabibulin's backup. The Blackhawks had made the playoffs in only one of the previous eight seasons and they would miss again in 2007 with a young lineup plagued by injuries.
Since Ty Conklin fumbled a puck that led to a goal in the 2006 Stanley Cup Final, he has played for five teams. Tiny Thompson lost his job with the Boston Bruins due to a brief eye infection.
Success is not unknown to Patrick Lalime, who set an NHL record by starting his career 14-0-2 in 1996-97 with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was also the top goalie in the IHL in 1998-99, posting 39 wins. But like Conklin, Lalime has spent recent seasons trying to re-establish his reputation. His nomination for the 2008 Masterton Trophy shows he has made big strides in that direction.
After several years of playoffs disappointments, the Ottawa Senators gave up on Lalime, after the one time it really was his fault. He had been terrific on many occasions for Ottawa, particularly in the 2002 playoff victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, when he allowed only two goals in five games. That year, he became one of only four goalies to post four shutouts in the postseason, and he only played two rounds.
But fan frustration had grown by the spring of 2004 and Lalime became the target.
Lalime, who had sprained his left knee in 2000, was bitten by the injury bug again in 2004. He caught his skate in the net and twisted his left knee on March 27, 2004, in a regular-season game against Toronto. He was replaced in that game, but got the start and the win in the first game of the playoffs against the Maple Leafs. The Senators lost the next two games, won Game 4, lost Game 5 and won Game 6 in double overtime.
Building a winning Legace in St. Louis
Please excuse St. Louis Blues goalie Manny Legace while he sets the record straight. ...more
The Senators had a big challenge in trying to win Game 7 in Toronto, but they had confidence in their goalie. But Lalime was shelled for three goals in the first period and was replaced. The Senators lost, 4-1, and the season was over and so was Lalime’s tenure in Ottawa.
"I had some very good times in Ottawa, but the last period I played for Ottawa wasn't the best," Lalime said. "I played well for most of that year but ... it's part of hockey. I had to move on and I have to bounce back. It was a shame because my family, my wife and kids, liked Ottawa and it was close to home.”
He was traded that summer to the St. Louis Blues. Lalime split a disappointing, injury-filled season between St. Louis and its AHL affiliate in Peoria.
"It was tough in the beginning when I got to St. Louis,” he said. “I didn't know a single player on the team and I was facing players in a new conference. I ran through some injuries there and it was a tough year. It was quite a change from being in Ottawa and making the playoffs every year. You learn from experiences like that."
Last season, he signed with the Chicago Blackhawks to be Nikolai
Khabibulin's backup. The Blackhawks had made the playoffs in only one of the previous eight seasons and they would miss again in 2007 with a young lineup plagued by injuries.
"I knew it was a young team, but the only one I knew was Marty Lapointe," Lalime said. "After the injuries, all I wanted to do was get back in net. I knew the goalie coach, Stephane Waite, a little bit because we both represented Sherwood at one time. My friend, Jocelyn Thibault, worked here with Stephane and told me good things. It was great to have someone like that to work with."
Chicago’s lineup is notably improved this season and Lalime has been a contributor, especially when Khabibulin has been sidelined by back and knee problems. Lalime has posted a 15-12-2 record in 31 games with a 2.88 goals-against average. That the Blackhawks still have a fighting chance at a playoff spot is due in large measure to the quality play of Lalime.
Head coach Denis Savard was one of the great hockey heroes to youngsters like Lalime who were growing up in Quebec during his great career. Lalime is impressed with Savard as a coach.
"I think it's great to play for a guy who has done so much and seen it all," Lalime said. "He had a great career and did a lot for hockey in Chicago. He's a well-respected man and it's an honor to play for him, no doubt about it. This is only his second season as head coach and I can see him growing with the team. We have a young team that needs to be well coached and well prepared."
This has been an historic and emotional season in Chicago in the wake of the September death of longtime owner William Wirtz. That led to Wirtz's son, Rocky, taking over and hiring John F. McDonough as club president.
"It was not a great time at the beginning of the year, when Mr. Wirtz passed away," Lalime said. "That was sad to see. But then we met Rocky and he has made quite a bit of change in the front office. It has been great. Hockey is being talked about a lot. The fans are coming back and it's a great place to play right now.”
The season also has featured the debuts of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, who rank first and fourth, respectively, in NHL rookie scoring.
“Toews is so talented at both ends of the ice. He's very skilled and very strong in the corners. He can take on guys one-on-one and he has very good speed, great cuts and a good shot. He's got a great future ahead of him. You can tell he is very mature about the game. He really wants to win. He's been great for this organization and this city."
Lalime didn't need to be reminded that Toews is that rare Westerner who is fluent in French.
"Right! We have PSP games on the plane and he's on the French team," Lalime laughed. "His mom is from Quebec City. I did some broadcast work at the World Juniors and saw him doing interviews on French TV.
"Kane complements Toews very well. Kane is just a little guy, but he's very strong on the puck and a very sneaky skater. He's not afraid to split two big defensemen. Pat sees the ice very well and has great hands. He's done so much for this team this year. Both Toews and Kane put the team ahead of everything. I really enjoy these kids and it's great for the fans."
The days are dwindling down to a precious few and the Blackhawks face a steep challenge in trying to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Many people think they're a lock to be a contender next year but the Blackhawks haven't cued up that song yet.
"We're still right there and we have a few games left to play so I believe we'll have a big finish," Lalime said.
Chicago’s lineup is notably improved this season and Lalime has been a contributor, especially when Khabibulin has been sidelined by back and knee problems. Lalime has posted a 15-12-2 record in 31 games with a 2.88 goals-against average. That the Blackhawks still have a fighting chance at a playoff spot is due in large measure to the quality play of Lalime.
Head coach Denis Savard was one of the great hockey heroes to youngsters like Lalime who were growing up in Quebec during his great career. Lalime is impressed with Savard as a coach.
"I think it's great to play for a guy who has done so much and seen it all," Lalime said. "He had a great career and did a lot for hockey in Chicago. He's a well-respected man and it's an honor to play for him, no doubt about it. This is only his second season as head coach and I can see him growing with the team. We have a young team that needs to be well coached and well prepared."
This has been an historic and emotional season in Chicago in the wake of the September death of longtime owner William Wirtz. That led to Wirtz's son, Rocky, taking over and hiring John F. McDonough as club president.
"It was not a great time at the beginning of the year, when Mr. Wirtz passed away," Lalime said. "That was sad to see. But then we met Rocky and he has made quite a bit of change in the front office. It has been great. Hockey is being talked about a lot. The fans are coming back and it's a great place to play right now.”
The season also has featured the debuts of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, who rank first and fourth, respectively, in NHL rookie scoring.
“Toews is so talented at both ends of the ice. He's very skilled and very strong in the corners. He can take on guys one-on-one and he has very good speed, great cuts and a good shot. He's got a great future ahead of him. You can tell he is very mature about the game. He really wants to win. He's been great for this organization and this city."
Lalime didn't need to be reminded that Toews is that rare Westerner who is fluent in French.
"Right! We have PSP games on the plane and he's on the French team," Lalime laughed. "His mom is from Quebec City. I did some broadcast work at the World Juniors and saw him doing interviews on French TV.
"Kane complements Toews very well. Kane is just a little guy, but he's very strong on the puck and a very sneaky skater. He's not afraid to split two big defensemen. Pat sees the ice very well and has great hands. He's done so much for this team this year. Both Toews and Kane put the team ahead of everything. I really enjoy these kids and it's great for the fans."
The days are dwindling down to a precious few and the Blackhawks face a steep challenge in trying to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Many people think they're a lock to be a contender next year but the Blackhawks haven't cued up that song yet.
"We're still right there and we have a few games left to play so I believe we'll have a big finish," Lalime said.
Mike G. Morreale NHL.com Staff Writer
Please excuse St. Louis Blues goalie Manny Legace while he sets the record straight.
“People will never mistake me for a (Martin) Brodeur or even a (Miikka) Kiprusoff,’’ Legace told NHL.com. “I’m just that type of goalie who’s trying to do enough to keep my team in the game.’’
While that may be true, Legace’s play earned him a spot on the Western Conference for the 2008 NHL All-Star Game. Besing named to the All-Star Game meant the world to Legace.
“I don’t think I stopped smiling for three weeks when I got the news,’’ Legace said. “You have no idea how excited I was when I got the call and how excited I was leading up to game; it was an absolute blast. I always watched All-Star Games on television with my dad. To go out there and not worry about hockey, but just have some fun was great. I had an entourage of about 20 people, including aunts and uncles from Detroit.’’
In the Dodge SuperSkills challenge, Legace stopped four of five attempts in the shootout event, including attempts from New York Rangers' Scott Gomez, Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin and Philadelphia's Kimmo Timonen in the elimination round. He later stopped Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk on a pair of tries in the breakaway challenge. He worked the third period of the All-Star Game for the West, stopping six of nine shots.
Those close to Legace realize how much that invitation to All-Star weekend in Atlanta must have meant. After all, it was just two seasons ago when Legace established a career-high with 37 victories as the starter in Detroit, yet wasn’t re-signed after the Wings were ousted by the eighth-seeded Edmonton Oilers in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“Once we lost in the playoffs, it was kind of obvious the Detroit management was going with someone else,’’ Legace recalled. “(Detroit GM/Vice President) Ken Holland was a total gentleman and not only called my agent to explain the situation, but called me as well, which was something he didn’t have to do. I saw the writing on the wall. The regular season went well, but in this League, you’re judged in the playoffs. I really would have liked to stay in Detroit, but I knew the only way that was going to happen was if I performed well in the playoffs and I couldn’t do it. Maybe I put too much pressure on myself, who knows.’’
While Legace's playoff performance (2.65 goals-against average) might not have been up to his regular-season level (2.19 GAA), the Red Wings’ sudden lack of offense and breakdowns on defense also played a part in their six-game demise to the Oilers in 2005-06.
“It wasn’t a surprise to me that I wasn’t re-signed, but in free agency, thought I’d be able to get a job right away after the year I had,’’ Legace said.
That opportunity didn’t materialize until August of 2006 when the Blues signed him to a one-year contract.
“I was told I’d be competing for the starting role in St. Louis,’’ Legace said. “St. Louis had their share of goalies in the system, so I kind of had to work hard and wait it out.’’
Legace went 23-15-5 with a 2.59 GAA for the Blues in his inaugural season, which was shortened due to a mid-season concussion and knee surgery. Still, his play was good enough to earn him a two-year contract extension. This season, Legace has played in a career-high 61 games (25-23-8) and sports a 2.43 GAA, .910 save percentage and four shutouts, including a memorable 31-save, 2-0 victory at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on the last day of 2007. In addition to representing the Western Conference at the All-Star Game, the St. Louis chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association named Legace this year's nominee for the Masterton Trophy.
“It’s a great honor to be nominated for the Masterton, especially since its an award where people recognize how much you’ve gone through in your career to reach a certain point,’’ Legace said.
Legace is quick to single out goalie coaches Jim Bedard in Detroit and Rick Wamsley in St. Louis for helping him achieve such notoriety. Each played a vital role in not only strengthening his game, but his character. Bedard was also his goalie coach with the Niagara Falls Thunder of the Ontario Hockey League. Wamsley won a Stanley Cup as Mike Vernon's backup in Calgary in 1989, much like Legace did in Detroit when he was second behind Dominik Hasek in 2002.
“The good thing about being in the NHL is the fact I had the chance to meet two great coaches in Jim (Bedard) and Rick (Wamsley),’’ Legace said. “They each did wonders for my game and my mental preparation. I wouldn’t be where I am without those two guys. They kept my head on straight; I am very lucky to have them as coaches.’’
In his spare time, Legace is also a spokesman for the Judson Center, a non-profit, human service agency located in southeastern Michigan to help children, adults and families improve their lives.
“Your heart just goes out to the children,’’ Legace said. “They’re kids who haven’t done anything wrong in the world but are not getting the proper care. The Judson Center is a phenomenal group that comes in and opens its doors to anybody, of any race. I’m proud to be a part of it in any capacity.’’
Please excuse St. Louis Blues goalie Manny Legace while he sets the record straight.
“People will never mistake me for a (Martin) Brodeur or even a (Miikka) Kiprusoff,’’ Legace told NHL.com. “I’m just that type of goalie who’s trying to do enough to keep my team in the game.’’
While that may be true, Legace’s play earned him a spot on the Western Conference for the 2008 NHL All-Star Game. Besing named to the All-Star Game meant the world to Legace.
“I don’t think I stopped smiling for three weeks when I got the news,’’ Legace said. “You have no idea how excited I was when I got the call and how excited I was leading up to game; it was an absolute blast. I always watched All-Star Games on television with my dad. To go out there and not worry about hockey, but just have some fun was great. I had an entourage of about 20 people, including aunts and uncles from Detroit.’’
In the Dodge SuperSkills challenge, Legace stopped four of five attempts in the shootout event, including attempts from New York Rangers' Scott Gomez, Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin and Philadelphia's Kimmo Timonen in the elimination round. He later stopped Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk on a pair of tries in the breakaway challenge. He worked the third period of the All-Star Game for the West, stopping six of nine shots.
Those close to Legace realize how much that invitation to All-Star weekend in Atlanta must have meant. After all, it was just two seasons ago when Legace established a career-high with 37 victories as the starter in Detroit, yet wasn’t re-signed after the Wings were ousted by the eighth-seeded Edmonton Oilers in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“Once we lost in the playoffs, it was kind of obvious the Detroit management was going with someone else,’’ Legace recalled. “(Detroit GM/Vice President) Ken Holland was a total gentleman and not only called my agent to explain the situation, but called me as well, which was something he didn’t have to do. I saw the writing on the wall. The regular season went well, but in this League, you’re judged in the playoffs. I really would have liked to stay in Detroit, but I knew the only way that was going to happen was if I performed well in the playoffs and I couldn’t do it. Maybe I put too much pressure on myself, who knows.’’
While Legace's playoff performance (2.65 goals-against average) might not have been up to his regular-season level (2.19 GAA), the Red Wings’ sudden lack of offense and breakdowns on defense also played a part in their six-game demise to the Oilers in 2005-06.
“It wasn’t a surprise to me that I wasn’t re-signed, but in free agency, thought I’d be able to get a job right away after the year I had,’’ Legace said.
That opportunity didn’t materialize until August of 2006 when the Blues signed him to a one-year contract.
“I was told I’d be competing for the starting role in St. Louis,’’ Legace said. “St. Louis had their share of goalies in the system, so I kind of had to work hard and wait it out.’’
Legace went 23-15-5 with a 2.59 GAA for the Blues in his inaugural season, which was shortened due to a mid-season concussion and knee surgery. Still, his play was good enough to earn him a two-year contract extension. This season, Legace has played in a career-high 61 games (25-23-8) and sports a 2.43 GAA, .910 save percentage and four shutouts, including a memorable 31-save, 2-0 victory at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on the last day of 2007. In addition to representing the Western Conference at the All-Star Game, the St. Louis chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association named Legace this year's nominee for the Masterton Trophy.
“It’s a great honor to be nominated for the Masterton, especially since its an award where people recognize how much you’ve gone through in your career to reach a certain point,’’ Legace said.
Legace is quick to single out goalie coaches Jim Bedard in Detroit and Rick Wamsley in St. Louis for helping him achieve such notoriety. Each played a vital role in not only strengthening his game, but his character. Bedard was also his goalie coach with the Niagara Falls Thunder of the Ontario Hockey League. Wamsley won a Stanley Cup as Mike Vernon's backup in Calgary in 1989, much like Legace did in Detroit when he was second behind Dominik Hasek in 2002.
“The good thing about being in the NHL is the fact I had the chance to meet two great coaches in Jim (Bedard) and Rick (Wamsley),’’ Legace said. “They each did wonders for my game and my mental preparation. I wouldn’t be where I am without those two guys. They kept my head on straight; I am very lucky to have them as coaches.’’
In his spare time, Legace is also a spokesman for the Judson Center, a non-profit, human service agency located in southeastern Michigan to help children, adults and families improve their lives.
“Your heart just goes out to the children,’’ Legace said. “They’re kids who haven’t done anything wrong in the world but are not getting the proper care. The Judson Center is a phenomenal group that comes in and opens its doors to anybody, of any race. I’m proud to be a part of it in any capacity.’’
CAPS GOALIE REPORT: HUET HANDLES THE THRASHERS, GETS A REST AND HEADS TO THE EYE OF THE STORM
Cristobal Huet’s play did not change when the score was 1-0 Caps, 3-1 Thrashers or 4-3 Caps with precious seconds ticking down while handling a bunch of pressure from Atlanta.
This is the sign of a great goaltender. He hung in there and gave his team what it needed to pull off, what will be one of the biggest games of the year, if the Caps do get into the playoffs.
The Caps head to Carolina Tuesday and I have to believe that Huet will start again after a good Easter rest. He will need to bring his “A” game again, as this game is surely as important as the last one.
Caps @ Thrashers 3/21
This is the sign of a great goaltender. He hung in there and gave his team what it needed to pull off, what will be one of the biggest games of the year, if the Caps do get into the playoffs.
The Caps head to Carolina Tuesday and I have to believe that Huet will start again after a good Easter rest. He will need to bring his “A” game again, as this game is surely as important as the last one.
Caps @ Thrashers 3/21
Friday, March 21, 2008
CAPS GOALIE REPORT: CAPS DROP A STINKER 5-0 TO HAWKS, NEED TO REOUND V ATL
Kolzig played on Wed in the stinker. Huet will start against the Thrashers.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
IT HAPPENS TO THE BEST OF THEM. GET OVER IT.
Vesa Toskala gets burned by a shorthanded 197 ft shot,...Toronto still won this game 3-1 so don't quit! Toskala and the Leafs were outshot 28 to 25. The goal was scored in the first period. It wasn't until the 3rd period that the Leafs turned it on for 3 goals to win it. You never know.
BIG GUY, SMALL GUY...LAST YEAR SMALL GUY WON
I've written a bit in previous posts about size and how it affects style and approach. Here's an example. Last year MSU and goaltender Jeff Lerg knocked off U Maine and Ben Bishop in the NCAA tourney. Bishop is listed as 6'7'' and 217 lbs while Lerg is listed at 5' 6'' 150 lbs.
NY TIMES COLLEGE ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP SERIES
March 10, 2008
THE SCHOLARSHIP DIVIDE
Expectations Lose to Reality of Sports Scholarships
By BILL PENNINGTON
Correction Appended
At youth sporting events, the sidelines have become the ritual community meeting place, where families sit in rows of folding chairs aligned like church pews. These congregations are diverse in spirit but unified by one gospel: heaven is your child receiving a college athletic scholarship.
Parents sacrifice weekends and vacations to tournaments and specialty camps, spending thousands each year in this quest for the holy grail.
But the expectations of parents and athletes can differ sharply from the financial and cultural realities of college athletics, according to an analysis by The New York Times of previously undisclosed data from the National Collegiate Athletic Association and interviews with dozens of college officials.
Excluding the glamour sports of football and basketball, the average N.C.A.A. athletic scholarship is nowhere near a full ride, amounting to $8,707. In sports like baseball or track and field, the number is routinely as low as $2,000. Even when football and basketball are included, the average is $10,409. Tuition and room and board for N.C.A.A. institutions often cost between $20,000 and $50,000 a year.
“People run themselves ragged to play on three teams at once so they could always reach the next level,” said Margaret Barry of Laurel, Md., whose daughter is a scholarship swimmer at the University of Delaware. “They’re going to be disappointed when they learn that if they’re very lucky, they will get a scholarship worth 15 percent of the $40,000 college bill. What’s that? $6,000?”
Within the N.C.A.A. data, last collected in 2003-4 and based on N.C.A.A. calculations from an internal study, are other statistical insights about the distribution of money for the 138,216 athletes who received athletic aid in Division I and Division II.
Men received 57 percent of all scholarship money, but in 11 of the 14 sports with men’s and women’s teams, the women’s teams averaged higher amounts per athlete.
On average, the best-paying sport was neither football nor men’s or women’s basketball. It was men’s ice hockey, at $21,755. Next was women’s ice hockey ($20,540).
The lowest overall average scholarship total was in men’s riflery ($3,608), and the lowest for women was in bowling ($4,899). Baseball was the second-lowest men’s sport ($5,806).
Many students and their parents think of playing a sport not because of scholarship money, but because it is stimulating and might even give them a leg up in the increasingly competitive process of applying to college. But coaches and administrators, the gatekeepers of the recruiting system, said in interviews that parents and athletes who hoped for such money were much too optimistic and that they were unprepared to effectively navigate the system. The athletes, they added, were the ones who ultimately suffered.
Coaches surveyed at two representative N.C.A.A. Division I institutions — Villanova University outside Philadelphia and the University of Delaware — told tales of rejecting top prospects because their parents were obstinate in scholarship negotiations.
“I dropped a good player because her dad was a jerk — all he ever talked to me about was scholarship money,” said Joanie Milhous, the field hockey coach at Villanova. “I don’t need that in my program. I recruit good, ethical parents as much as good, talented kids because, in the end, there’s a connection between the two.”
The best-laid plans of coaches do not always bring harmony on teams, however, and scholarships can be at the heart of the unrest. Who is getting how much tends to get around like the salaries in a workplace. The result — scholarship envy — can divide teams.
The chase for a scholarship has another side that is rarely discussed. Although those athletes who receive athletic aid are viewed as the ultimate winners, they typically find the demands on their time, minds and bodies in college even more taxing than the long journey to get there.
There are 6 a.m. weight-lifting sessions, exhausting practices, team meetings, study halls and long trips to games. Their varsity commitments often limit the courses they can take. Athletes also share a frustrating feeling of estrangement from the rest of the student body, which views them as the privileged ones. In this setting, it is not uncommon for first- and second-year athletes to relinquish their scholarships.
“Kids who have worked their whole life trying to get a scholarship think the hard part is over when they get the college money,” said Tim Poydenis, a senior at Villanova receiving $3,000 a year to play baseball. “They don’t know that it’s a whole new monster when you get here. Yes, all the hard work paid off. And now you have to work harder.”
Lack of Knowledge
Parents often look back on the many years spent shuttling sons and daughters to practices, camps and games with a changed eye. Swept up in the dizzying pursuit of sports achievement, they realize how little they knew of the process.
Mrs. Barry remembers how her daughter Cortney rose at 4 a.m. for years so she could attend a private swim practice before school. A second practice followed in the afternoon. Weekends were for competitions. Cortney is now a standout freshman at Delaware after receiving a $10,000 annual athletic scholarship.
“I’m very proud of her and it was worth it on many levels, but not necessarily the ones everybody talks about,” Mrs. Barry said. “It can take over your life. Getting up at 4 a.m. was like having another baby again. And the expenses are significant; I know I didn’t buy new clothes for a while.
“But the hardest part is that nobody educates the parents on what’s really going on or what’s going to happen.”
When they received the letter from Delaware informing them of Cortney’s scholarship, she and her husband, Bob, were thrilled. Later, they shared a quiet laugh, noting that the scholarship might just defray the cost of the last couple of years of Cortney’s youth sports swim career.
The paradox has caught the attention of Myles Brand, the president of the N.C.A.A.
“The youth sports culture is overly aggressive, and while the opportunity for an athletic scholarship is not trivial, it’s easy for the opportunity to be overexaggerated by parents and advisers,” Mr. Brand said in a telephone interview. “That can skew behavior and, based on the numbers, lead to unrealistic expectations.”
Instead, Mr. Brand said, families should focus on academics.
“The real opportunity is taking advantage of how eager institutions are to reward good students,” he said. “In America’s colleges, there is a system of discounting for academic achievement. Most people with good academic records aren’t paying full sticker price. We don’t want people to stop playing sports; it’s good for them. But the best opportunity available is to try to improve one’s academic qualifications.” The math of athletic scholarships is complicated and widely misunderstood.
Despite common references in news media reports, there is no such thing as a four-year scholarship. All N.C.A.A. athletic scholarships must be renewed and are not guaranteed year to year, something stated in bold letters on the organization’s Web site for student-athletes. Nearly every scholarship can be canceled for almost any reason in any year, although it is unclear how often that happens.
In 2003-4, N.C.A.A. institutions gave athletic scholarships amounting to about 2 percent of the 6.4 million athletes playing those sports in high school four years earlier. Despite the considerable attention paid to sports, the select group of athletes barely registers statistically among the 5.3 million students at N.C.A.A. colleges and universities.
Scholarships are typically split and distributed to a handful, or even, say, 20, athletes because most institutions do not fully finance the so-called nonrevenue sports like soccer, baseball, golf, lacrosse, volleyball, softball, swimming, and track and field. Colleges offering these sports often pay for only five or six full scholarships, which are often sliced up to cover an entire team. Some sports have one or two full scholarships, or none at all.
The N.C.A.A. also restricts by sport the number of scholarships a college is allowed to distribute, and the numbers for most teams are tiny when compared with Division I football and its 85-scholarship limit.
A fully financed men’s Division I soccer team is restricted to 9.9 full scholarships, for freshmen to seniors. These are typically divvied up among as many as 25 or 30 players. A majority of N.C.A.A. members do not reach those limits and are not fully financed in most of their sports.
Ms. Milhous, whose Villanova field hockey team plays in the competitive Big East Conference, must make tough choices in recruiting. The N.C.A.A. permits Division I field hockey teams to have 12 full scholarships, but her team has fewer.
“I tell parents of recruits I have eight scholarships, and they say: ‘Wow, eight a year? That’s great,’ ” she said. “And I say: ‘No, eight over four or five years of recruits. And I’ve got 22 girls on our team.’ ”
That can mean a $2,000 scholarship, which surprises parents.
“They might argue with me,” Ms. Milhous said. “But the fact is I’ve got girls getting from $2,000 to $20,000, and it all has to add up to eight scholarships. It’s very subjective, and remember, what I get to give out is also determined by how many seniors I’ve got leaving.”
Two Brothers, Two Stories
Joe Taylor, a soccer player at Villanova, received a scholarship worth half his roughly $40,000 in college costs when he graduated from a suburban Philadelphia high school three years ago. He had spent years on one of the top travel soccer teams in the country, F.C. Delco, and had several college aid offers.
“It was still a huge dogfight to get whatever you can get,” Mr. Taylor said. “Everyone is scrambling. There are so many good players, and nobody understands how few get to keep playing after high school.”
In 2003-4, there was the equivalent of one full N.C.A.A. men’s soccer scholarship available for about every 145 boys who were playing high school soccer four years earlier.
“There’s a lot of luck involved really,” Mr. Taylor said. “I can pinpoint a time when I was suddenly heavily recruited. It was after a tournament in Long Island the summer after my junior year. I scored a few goals. The Villanova coach was there, and so were some other college coaches. Within a couple of days, my in-box was full of e-mails. I’ve wondered, What would have happened if didn’t play well that day?”
Mr. Taylor has a younger brother, Pat, who followed in his footsteps, playing on the same national-level travel team and for the same Olympic developmental program.
“He did everything I did, and in some ways I think he’s a better player than me,” Joe said. “But you know, I think he didn’t have the big game when the right college coaches were there. He didn’t get the money offers I did.”
Pat Taylor is a freshman at Loyola College in Baltimore. Though recruited, he did not make the soccer team during tryouts last fall.
“I feel terrible for him — he worked as hard as I did for all those years,” Joe Taylor said.
Their father, Chris Taylor, said he once calculated what he spent on the boys’ soccer careers.
“Ten thousand per kid per year is not an unreasonable estimate,” he said. “But we never looked at it as a financial transaction. You are misguided if you do it for that reason. You cannot recoup what you put in if you think of it that way. It was their passion — still is — and we wanted to indulge that.
“So what if we didn’t take vacations for a few years.”
Pat Taylor, who started playing soccer at 4, said it took him about a month to accept that his dream of playing varsity soccer on scholarship in college would not happen. He looks back fondly on his youth career but also wishes he knew at the start what he knows now about the process.
“The whole thing really is a crapshoot, but no one ever says that out loud,” he said. “On every team I played on, every single person there thought for sure that they would play in college. I thought so, too. Just by the numbers, it’s completely unrealistic.
“And if I had it to do over, I would have skipped a practice every now and then to go to a concert or a movie with my friends. I missed out on a lot of things for soccer. I wish I could have some of that time back.”
Griffin Palmer contributed reporting to this article.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: March 11, 2008
A front-page article on Monday about the unrealistic expectations of families in the pursuit of college athletic scholarships omitted a reporting credit. Griffin Palmer analyzed college and high school statistics for the article.
March 11, 2008
THE SCHOLARSHIP DIVIDE
Recruits Clamor for More From Coaches With Less
By BILL PENNINGTON
The country’s celebrity college football and basketball coaches lead nationally ranked teams on television, controlling a bevy of full scholarships and a sophisticated marketing machine that swathes college athletics with an air of affluence. They are far from typical.
More common is the soccer, lacrosse or softball coach who sits in a closet-sized office beside a $100 air conditioner and a 12-inch TV, trying to figure out ways to buy the best athlete possible for the least amount of scholarship money, which can be as little as $400. A jack-of-all-trades, this coach has a job that requires the skills of a stock portfolio manager, labor lawyer, headhunter, family counselor and soothsayer.
“There have been days when you feel like a used-car salesman,” said Joe Godri, the baseball coach at Villanova University. “I’ve always been completely honest, but you can’t get away from the fact that the process can be crazy. You pump up a kid so much to come to your place, and when he agrees, you say, ‘O.K., and what I’ve got for you is 25 percent of your cost to attend here.’
“And no one believes you, but that’s a good Division I baseball scholarship. You have to convince his parents that you’re being really fair.”
The current cost to attend Villanova is nearly $45,000 a year, and it has cost more than $35,000 since 2003. The average N.C.A.A. Division I baseball scholarship, compiled from 2003-4 statistics obtained from the N.C.A.A., is worth $7,069.
“It’s like we have a salary cap from the professional sports model,” said Godri, whose baseball program can dole out the equivalent of six full scholarships across four years. “Except we’re dealing in thousands, not millions, and we have to stretch it across 25 or 30 kids.”
Working against these college coaches is a perception in the hyper and driven youth sports culture that scholarship money is plentiful. Online recruiting services and private counselors promote the notion that some athletic scholarships go unclaimed.
In interviews with more than 20 college coaches and administrators at two representative N.C.A.A. Division I institutions, Villanova and the University of Delaware, the coaches said they routinely encountered parents with an almost irrational desire to have their children earn some kind of athletic scholarship. Sometimes the amount is irrelevant, as long as the child can attend his or her high school’s national letter of intent signing day and be feted in the local newspapers as a scholarship athlete.
“Parents say to me all the time: ‘Can’t you just throw her something? Just make her feel good,’ ” said Joanie Milhous, the Villanova field hockey coach. “I have to explain I don’t have money to throw around. I think these families have just invested so much in private lessons, tutors and camps, they can’t stand the thought of getting nothing at all back financially.”
The Delaware men’s track coach, Jim Fischer, added: “I’m somewhat amazed that the question of scholarship money always comes up, even when it’s an athlete I haven’t shown much interest in and who clearly isn’t a college-level player. When I meet with them, I sit there thinking, this parent will never even ask about money because their kid would have trouble making some high school teams. But you know what? They ask for money, too.”
Other coaches said athletes or their parents tried to be too wily in their scholarship negotiations.
“Families will try to play the coaches off each other,” said Kim Ciarrocca, who coaches women’s lacrosse at Delaware. “They’ll say that they’ve got a half or full scholarship offer from some school and want us to match it. What they don’t know is that we coaches all talk to each other, and we know the truth.”
She added: “We will call the other coach and ask, ‘Hey, did you offer that kid a full ride?’ When the answer is no, that kid might have lost the interest of two coaches.”
Godri said parents sometimes are misled by advisers who use the high-profile sports of football or basketball as a model for how to play the recruiting game. That is a mistake, Godri said, because the money in the nonrevenue sports is limited.
“The first thing people have to understand is that they are probably not going to recoup the money they’ve already spent on their kid’s athletic career,” Godri said. “But that’s what they are told. People get exploited. I wish people would relax and talk frankly to coaches. I’d tell them to lower their expectations, and everything will probably work out fine for all concerned.”
At the same time, the coaches concede that there is a competitive nature to the recruiting system and that they are not above using tactics to sway or hurry high school athletes in their decision-making.
Ciarrocca’s husband, Kirk, is an assistant football coach at Delaware. They discuss recruiting strategies.
“I think all the women’s sports have learned from the men’s sports, and right or wrong, we now do some of the things they do,” Ciarrocca said.
For example, if she is looking for a goalie, she might bring to campus each of her top three potential recruits at the position in the space of a few days. She said she would tell them that there were three players, that all three had been on campus recently and that they had a week to decide whether to attend Delaware. The first player to commit gets the scholarship money. The others do not.
“I’ve waited patiently in the past,” Ciarrocca said, “and lost all three.”
Coaches said the rules of this recruiting engagement were understood by anyone who had been in the game before. That is why coaches say they are happiest when they make their first call to a recruit’s home and find out the object of their attention had an older sibling who was recruited by colleges.
“Those people understand the landscape,” Milhous said. “If it’s the oldest child, I know it’s going to be harder.”
Among the principal things families do not know, the coaches said, is that there is a lot more money available outside athletics in the form of grants, loans and other institutional aid. In many cases, the athletic aid will be a piece of the financial package.
“The athletic money can also increase over time, because a good 17-year-old player can grow into a great 19-year-old player, and just about any coach will want to recognize that and keep the player happy,” said Godri, who has had two recent graduates drafted in the second round of
Major League Baseball’s amateur draft.
For that reason, most coaches treat their pool of scholarship money as a reserve that must be strategically invested like a stock portfolio. And like a stock plan, it can be drastically affected by unforeseen outside forces — in this case, injuries and academic ineligibility. Other factors are the attrition of graduation and an always volatile position depth chart.
“Sometimes you have to try to predict the future, and if you think it’s easy, you’ve never done it,” Godri said. “This is why when a parent says to me, ‘You must have more money,’ I can say with a clear conscience, ‘There ain’t no more money.’ ”
Every coach interviewed said the battle over scholarship dollars would go more smoothly if parents and athletes did their homework and knew how few full scholarships the N.C.A.A. allowed in each sport (11.7 for baseball, 12 for field hockey, for example) and how few Division I institutions actually funded sports to those levels (far less than half). Most said there was an overemphasis on the potential financial benefit of a child’s athletic success.
“What they should be doing is attending the games of a college they are considering,” Milhous said. “Go sit with the parents of the current players. That will tell you everything. By the end of the game, they’ll know everything — good or bad. And that’s what really matters.
“But people tend to just focus on the money. They chase the scholarship and I’ve had several families come back to me a year or two later and say, ‘Chasing the money was a mistake.’ It sounds like a cliché, but there’s a lot more to being a happy college athlete than how much money you get. The money alone won’t make you happy.”
Griffin Palmer contributed reporting.
March 12, 2008
THE SCHOLARSHIP DIVIDE
It’s Not an Adventure, It’s a Job
By BILL PENNINGTON
A few months into her first year at Villanova, Stephanie Campbell was despondent.
As a high school senior in New Jersey, she had been thrilled to receive a $19,000 athletic scholarship to play field hockey at Villanova University, a select, private institution outside Philadelphia. But she had not counted on the 7 a.m. start of every class day, something required so she could be in the locker room by noon to prepare for a four-hour shift of afternoon practices and weight-lifting sessions. Travel to games forced her to miss exams and classes. There were also mandatory team meetings, study halls and weekend practices. She was overwhelmed.
“Plus, her roommate had a typical college student’s social life, while Stephanie was in her room on weekend nights trying to sleep because she had a game the next day,” her mother, Kathleen Campbell, said last month. “She came home crying.”
So Kathleen Campbell sat her daughter down, waited for a break in the sobs and said: “Villanova costs more than $40,000 a year to attend. They’re paying you $19,000 to play field hockey. At your age, there is no one out there anywhere who is going to pay you that kind of money to do anything. And that’s how you have to look at this: It’s a job, but it’s a great job.”
Campbell, 22, kept at it all four years, serving as a team captain last fall while majoring in marketing. She is expected to graduate this spring.
“I’m missing the sport terribly already,” she said last month. “But it was a ton of work. Receiving an athletic scholarship is a wonderful thing, but most of us only know what we’re getting, not what we’re getting into.”
Dozens of scholarship athletes at N.C.A.A. Division I institutions said in interviews that they had underestimated how taxing and hectic their lives would be playing college sports. They also said others share a common misperception that athletes lead a privileged existence.
“You know, maybe if you’re a scholarship football player at Oklahoma, everything is taken care of for you,” Tim Poydenis, a scholarship baseball player at Villanova, said. “But most of us are nonrevenue-sport athletes who have to do our own fund-raising just to pay for basics like sweat pants and batting gloves. We miss all these classes, which obviously doesn’t help us or make our professors happy. We give up almost all our free time. Our social life is stripped bare.
“Friday happy hour or spring break? Forget it. I haven’t had a spring break since I was a sophomore in high school.”
The athletes were interviewed over several weeks from a cross section of sports at two representative Division I institutions, Villanova, a charter member of the Big East Conference, and the University of Delaware, a state-run institution that is a member of the Colonial Athletic Association. None of the athletes asked for or expected sympathy. They know there are many overscheduled college students who devote extra hours to academic and extracurricular activities or part-time jobs and internships.
“We love what we do, and it is worth it,” Poydenis said. “But everybody thinks every college athlete is on a pampered full ride. The truth is a lot of us are getting $4,000 and working our butts off for it.”
The life of the scholarship athlete is so arduous that coaches and athletes said it was not unusual for as many as 15 percent of those receiving athletic aid to quit sports and turn down the scholarship money after a year or two.
“I came in with 10 recruited girls,” Stephanie Campbell said. “There are four of us left as seniors. Not everyone was on scholarship, but maybe half who left were getting money.”
Campbell said she had a teammate who wanted to be an engineer but that the classes and off-campus projects in that major clashed with field hockey practices and trips.
Katie Lee, a senior softball player at Delaware, said at least one scholarship player had quit the team in each of her seasons. Of her former teammates, she said, “I see them around campus, and they look happy.”
Emily Schaknowski, a sophomore lacrosse player on athletic scholarship at Delaware, said 5 of the 12 women she entered with were no longer on the team. Most had relinquished their scholarships.
Joe Taylor, a junior soccer player at Villanova, said he was one of four left from a freshman recruiting class of 10.
“You wonder if you should try to talk them out of it,” Taylor said. “But for most of those guys, it probably is the best decision to walk away.”
At Villanova, Poydenis said he thought the defections resulted from the shock that set in after a youth sports culture ethos collided with the realities of college athletics.
“Kids who have worked their whole life trying to get a scholarship think the hard part is over when they get the college money,” he said. “They don’t know that it’s a whole new monster when you get here.”
His coach, Joe Godri, says he tries to warn recruits before they accept athletic aid. He tells them that being a Division I student-athlete is a full-time job. “It’s not even close to being a normal college student,” Godri said.
The Division I athletes interviewed indicated they devoted at least four hours a day to their sport, not counting the time it takes to play or to travel to games. Classes must be scheduled in the early morning to free the afternoon for practices and games. Practices often last from 4 to 6:30 p.m., although several athletes talked about how they had to arrive early for treatment of injuries or to have old injuries taped or harnessed. Highly competitive, demanding practices come next.
There is often a team dinner, perhaps a short meeting and a mandatory study hall in some cases. Weekday away games, which are common, can mean a bus ride that begins at 1 p.m. and a return trip that reaches campus at 10 p.m.
“You come back to your dorm room ready to crash,” Taylor said. “But you’ve got homework or maybe a test the next morning. The rest of the dorm is starting to get a little rowdy because those guys have all finished their homework. They might be getting ready to go out. A lot of them took a nap in the afternoon.”
College athletes routinely said there was one accouterment not often mentioned in recruiting trips but essential to the athlete’s equipment bag: ear plugs.
“They help you sleep on those nights when you have a game the next day,” Jamie Flynn, a junior soccer player at Delaware, said.
Many athletes tend to gather together in off-campus housing, so at least their apartment is quieter on the nights before games. Most teams have a rule prohibiting alcohol 48 hours before a game. The Villanova field hockey team, for example, pledges to not to drink alcohol for the entire season.
And the players police other teammates who might not be abiding by the rules about partying before games or practices. Jillian Loyden, a senior All-Big East goalie on Villanova’s soccer team, said it was usually first-year players who slipped up.
“They get to college and want to be normal college students on a Friday night,” said Loyden, who has raided parties to usher first-year teammates out of a building so they would head home to bed. “You have to make them understand that our team is not a social club.”
Athletes from the nonrevenue sports also customarily have to do extra work on campus to raise money to pay for equipment or apparel not normally financed by the athletic department, like warm-up jackets. Cortney Barry, a scholarship swimmer at Delaware, cut short her
Thanksgiving Day break at home last year because the swim team had agreed to clean the garbage from the football stadium bleachers to pay for some expenses.
For this and other reasons, college athletes often refer to students who are nonathletes as “normals” or “regulars.” When asked why, Stephanie Campbell answered, “Because we’re not normal.”
“Look, we are fortunate to be athletes and to get tuition money to do it,” Campbell added. “I have loved my time here. I’m going to get a prestigious degree, and I know there are a lot of people who would have wanted to trade places with me. But I’d still say Division I athletics is not meant for everybody. Nobody tells you that.”
Campbell, who was an All-Big East selection in her final season, has gone back to her hometown, Gibbsboro in South Jersey, to help coach the club team she played for as a youngster.
“I worry about the kids I see now, because they’re under so much stress to get something out of field hockey,” she said. “You can never lose sight of why you play. Yes, I got a scholarship, but in the end, I put up with the sore muscles, lost sleep and everything else because I loved playing that much.”
These days, she is trying to make up for lost time on the business networking front, attending vocational seminars and fairs aimed at easing college graduates into the workplace. It is a new game for Campbell.
“Well, I’m graduating in May,” she said. “I need a job.”
Griffin Palmer contributed reporting.
March 12, 2008
THE SCHOLARSHIP DIVIDE
Divvying Scholarship Dollars Can Divide a Team
By BILL PENNINGTON
An athlete’s worth to a college is often negotiated behind the closed door of a coach’s office with the scholarship amount kept a guarded secret, like a salary in a workplace. But the figures have a way of eventually getting out, as they do in any office.
What happens next is not surprising: scholarship envy.
“It tends to come out when someone is either playing really well or really bad,” said Jillian Loyden, a senior goalkeeper on the Villanova University women’s soccer team. “If someone has a few really poor games, you hear girls during a bus ride saying: ‘And she’s on 75 percent scholarship. What is the coach thinking?’ ”
Joe Taylor, a standout member of the Villanova men’s soccer team whose athletic aid represents more than half his college expenses, agreed. “Playing badly and getting a lot of money will usually lead to resentment,” he said. “I guess it’s normal, but it’s not very good for the team concept.”
Cortney Barry, a freshman swimmer at the University of Delaware who was granted an athletic scholarship worth $10,000 annually, added: “Groups can divide a team based on the amount of money everyone is getting. People talk about it secretly. They’ll say: ‘I’m faster. Why is she getting more money?’ ”
Barry, who has had a spectacular first season, wondered if the disharmony might stem from the competitive pursuit of scholarship money that began when the athletes were young swimmers seeking the attention of college coaches.
“I knew girls who had grown to hate swimming and hated just getting into the pool,” Barry said. “They wanted to quit, but they felt pressure from their parents, who had invested a lot in their swim careers. It was a means to eventually get college money. Some of those girls are at other colleges now, and you know, it’s like it’s still about the money — am I getting enough?
“You can never win that way. The real reward is getting to do your sport in college.”
Coaches do what they can to keep the money issue underground.
“We ask them to avoid the subject,” said Joanie Milhous, Villanova’s longtime field hockey coach. “But we have a lot of girls who are roommates. It’s a long year — how many things do you keep from your roommate?”
Delaware’s women’s lacrosse coach, Kim Ciarrocca, said she worried most about scholarship envy when recruiting players from the same high school.
“You don’t want them comparing offers, because one of them is most likely getting less,” Ciarrocca said. “You ask them not to say anything, but if the kids are close, you know they will talk. It’s the same on a team.”
Several coaches said the parents of athletes also sometimes compared notes on financial packages, usually with disquieting results.
But there are some teams that seem to have developed a culture in which scholarship money does not come up too often.
“We’re friends, and I wouldn’t ask my friend what her family income was,” said Katie Lee, a senior softball player at Delaware. “Although I have noticed that everyone comes onto campus thinking that everyone else is on full scholarship. I was the same way. You do find out pretty quickly that almost no one is on full scholarship. That gets out right away.”
Stephanie Campbell, a Villanova field hockey player, said athletes were instructed not to discuss scholarship totals for good reason.
“It tends to rank us and define our worth,” she said, frowning. “We’re supposed to be one team.”
Campbell, who received an athletic scholarship worth roughly half of Villanova’s $40,000-plus price tag, had another perspective on the inevitability of players comparing amounts. She said it motivated and humbled her.
“There were girls on the team doing all the same work as me — driving themselves to exhaustion — and I knew they weren’t getting a lot of money,” she said. “I had so much respect for them. I thought, ‘Well, I can’t let up.’ ”
THE SCHOLARSHIP DIVIDE
Expectations Lose to Reality of Sports Scholarships
By BILL PENNINGTON
Correction Appended
At youth sporting events, the sidelines have become the ritual community meeting place, where families sit in rows of folding chairs aligned like church pews. These congregations are diverse in spirit but unified by one gospel: heaven is your child receiving a college athletic scholarship.
Parents sacrifice weekends and vacations to tournaments and specialty camps, spending thousands each year in this quest for the holy grail.
But the expectations of parents and athletes can differ sharply from the financial and cultural realities of college athletics, according to an analysis by The New York Times of previously undisclosed data from the National Collegiate Athletic Association and interviews with dozens of college officials.
Excluding the glamour sports of football and basketball, the average N.C.A.A. athletic scholarship is nowhere near a full ride, amounting to $8,707. In sports like baseball or track and field, the number is routinely as low as $2,000. Even when football and basketball are included, the average is $10,409. Tuition and room and board for N.C.A.A. institutions often cost between $20,000 and $50,000 a year.
“People run themselves ragged to play on three teams at once so they could always reach the next level,” said Margaret Barry of Laurel, Md., whose daughter is a scholarship swimmer at the University of Delaware. “They’re going to be disappointed when they learn that if they’re very lucky, they will get a scholarship worth 15 percent of the $40,000 college bill. What’s that? $6,000?”
Within the N.C.A.A. data, last collected in 2003-4 and based on N.C.A.A. calculations from an internal study, are other statistical insights about the distribution of money for the 138,216 athletes who received athletic aid in Division I and Division II.
Men received 57 percent of all scholarship money, but in 11 of the 14 sports with men’s and women’s teams, the women’s teams averaged higher amounts per athlete.
On average, the best-paying sport was neither football nor men’s or women’s basketball. It was men’s ice hockey, at $21,755. Next was women’s ice hockey ($20,540).
The lowest overall average scholarship total was in men’s riflery ($3,608), and the lowest for women was in bowling ($4,899). Baseball was the second-lowest men’s sport ($5,806).
Many students and their parents think of playing a sport not because of scholarship money, but because it is stimulating and might even give them a leg up in the increasingly competitive process of applying to college. But coaches and administrators, the gatekeepers of the recruiting system, said in interviews that parents and athletes who hoped for such money were much too optimistic and that they were unprepared to effectively navigate the system. The athletes, they added, were the ones who ultimately suffered.
Coaches surveyed at two representative N.C.A.A. Division I institutions — Villanova University outside Philadelphia and the University of Delaware — told tales of rejecting top prospects because their parents were obstinate in scholarship negotiations.
“I dropped a good player because her dad was a jerk — all he ever talked to me about was scholarship money,” said Joanie Milhous, the field hockey coach at Villanova. “I don’t need that in my program. I recruit good, ethical parents as much as good, talented kids because, in the end, there’s a connection between the two.”
The best-laid plans of coaches do not always bring harmony on teams, however, and scholarships can be at the heart of the unrest. Who is getting how much tends to get around like the salaries in a workplace. The result — scholarship envy — can divide teams.
The chase for a scholarship has another side that is rarely discussed. Although those athletes who receive athletic aid are viewed as the ultimate winners, they typically find the demands on their time, minds and bodies in college even more taxing than the long journey to get there.
There are 6 a.m. weight-lifting sessions, exhausting practices, team meetings, study halls and long trips to games. Their varsity commitments often limit the courses they can take. Athletes also share a frustrating feeling of estrangement from the rest of the student body, which views them as the privileged ones. In this setting, it is not uncommon for first- and second-year athletes to relinquish their scholarships.
“Kids who have worked their whole life trying to get a scholarship think the hard part is over when they get the college money,” said Tim Poydenis, a senior at Villanova receiving $3,000 a year to play baseball. “They don’t know that it’s a whole new monster when you get here. Yes, all the hard work paid off. And now you have to work harder.”
Lack of Knowledge
Parents often look back on the many years spent shuttling sons and daughters to practices, camps and games with a changed eye. Swept up in the dizzying pursuit of sports achievement, they realize how little they knew of the process.
Mrs. Barry remembers how her daughter Cortney rose at 4 a.m. for years so she could attend a private swim practice before school. A second practice followed in the afternoon. Weekends were for competitions. Cortney is now a standout freshman at Delaware after receiving a $10,000 annual athletic scholarship.
“I’m very proud of her and it was worth it on many levels, but not necessarily the ones everybody talks about,” Mrs. Barry said. “It can take over your life. Getting up at 4 a.m. was like having another baby again. And the expenses are significant; I know I didn’t buy new clothes for a while.
“But the hardest part is that nobody educates the parents on what’s really going on or what’s going to happen.”
When they received the letter from Delaware informing them of Cortney’s scholarship, she and her husband, Bob, were thrilled. Later, they shared a quiet laugh, noting that the scholarship might just defray the cost of the last couple of years of Cortney’s youth sports swim career.
The paradox has caught the attention of Myles Brand, the president of the N.C.A.A.
“The youth sports culture is overly aggressive, and while the opportunity for an athletic scholarship is not trivial, it’s easy for the opportunity to be overexaggerated by parents and advisers,” Mr. Brand said in a telephone interview. “That can skew behavior and, based on the numbers, lead to unrealistic expectations.”
Instead, Mr. Brand said, families should focus on academics.
“The real opportunity is taking advantage of how eager institutions are to reward good students,” he said. “In America’s colleges, there is a system of discounting for academic achievement. Most people with good academic records aren’t paying full sticker price. We don’t want people to stop playing sports; it’s good for them. But the best opportunity available is to try to improve one’s academic qualifications.” The math of athletic scholarships is complicated and widely misunderstood.
Despite common references in news media reports, there is no such thing as a four-year scholarship. All N.C.A.A. athletic scholarships must be renewed and are not guaranteed year to year, something stated in bold letters on the organization’s Web site for student-athletes. Nearly every scholarship can be canceled for almost any reason in any year, although it is unclear how often that happens.
In 2003-4, N.C.A.A. institutions gave athletic scholarships amounting to about 2 percent of the 6.4 million athletes playing those sports in high school four years earlier. Despite the considerable attention paid to sports, the select group of athletes barely registers statistically among the 5.3 million students at N.C.A.A. colleges and universities.
Scholarships are typically split and distributed to a handful, or even, say, 20, athletes because most institutions do not fully finance the so-called nonrevenue sports like soccer, baseball, golf, lacrosse, volleyball, softball, swimming, and track and field. Colleges offering these sports often pay for only five or six full scholarships, which are often sliced up to cover an entire team. Some sports have one or two full scholarships, or none at all.
The N.C.A.A. also restricts by sport the number of scholarships a college is allowed to distribute, and the numbers for most teams are tiny when compared with Division I football and its 85-scholarship limit.
A fully financed men’s Division I soccer team is restricted to 9.9 full scholarships, for freshmen to seniors. These are typically divvied up among as many as 25 or 30 players. A majority of N.C.A.A. members do not reach those limits and are not fully financed in most of their sports.
Ms. Milhous, whose Villanova field hockey team plays in the competitive Big East Conference, must make tough choices in recruiting. The N.C.A.A. permits Division I field hockey teams to have 12 full scholarships, but her team has fewer.
“I tell parents of recruits I have eight scholarships, and they say: ‘Wow, eight a year? That’s great,’ ” she said. “And I say: ‘No, eight over four or five years of recruits. And I’ve got 22 girls on our team.’ ”
That can mean a $2,000 scholarship, which surprises parents.
“They might argue with me,” Ms. Milhous said. “But the fact is I’ve got girls getting from $2,000 to $20,000, and it all has to add up to eight scholarships. It’s very subjective, and remember, what I get to give out is also determined by how many seniors I’ve got leaving.”
Two Brothers, Two Stories
Joe Taylor, a soccer player at Villanova, received a scholarship worth half his roughly $40,000 in college costs when he graduated from a suburban Philadelphia high school three years ago. He had spent years on one of the top travel soccer teams in the country, F.C. Delco, and had several college aid offers.
“It was still a huge dogfight to get whatever you can get,” Mr. Taylor said. “Everyone is scrambling. There are so many good players, and nobody understands how few get to keep playing after high school.”
In 2003-4, there was the equivalent of one full N.C.A.A. men’s soccer scholarship available for about every 145 boys who were playing high school soccer four years earlier.
“There’s a lot of luck involved really,” Mr. Taylor said. “I can pinpoint a time when I was suddenly heavily recruited. It was after a tournament in Long Island the summer after my junior year. I scored a few goals. The Villanova coach was there, and so were some other college coaches. Within a couple of days, my in-box was full of e-mails. I’ve wondered, What would have happened if didn’t play well that day?”
Mr. Taylor has a younger brother, Pat, who followed in his footsteps, playing on the same national-level travel team and for the same Olympic developmental program.
“He did everything I did, and in some ways I think he’s a better player than me,” Joe said. “But you know, I think he didn’t have the big game when the right college coaches were there. He didn’t get the money offers I did.”
Pat Taylor is a freshman at Loyola College in Baltimore. Though recruited, he did not make the soccer team during tryouts last fall.
“I feel terrible for him — he worked as hard as I did for all those years,” Joe Taylor said.
Their father, Chris Taylor, said he once calculated what he spent on the boys’ soccer careers.
“Ten thousand per kid per year is not an unreasonable estimate,” he said. “But we never looked at it as a financial transaction. You are misguided if you do it for that reason. You cannot recoup what you put in if you think of it that way. It was their passion — still is — and we wanted to indulge that.
“So what if we didn’t take vacations for a few years.”
Pat Taylor, who started playing soccer at 4, said it took him about a month to accept that his dream of playing varsity soccer on scholarship in college would not happen. He looks back fondly on his youth career but also wishes he knew at the start what he knows now about the process.
“The whole thing really is a crapshoot, but no one ever says that out loud,” he said. “On every team I played on, every single person there thought for sure that they would play in college. I thought so, too. Just by the numbers, it’s completely unrealistic.
“And if I had it to do over, I would have skipped a practice every now and then to go to a concert or a movie with my friends. I missed out on a lot of things for soccer. I wish I could have some of that time back.”
Griffin Palmer contributed reporting to this article.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: March 11, 2008
A front-page article on Monday about the unrealistic expectations of families in the pursuit of college athletic scholarships omitted a reporting credit. Griffin Palmer analyzed college and high school statistics for the article.
March 11, 2008
THE SCHOLARSHIP DIVIDE
Recruits Clamor for More From Coaches With Less
By BILL PENNINGTON
The country’s celebrity college football and basketball coaches lead nationally ranked teams on television, controlling a bevy of full scholarships and a sophisticated marketing machine that swathes college athletics with an air of affluence. They are far from typical.
More common is the soccer, lacrosse or softball coach who sits in a closet-sized office beside a $100 air conditioner and a 12-inch TV, trying to figure out ways to buy the best athlete possible for the least amount of scholarship money, which can be as little as $400. A jack-of-all-trades, this coach has a job that requires the skills of a stock portfolio manager, labor lawyer, headhunter, family counselor and soothsayer.
“There have been days when you feel like a used-car salesman,” said Joe Godri, the baseball coach at Villanova University. “I’ve always been completely honest, but you can’t get away from the fact that the process can be crazy. You pump up a kid so much to come to your place, and when he agrees, you say, ‘O.K., and what I’ve got for you is 25 percent of your cost to attend here.’
“And no one believes you, but that’s a good Division I baseball scholarship. You have to convince his parents that you’re being really fair.”
The current cost to attend Villanova is nearly $45,000 a year, and it has cost more than $35,000 since 2003. The average N.C.A.A. Division I baseball scholarship, compiled from 2003-4 statistics obtained from the N.C.A.A., is worth $7,069.
“It’s like we have a salary cap from the professional sports model,” said Godri, whose baseball program can dole out the equivalent of six full scholarships across four years. “Except we’re dealing in thousands, not millions, and we have to stretch it across 25 or 30 kids.”
Working against these college coaches is a perception in the hyper and driven youth sports culture that scholarship money is plentiful. Online recruiting services and private counselors promote the notion that some athletic scholarships go unclaimed.
In interviews with more than 20 college coaches and administrators at two representative N.C.A.A. Division I institutions, Villanova and the University of Delaware, the coaches said they routinely encountered parents with an almost irrational desire to have their children earn some kind of athletic scholarship. Sometimes the amount is irrelevant, as long as the child can attend his or her high school’s national letter of intent signing day and be feted in the local newspapers as a scholarship athlete.
“Parents say to me all the time: ‘Can’t you just throw her something? Just make her feel good,’ ” said Joanie Milhous, the Villanova field hockey coach. “I have to explain I don’t have money to throw around. I think these families have just invested so much in private lessons, tutors and camps, they can’t stand the thought of getting nothing at all back financially.”
The Delaware men’s track coach, Jim Fischer, added: “I’m somewhat amazed that the question of scholarship money always comes up, even when it’s an athlete I haven’t shown much interest in and who clearly isn’t a college-level player. When I meet with them, I sit there thinking, this parent will never even ask about money because their kid would have trouble making some high school teams. But you know what? They ask for money, too.”
Other coaches said athletes or their parents tried to be too wily in their scholarship negotiations.
“Families will try to play the coaches off each other,” said Kim Ciarrocca, who coaches women’s lacrosse at Delaware. “They’ll say that they’ve got a half or full scholarship offer from some school and want us to match it. What they don’t know is that we coaches all talk to each other, and we know the truth.”
She added: “We will call the other coach and ask, ‘Hey, did you offer that kid a full ride?’ When the answer is no, that kid might have lost the interest of two coaches.”
Godri said parents sometimes are misled by advisers who use the high-profile sports of football or basketball as a model for how to play the recruiting game. That is a mistake, Godri said, because the money in the nonrevenue sports is limited.
“The first thing people have to understand is that they are probably not going to recoup the money they’ve already spent on their kid’s athletic career,” Godri said. “But that’s what they are told. People get exploited. I wish people would relax and talk frankly to coaches. I’d tell them to lower their expectations, and everything will probably work out fine for all concerned.”
At the same time, the coaches concede that there is a competitive nature to the recruiting system and that they are not above using tactics to sway or hurry high school athletes in their decision-making.
Ciarrocca’s husband, Kirk, is an assistant football coach at Delaware. They discuss recruiting strategies.
“I think all the women’s sports have learned from the men’s sports, and right or wrong, we now do some of the things they do,” Ciarrocca said.
For example, if she is looking for a goalie, she might bring to campus each of her top three potential recruits at the position in the space of a few days. She said she would tell them that there were three players, that all three had been on campus recently and that they had a week to decide whether to attend Delaware. The first player to commit gets the scholarship money. The others do not.
“I’ve waited patiently in the past,” Ciarrocca said, “and lost all three.”
Coaches said the rules of this recruiting engagement were understood by anyone who had been in the game before. That is why coaches say they are happiest when they make their first call to a recruit’s home and find out the object of their attention had an older sibling who was recruited by colleges.
“Those people understand the landscape,” Milhous said. “If it’s the oldest child, I know it’s going to be harder.”
Among the principal things families do not know, the coaches said, is that there is a lot more money available outside athletics in the form of grants, loans and other institutional aid. In many cases, the athletic aid will be a piece of the financial package.
“The athletic money can also increase over time, because a good 17-year-old player can grow into a great 19-year-old player, and just about any coach will want to recognize that and keep the player happy,” said Godri, who has had two recent graduates drafted in the second round of
Major League Baseball’s amateur draft.
For that reason, most coaches treat their pool of scholarship money as a reserve that must be strategically invested like a stock portfolio. And like a stock plan, it can be drastically affected by unforeseen outside forces — in this case, injuries and academic ineligibility. Other factors are the attrition of graduation and an always volatile position depth chart.
“Sometimes you have to try to predict the future, and if you think it’s easy, you’ve never done it,” Godri said. “This is why when a parent says to me, ‘You must have more money,’ I can say with a clear conscience, ‘There ain’t no more money.’ ”
Every coach interviewed said the battle over scholarship dollars would go more smoothly if parents and athletes did their homework and knew how few full scholarships the N.C.A.A. allowed in each sport (11.7 for baseball, 12 for field hockey, for example) and how few Division I institutions actually funded sports to those levels (far less than half). Most said there was an overemphasis on the potential financial benefit of a child’s athletic success.
“What they should be doing is attending the games of a college they are considering,” Milhous said. “Go sit with the parents of the current players. That will tell you everything. By the end of the game, they’ll know everything — good or bad. And that’s what really matters.
“But people tend to just focus on the money. They chase the scholarship and I’ve had several families come back to me a year or two later and say, ‘Chasing the money was a mistake.’ It sounds like a cliché, but there’s a lot more to being a happy college athlete than how much money you get. The money alone won’t make you happy.”
Griffin Palmer contributed reporting.
March 12, 2008
THE SCHOLARSHIP DIVIDE
It’s Not an Adventure, It’s a Job
By BILL PENNINGTON
A few months into her first year at Villanova, Stephanie Campbell was despondent.
As a high school senior in New Jersey, she had been thrilled to receive a $19,000 athletic scholarship to play field hockey at Villanova University, a select, private institution outside Philadelphia. But she had not counted on the 7 a.m. start of every class day, something required so she could be in the locker room by noon to prepare for a four-hour shift of afternoon practices and weight-lifting sessions. Travel to games forced her to miss exams and classes. There were also mandatory team meetings, study halls and weekend practices. She was overwhelmed.
“Plus, her roommate had a typical college student’s social life, while Stephanie was in her room on weekend nights trying to sleep because she had a game the next day,” her mother, Kathleen Campbell, said last month. “She came home crying.”
So Kathleen Campbell sat her daughter down, waited for a break in the sobs and said: “Villanova costs more than $40,000 a year to attend. They’re paying you $19,000 to play field hockey. At your age, there is no one out there anywhere who is going to pay you that kind of money to do anything. And that’s how you have to look at this: It’s a job, but it’s a great job.”
Campbell, 22, kept at it all four years, serving as a team captain last fall while majoring in marketing. She is expected to graduate this spring.
“I’m missing the sport terribly already,” she said last month. “But it was a ton of work. Receiving an athletic scholarship is a wonderful thing, but most of us only know what we’re getting, not what we’re getting into.”
Dozens of scholarship athletes at N.C.A.A. Division I institutions said in interviews that they had underestimated how taxing and hectic their lives would be playing college sports. They also said others share a common misperception that athletes lead a privileged existence.
“You know, maybe if you’re a scholarship football player at Oklahoma, everything is taken care of for you,” Tim Poydenis, a scholarship baseball player at Villanova, said. “But most of us are nonrevenue-sport athletes who have to do our own fund-raising just to pay for basics like sweat pants and batting gloves. We miss all these classes, which obviously doesn’t help us or make our professors happy. We give up almost all our free time. Our social life is stripped bare.
“Friday happy hour or spring break? Forget it. I haven’t had a spring break since I was a sophomore in high school.”
The athletes were interviewed over several weeks from a cross section of sports at two representative Division I institutions, Villanova, a charter member of the Big East Conference, and the University of Delaware, a state-run institution that is a member of the Colonial Athletic Association. None of the athletes asked for or expected sympathy. They know there are many overscheduled college students who devote extra hours to academic and extracurricular activities or part-time jobs and internships.
“We love what we do, and it is worth it,” Poydenis said. “But everybody thinks every college athlete is on a pampered full ride. The truth is a lot of us are getting $4,000 and working our butts off for it.”
The life of the scholarship athlete is so arduous that coaches and athletes said it was not unusual for as many as 15 percent of those receiving athletic aid to quit sports and turn down the scholarship money after a year or two.
“I came in with 10 recruited girls,” Stephanie Campbell said. “There are four of us left as seniors. Not everyone was on scholarship, but maybe half who left were getting money.”
Campbell said she had a teammate who wanted to be an engineer but that the classes and off-campus projects in that major clashed with field hockey practices and trips.
Katie Lee, a senior softball player at Delaware, said at least one scholarship player had quit the team in each of her seasons. Of her former teammates, she said, “I see them around campus, and they look happy.”
Emily Schaknowski, a sophomore lacrosse player on athletic scholarship at Delaware, said 5 of the 12 women she entered with were no longer on the team. Most had relinquished their scholarships.
Joe Taylor, a junior soccer player at Villanova, said he was one of four left from a freshman recruiting class of 10.
“You wonder if you should try to talk them out of it,” Taylor said. “But for most of those guys, it probably is the best decision to walk away.”
At Villanova, Poydenis said he thought the defections resulted from the shock that set in after a youth sports culture ethos collided with the realities of college athletics.
“Kids who have worked their whole life trying to get a scholarship think the hard part is over when they get the college money,” he said. “They don’t know that it’s a whole new monster when you get here.”
His coach, Joe Godri, says he tries to warn recruits before they accept athletic aid. He tells them that being a Division I student-athlete is a full-time job. “It’s not even close to being a normal college student,” Godri said.
The Division I athletes interviewed indicated they devoted at least four hours a day to their sport, not counting the time it takes to play or to travel to games. Classes must be scheduled in the early morning to free the afternoon for practices and games. Practices often last from 4 to 6:30 p.m., although several athletes talked about how they had to arrive early for treatment of injuries or to have old injuries taped or harnessed. Highly competitive, demanding practices come next.
There is often a team dinner, perhaps a short meeting and a mandatory study hall in some cases. Weekday away games, which are common, can mean a bus ride that begins at 1 p.m. and a return trip that reaches campus at 10 p.m.
“You come back to your dorm room ready to crash,” Taylor said. “But you’ve got homework or maybe a test the next morning. The rest of the dorm is starting to get a little rowdy because those guys have all finished their homework. They might be getting ready to go out. A lot of them took a nap in the afternoon.”
College athletes routinely said there was one accouterment not often mentioned in recruiting trips but essential to the athlete’s equipment bag: ear plugs.
“They help you sleep on those nights when you have a game the next day,” Jamie Flynn, a junior soccer player at Delaware, said.
Many athletes tend to gather together in off-campus housing, so at least their apartment is quieter on the nights before games. Most teams have a rule prohibiting alcohol 48 hours before a game. The Villanova field hockey team, for example, pledges to not to drink alcohol for the entire season.
And the players police other teammates who might not be abiding by the rules about partying before games or practices. Jillian Loyden, a senior All-Big East goalie on Villanova’s soccer team, said it was usually first-year players who slipped up.
“They get to college and want to be normal college students on a Friday night,” said Loyden, who has raided parties to usher first-year teammates out of a building so they would head home to bed. “You have to make them understand that our team is not a social club.”
Athletes from the nonrevenue sports also customarily have to do extra work on campus to raise money to pay for equipment or apparel not normally financed by the athletic department, like warm-up jackets. Cortney Barry, a scholarship swimmer at Delaware, cut short her
Thanksgiving Day break at home last year because the swim team had agreed to clean the garbage from the football stadium bleachers to pay for some expenses.
For this and other reasons, college athletes often refer to students who are nonathletes as “normals” or “regulars.” When asked why, Stephanie Campbell answered, “Because we’re not normal.”
“Look, we are fortunate to be athletes and to get tuition money to do it,” Campbell added. “I have loved my time here. I’m going to get a prestigious degree, and I know there are a lot of people who would have wanted to trade places with me. But I’d still say Division I athletics is not meant for everybody. Nobody tells you that.”
Campbell, who was an All-Big East selection in her final season, has gone back to her hometown, Gibbsboro in South Jersey, to help coach the club team she played for as a youngster.
“I worry about the kids I see now, because they’re under so much stress to get something out of field hockey,” she said. “You can never lose sight of why you play. Yes, I got a scholarship, but in the end, I put up with the sore muscles, lost sleep and everything else because I loved playing that much.”
These days, she is trying to make up for lost time on the business networking front, attending vocational seminars and fairs aimed at easing college graduates into the workplace. It is a new game for Campbell.
“Well, I’m graduating in May,” she said. “I need a job.”
Griffin Palmer contributed reporting.
March 12, 2008
THE SCHOLARSHIP DIVIDE
Divvying Scholarship Dollars Can Divide a Team
By BILL PENNINGTON
An athlete’s worth to a college is often negotiated behind the closed door of a coach’s office with the scholarship amount kept a guarded secret, like a salary in a workplace. But the figures have a way of eventually getting out, as they do in any office.
What happens next is not surprising: scholarship envy.
“It tends to come out when someone is either playing really well or really bad,” said Jillian Loyden, a senior goalkeeper on the Villanova University women’s soccer team. “If someone has a few really poor games, you hear girls during a bus ride saying: ‘And she’s on 75 percent scholarship. What is the coach thinking?’ ”
Joe Taylor, a standout member of the Villanova men’s soccer team whose athletic aid represents more than half his college expenses, agreed. “Playing badly and getting a lot of money will usually lead to resentment,” he said. “I guess it’s normal, but it’s not very good for the team concept.”
Cortney Barry, a freshman swimmer at the University of Delaware who was granted an athletic scholarship worth $10,000 annually, added: “Groups can divide a team based on the amount of money everyone is getting. People talk about it secretly. They’ll say: ‘I’m faster. Why is she getting more money?’ ”
Barry, who has had a spectacular first season, wondered if the disharmony might stem from the competitive pursuit of scholarship money that began when the athletes were young swimmers seeking the attention of college coaches.
“I knew girls who had grown to hate swimming and hated just getting into the pool,” Barry said. “They wanted to quit, but they felt pressure from their parents, who had invested a lot in their swim careers. It was a means to eventually get college money. Some of those girls are at other colleges now, and you know, it’s like it’s still about the money — am I getting enough?
“You can never win that way. The real reward is getting to do your sport in college.”
Coaches do what they can to keep the money issue underground.
“We ask them to avoid the subject,” said Joanie Milhous, Villanova’s longtime field hockey coach. “But we have a lot of girls who are roommates. It’s a long year — how many things do you keep from your roommate?”
Delaware’s women’s lacrosse coach, Kim Ciarrocca, said she worried most about scholarship envy when recruiting players from the same high school.
“You don’t want them comparing offers, because one of them is most likely getting less,” Ciarrocca said. “You ask them not to say anything, but if the kids are close, you know they will talk. It’s the same on a team.”
Several coaches said the parents of athletes also sometimes compared notes on financial packages, usually with disquieting results.
But there are some teams that seem to have developed a culture in which scholarship money does not come up too often.
“We’re friends, and I wouldn’t ask my friend what her family income was,” said Katie Lee, a senior softball player at Delaware. “Although I have noticed that everyone comes onto campus thinking that everyone else is on full scholarship. I was the same way. You do find out pretty quickly that almost no one is on full scholarship. That gets out right away.”
Stephanie Campbell, a Villanova field hockey player, said athletes were instructed not to discuss scholarship totals for good reason.
“It tends to rank us and define our worth,” she said, frowning. “We’re supposed to be one team.”
Campbell, who received an athletic scholarship worth roughly half of Villanova’s $40,000-plus price tag, had another perspective on the inevitability of players comparing amounts. She said it motivated and humbled her.
“There were girls on the team doing all the same work as me — driving themselves to exhaustion — and I knew they weren’t getting a lot of money,” she said. “I had so much respect for them. I thought, ‘Well, I can’t let up.’ ”
RLH Comments
AP: DIPIETRO OUT FOR SEASON
DiPietro out for season, will have surgery on right hip2 hours, 23 minutes ago
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP)—Goaltender Rick DiPietro will miss the rest of the New York Islanders season because of hip surgery.
The operation was scheduled for Wednesday in Vail, Colo.
DiPietro is finishing the second season of a landmark 15-year contract. This marks the second straight year that the team’s 26-year-old goalie needs hip surgery. The left one was operated on after last season’s playoffs; now the right one needs repair.
DiPietro was injured during the All-Star skills competition in January and has played through the pain since. The Islanders said he is expected to make a full recovery in time for next season’s training camp.
“Rick wanted badly to be with his team until the end of the season, but this decision was made with his best long-term interests in mind,” Islanders general manager Garth Snow said in a statement. “Rick took his game to even greater heights this season, deservedly being named a National Hockey League All-Star for the first time in his career.
“He gave everything he had to the Islanders and our fans this season and was a warrior all the way through. By having the surgery immediately, Rick will have plenty of time to be at 100 percent long before the start of Islanders training camp in September.”
Just like last year’s operation, the procedure will be performed by hip specialist Dr. Marc Philippon. He recently operated on DiPietro’s teammate Mike Sillinger as well as Snow, a former NHL goalie.
The decision for DiPietro to have surgery was made after he had an MRI exam on Tuesday. Wade Dubielewicz made the start for the Islanders that night and took the 3-1 loss. New York has only eight games left and is a long shot to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
DiPietro is 26-28-7 in 63 games this season with a 2.82 goals-against average, a .902save percentage and three shutouts.
He was injured during a breakaway drill when he tried to stop Minnesota’s Marian Gaborik. DiPietro played in the All-Star game the following day, but has struggled since.
DiPietro, who has also dealt with concussions that sidelined him for the Islanders’ playoff drive in the final week of last season, is 7-12 with a 3.38 GAA in 19 starts since the All-Star break.
In his final eight starts of the season, DiPietro went 1-7 and allowed at least three goals in every outing. He was touched for four goals five times, including an appearance last week in which Tampa Bay scored eight on 44 shots.
YAHOO SPORTS: Power Rankings: Who's got their back?...
By Ross McKeon, Yahoo! Sports Mar 18, 7:00 am EDT
No position is more important or closely scrutinized in the postseason than that of goaltending. By now most teams have settled on their No. 1. But if something happens – injury, poor performance, the need to get the team’s attention with a chance – just how well equipped are teams in terms of their backup goalie? This week’s power rankings, which are updated every Tuesday, look at what’s waiting in the wings if called upon.
1. San Jose Sharks (42-21-9, Previous: 1) – The Sharks have to like what they’ve seen of Brian Boucher considering he pitched a 24-save shutout on the road during his only appearance since getting signed at the Feb. 26 trade deadline. Boucher, 31, is purely an insurance policy for Evgeni Nabokov, who will wind up playing a career-high number of games somewhere between 77-79.
2. New Jersey Devils (42-24-6, Previous: 3) – Like San Jose with Nabokov, all of the Devils’ eggs are in Martin Brodeur’s trusty basket. With all the talk about balance in the East, no one has this kind of quality in goal, a fact not to be forgotten. But the focus is on backups, and Kevin Weekes appeared in eight games with the Hurricanes during the 2002 postseason and once with the Rangers in 2006. So at least he’s been there.
3. Anaheim Ducks (41-25-8, Previous: 5) – Jonas Hiller is a possible goalie of the future here, but for right now the Ducks can’t feel quite as confident if they need to go to a backup as the last couple of postseasons when they could turn to Ilya Bryzgalov. Hiller’s regular-season numbers are fine – 2.16 GAA and .920 save percentage – it’s just the 26-year-old from Switzerland has only this season’s 18 games in terms of NHL experience.
4. Detroit Red Wings (47-20-6, Previous: 2) – First you’d have to determine who is the backup? Chris Osgood has gained the bulk of the starting assignments based on the fact he’s had a better year statistically and Dominik Hasek has been in and out with injuries. It’s a 1A-1B situation in Detroit where, sure, a goalie can have a bad series but the team doesn’t feel like it has to worry about what it’ll get in goal come playoff time.
5. Pittsburgh Penguins (41-24-7, Previous: 8) – With the way Ty Conklin has surprisingly bounced back from being buried in the minors to basically save the Penguins when starter Marc-Andre Fleury went down to injury and Dany Sabourin struggled when given the chance, it’s going to be interesting to see if Pittsburgh opens with the 31-year-old or goes to Fleury. Conklin’s only postseason experience is six minutes in relief for Edmonton during the Oilers’ run to the Cup finals in 2006.
6. Montreal Canadiens (40-24-9, Previous: 6) – Twenty-year-old starter Carey Price and 22-year-old Jaroslav Halak not only share the fact they’re young, but both too have yet to appear in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Halak has appeared in four of his career 20 games this season but sure feels comfortable at home. He’s 8-0 with three shutouts at Bell Centre where he is scheduled to start again Tuesday against St. Louis.
7. Ottawa Senators (40-26-7, Previous: 10) – It looks like the man who took the Senators to the finals last season – Ray Emery – will backup the man who was No. 2 for three Cup finalists (Ottawa in 2007, Carolina in 2006 and Anaheim in 2003). This might turn out to be a situation like Detroit where it’s a 1A-1B situation, and coach/GM Bryan Murray will go with a hunch as much as past experience.
8. Minnesota Wild (39-26-8, Previous: 13) – Rookie Josh Harding has served as a fairly busy backup (26 games) to Niklas Backstrom, who is only in his second season. The 30-year-old Finnish product was Minnesota’s starter in a five-game, first-round series loss to Anaheim last spring. Harding, 23, has no playoff experience in addition to his career 36 regular-season games.
9. Dallas Stars (42-27-5, Previous: 7) – The Stars dealt promising goalie Mike Smith, the rookie who was backing up Marty Turco, and received Johan Holmqvist in return as part of the big trade to acquire Brad Richards from Tampa Bay. Holmqvist, 29, was in goal for Tampa Bay during its opening-round, six-game loss to New Jersey last spring and sported a 2.92 GAA in the series.
10. Calgary Flames (37-25-10, Previous: 9) – Like San Jose, the Flames decided to get a veteran backup for insurance and they have to like the fact Curtis Joseph is there in case anything happens to ironhorse Miikka Kiprusoff. Joseph, 40, has made six appearances for the Flames but has 131 games of playoff experience (62-66 record, 2.44 GAA) spread over 13 postseasons.
11. New York Rangers (37-26-9, Previous: 4) – Steve Valiquette, who covers plenty of net standing 6-foot-6 and weighing 210 pounds, has played well during the little action he’s seen (12 games, 2.13 GAA and .917 save percentage). The 30-year-old hasn’t appeared in a postseason game so that’s uncharted territory if Henrik Lundqvist gets hurt or is ineffective.
12. Vancouver Canucks (37-26-10, Previous: 11) – No disrespect toward Curtis Sanford, but the Canucks are viewed as a team that will go only as far as Roberto Luongo carries them. Sanford has appeared in 13 games, posting a 2.77 GAA and .900 save percentage. Aside from 86 games of career regular-season play, Sanford does not have any postseason experience.
13. Colorado Avalanche (39-29-6, Previous: 12) – Since it appears Jose Theodore has established himself as the starter, the team shouldn’t feel any less confident with former No. 1 Peter Budaj in goal. Budaj doesn’t have any playoff experience while Theodore has appeared in 37 playoff games, 28 over four seasons in Montreal and in nine with the Avalanche in 2006.
14. Carolina Hurricanes (39-30-5, Previous: 16) – John Grahame has appeared in 17 games as the No. 2 behind starter Cam Ward. Grahame’s numbers are hardly impressive – 5-7-1 with a 3.75 GAA and .875 save percentage, but the Hurricanes have also allowed the most goals of any team currently in a playoff spot. The 32-year-old has six games of playoff experience spread over three seasons from 2003-06 with Tampa Bay.
15. Boston Bruins (37-27-9, Previous: 15) – Alex Auld has emerged as the backup to Tim Thomas. Auld has played in 22 games and sported decent numbers (2.34 GAA and .918 save percentage). Auld, 27, has four games of playoff experience, three with Vancouver in 2004 and one as a Canuck in 2003. Thomas, 33, has not appeared in the Stanley Cup playoffs during his late-blooming four-year career.
16. Nashville Predators (36-29-8, Previous: 17) – The Predators haven’t received the goaltending from Chris Mason they needed and expected, so this has become a shared net with Dan Ellis, who has made 36 appearances to Mason’s 47. Ellis, 27, who has played in seven of the last eight, does not have any playoff experience and Mason struggled during a five-game loss to San Jose last spring.
17. Washington Capitals (35-30-8, Previous: 20) – Since Cristobal Huet came over from Montreal at the deadline, it’s been a shared net between the 32-year-old ex-Canadien and the 37-year-old incumbent Olaf Kolzig. The Caps are making their playoff push, but it’s an uphill battle to catch the Hurricanes. Huet lost a six-game first-round series with Montreal in 2006 while Kolzig has 45 games of playoff experience over six postseasons, including a 21-game run to the 1998 finals where Washington got swept by Detroit.
18. Buffalo Sabres (34-28-11, Previous: 19) – Thirty-three-year-old journeyman Jocelyn Thibault has appeared in just 11 games in place of No. 1 Ryan Miller. Thibault’s numbers are not good (2-4-2, 3.76 GAA and .858 save percentage). Thibault has appeared in 18 playoff games spread over six postseasons with four different teams, and he’s only 4-11.
19. Philadelphia Flyers (35-28-10, Previous: 14) – Antero Niittymaki lost the starting status he more or less had assumed for the two previous seasons this year to Martin Biron. Niittymaki, 27, has appeared in 26 games this season and has two games of playoff experience (2006) on his resume. Despite appearing at least a part of 10 NHL seasons, Biron, 30, has yet to see any playoff action.
20. Edmonton Oilers (36-32-5, Previous: 23) – Dwayne Roloson lost his starting job to Mathieu Garon but won Saturday and Sunday on the road during his first starts since Feb. 1, and coach Craig MacTavish sounded like he was prepared to ride Roloson for a while. The Oilers are longshots for the postseason because they’re chasing four teams in the division and three in the conference. Roloson guided the 2006 Oilers to Game 7 of the Cup finals before losing in Carolina. He has 33 playoff games on his resume. Garon has just one 12-minute relief stint with Montreal in the 2004 playoffs to his postseason credit.
21. Florida Panthers (35-31-8, Previous: 24) – Craig Anderson has played sparingly behind No. 1 Tomas Vokoun, making only 14 appearances, but he recorded shutouts during two of his last three starts. The 26-year-old has no NHL playoff experience.
22. Phoenix Coyotes (36-32-5, Previous: 21) – Mikael Tellqvist is the backup, but he’s appeared only sparingly since Ilya Bryzgalov was claimed off waivers in mid-November. Tellqvist’s numbers aren’t bad – 8-6-1, 2.46 GAA and .915 save percentage – but the 28-year-old has no postseason experience.
23. Columbus Blue Jackets (32-29-11, Previous: 22) – Fredrik Norrena has appeared in 29 games for the Blue Jackets, who have seen Pascal Leclaire emerge as their No. 1 with an impressive breakout season. Norrena doesn’t have a sparkling record (8-14-5) and his other numbers (2.82 GAA and .897 save percentage) are a tad below average. With 84 games of regular-season experience, Norrena has yet to appear in the playoffs.
24. Chicago Blackhawks (34-32-7, Previous: 18) – Nikolai Khabibulin returned in a relief stint Sunday after missing 12 games due to back spasms. Backup Patrick Lalime has either been on or off in the meantime. The Blackhawks are up against it to reach the postseason, but obviously both goalies have extensive playoff experience &ndash Khabibulin having won a Cup with Tampa in 2004 and Lalime has 41 games over four playoff years, all with Ottawa.
25. Toronto Maple Leafs (32-31-10, Previous: 25) – Andrew Raycroft has struggled, but he hasn’t always had a lot of help in front of him. Still, he has to be disappointed with a 4.07 GAA and .868 save percentage. The 27-year-old lost a seven-game first-round series in 2004 with Boston, but postseason experience doesn’t matter much this spring since the Leafs are headed for early tee times.
26. Tampa Bay Lightning (29-35-8, Previous: 30) – A reshuffling of the deck here as Mike Smith came in the Brad Richards trade to Dallas to assume No. 1 duties, and rookie Karri Ramo is challenging to backup, leaving Marc Denis, who is under contract for $3 million next season, in limbo.
27. Los Angeles Kings (28-39-6, Previous: 29) – Ah, the Kings. First you’d have to figure out who is their backup goalie. Dan Cloutier is still on the hook for another $3.1 million next season. The team has to seriously look at releasing him and taking the cap hit. Rookie Erik Ersberg is getting a look now, but injured Jason LaBarbera is under contract for next season as is Jonathan Quick, and most expect Jonathan Bernier to be the team’s No. 1 sooner rather than later.
28. New York Islanders (32-34-7, Previous: 27) – Wade Dubielewicz has appeared in only 13 games while backing up Rick DiPietro this season. And his numbers aren’t a whole lot different from the Islanders’ starter – 2.98 GAA and .905 save percentage compared to DiPietro’s 2.82 and .902 save percentage. Dubielewicz appeared in his lone postseason game last year but that won’t be repeated this season since the Isles will be missing out.
29. Atlanta Thrashers (31-35-8, Previous: 26) – Battling Johan Hedberg has appeared 32 times for the Thrashers, a good chunk while starter Kari Lehtonen was injured early in the season. The 34-year-old has 22 games of playoff experience during three postseasons all with different teams, but it doesn’t appear he will have a chance to add to that total this spring.
30. St. Louis Blues (29-32-11, Previous: 28) – Hannu Toivonen has appeared in only 18 games partly because No. 1 Manny Legace has been so good for the Blues. The other reason is Toivonen hasn’t been very good, sporting sub-par numbers that include a 3.51 GAA and .874 save percentage. The 23-year-old doesn’t have any postseason experience, but it’s irrelevant since St. Louis won’t be in a position to call on emergency relief after the regular season.
Ross McKeon is the NHL editor for Yahoo! Sports. Send Ross a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
No position is more important or closely scrutinized in the postseason than that of goaltending. By now most teams have settled on their No. 1. But if something happens – injury, poor performance, the need to get the team’s attention with a chance – just how well equipped are teams in terms of their backup goalie? This week’s power rankings, which are updated every Tuesday, look at what’s waiting in the wings if called upon.
1. San Jose Sharks (42-21-9, Previous: 1) – The Sharks have to like what they’ve seen of Brian Boucher considering he pitched a 24-save shutout on the road during his only appearance since getting signed at the Feb. 26 trade deadline. Boucher, 31, is purely an insurance policy for Evgeni Nabokov, who will wind up playing a career-high number of games somewhere between 77-79.
2. New Jersey Devils (42-24-6, Previous: 3) – Like San Jose with Nabokov, all of the Devils’ eggs are in Martin Brodeur’s trusty basket. With all the talk about balance in the East, no one has this kind of quality in goal, a fact not to be forgotten. But the focus is on backups, and Kevin Weekes appeared in eight games with the Hurricanes during the 2002 postseason and once with the Rangers in 2006. So at least he’s been there.
3. Anaheim Ducks (41-25-8, Previous: 5) – Jonas Hiller is a possible goalie of the future here, but for right now the Ducks can’t feel quite as confident if they need to go to a backup as the last couple of postseasons when they could turn to Ilya Bryzgalov. Hiller’s regular-season numbers are fine – 2.16 GAA and .920 save percentage – it’s just the 26-year-old from Switzerland has only this season’s 18 games in terms of NHL experience.
4. Detroit Red Wings (47-20-6, Previous: 2) – First you’d have to determine who is the backup? Chris Osgood has gained the bulk of the starting assignments based on the fact he’s had a better year statistically and Dominik Hasek has been in and out with injuries. It’s a 1A-1B situation in Detroit where, sure, a goalie can have a bad series but the team doesn’t feel like it has to worry about what it’ll get in goal come playoff time.
5. Pittsburgh Penguins (41-24-7, Previous: 8) – With the way Ty Conklin has surprisingly bounced back from being buried in the minors to basically save the Penguins when starter Marc-Andre Fleury went down to injury and Dany Sabourin struggled when given the chance, it’s going to be interesting to see if Pittsburgh opens with the 31-year-old or goes to Fleury. Conklin’s only postseason experience is six minutes in relief for Edmonton during the Oilers’ run to the Cup finals in 2006.
6. Montreal Canadiens (40-24-9, Previous: 6) – Twenty-year-old starter Carey Price and 22-year-old Jaroslav Halak not only share the fact they’re young, but both too have yet to appear in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Halak has appeared in four of his career 20 games this season but sure feels comfortable at home. He’s 8-0 with three shutouts at Bell Centre where he is scheduled to start again Tuesday against St. Louis.
7. Ottawa Senators (40-26-7, Previous: 10) – It looks like the man who took the Senators to the finals last season – Ray Emery – will backup the man who was No. 2 for three Cup finalists (Ottawa in 2007, Carolina in 2006 and Anaheim in 2003). This might turn out to be a situation like Detroit where it’s a 1A-1B situation, and coach/GM Bryan Murray will go with a hunch as much as past experience.
8. Minnesota Wild (39-26-8, Previous: 13) – Rookie Josh Harding has served as a fairly busy backup (26 games) to Niklas Backstrom, who is only in his second season. The 30-year-old Finnish product was Minnesota’s starter in a five-game, first-round series loss to Anaheim last spring. Harding, 23, has no playoff experience in addition to his career 36 regular-season games.
9. Dallas Stars (42-27-5, Previous: 7) – The Stars dealt promising goalie Mike Smith, the rookie who was backing up Marty Turco, and received Johan Holmqvist in return as part of the big trade to acquire Brad Richards from Tampa Bay. Holmqvist, 29, was in goal for Tampa Bay during its opening-round, six-game loss to New Jersey last spring and sported a 2.92 GAA in the series.
10. Calgary Flames (37-25-10, Previous: 9) – Like San Jose, the Flames decided to get a veteran backup for insurance and they have to like the fact Curtis Joseph is there in case anything happens to ironhorse Miikka Kiprusoff. Joseph, 40, has made six appearances for the Flames but has 131 games of playoff experience (62-66 record, 2.44 GAA) spread over 13 postseasons.
11. New York Rangers (37-26-9, Previous: 4) – Steve Valiquette, who covers plenty of net standing 6-foot-6 and weighing 210 pounds, has played well during the little action he’s seen (12 games, 2.13 GAA and .917 save percentage). The 30-year-old hasn’t appeared in a postseason game so that’s uncharted territory if Henrik Lundqvist gets hurt or is ineffective.
12. Vancouver Canucks (37-26-10, Previous: 11) – No disrespect toward Curtis Sanford, but the Canucks are viewed as a team that will go only as far as Roberto Luongo carries them. Sanford has appeared in 13 games, posting a 2.77 GAA and .900 save percentage. Aside from 86 games of career regular-season play, Sanford does not have any postseason experience.
13. Colorado Avalanche (39-29-6, Previous: 12) – Since it appears Jose Theodore has established himself as the starter, the team shouldn’t feel any less confident with former No. 1 Peter Budaj in goal. Budaj doesn’t have any playoff experience while Theodore has appeared in 37 playoff games, 28 over four seasons in Montreal and in nine with the Avalanche in 2006.
14. Carolina Hurricanes (39-30-5, Previous: 16) – John Grahame has appeared in 17 games as the No. 2 behind starter Cam Ward. Grahame’s numbers are hardly impressive – 5-7-1 with a 3.75 GAA and .875 save percentage, but the Hurricanes have also allowed the most goals of any team currently in a playoff spot. The 32-year-old has six games of playoff experience spread over three seasons from 2003-06 with Tampa Bay.
15. Boston Bruins (37-27-9, Previous: 15) – Alex Auld has emerged as the backup to Tim Thomas. Auld has played in 22 games and sported decent numbers (2.34 GAA and .918 save percentage). Auld, 27, has four games of playoff experience, three with Vancouver in 2004 and one as a Canuck in 2003. Thomas, 33, has not appeared in the Stanley Cup playoffs during his late-blooming four-year career.
16. Nashville Predators (36-29-8, Previous: 17) – The Predators haven’t received the goaltending from Chris Mason they needed and expected, so this has become a shared net with Dan Ellis, who has made 36 appearances to Mason’s 47. Ellis, 27, who has played in seven of the last eight, does not have any playoff experience and Mason struggled during a five-game loss to San Jose last spring.
17. Washington Capitals (35-30-8, Previous: 20) – Since Cristobal Huet came over from Montreal at the deadline, it’s been a shared net between the 32-year-old ex-Canadien and the 37-year-old incumbent Olaf Kolzig. The Caps are making their playoff push, but it’s an uphill battle to catch the Hurricanes. Huet lost a six-game first-round series with Montreal in 2006 while Kolzig has 45 games of playoff experience over six postseasons, including a 21-game run to the 1998 finals where Washington got swept by Detroit.
18. Buffalo Sabres (34-28-11, Previous: 19) – Thirty-three-year-old journeyman Jocelyn Thibault has appeared in just 11 games in place of No. 1 Ryan Miller. Thibault’s numbers are not good (2-4-2, 3.76 GAA and .858 save percentage). Thibault has appeared in 18 playoff games spread over six postseasons with four different teams, and he’s only 4-11.
19. Philadelphia Flyers (35-28-10, Previous: 14) – Antero Niittymaki lost the starting status he more or less had assumed for the two previous seasons this year to Martin Biron. Niittymaki, 27, has appeared in 26 games this season and has two games of playoff experience (2006) on his resume. Despite appearing at least a part of 10 NHL seasons, Biron, 30, has yet to see any playoff action.
20. Edmonton Oilers (36-32-5, Previous: 23) – Dwayne Roloson lost his starting job to Mathieu Garon but won Saturday and Sunday on the road during his first starts since Feb. 1, and coach Craig MacTavish sounded like he was prepared to ride Roloson for a while. The Oilers are longshots for the postseason because they’re chasing four teams in the division and three in the conference. Roloson guided the 2006 Oilers to Game 7 of the Cup finals before losing in Carolina. He has 33 playoff games on his resume. Garon has just one 12-minute relief stint with Montreal in the 2004 playoffs to his postseason credit.
21. Florida Panthers (35-31-8, Previous: 24) – Craig Anderson has played sparingly behind No. 1 Tomas Vokoun, making only 14 appearances, but he recorded shutouts during two of his last three starts. The 26-year-old has no NHL playoff experience.
22. Phoenix Coyotes (36-32-5, Previous: 21) – Mikael Tellqvist is the backup, but he’s appeared only sparingly since Ilya Bryzgalov was claimed off waivers in mid-November. Tellqvist’s numbers aren’t bad – 8-6-1, 2.46 GAA and .915 save percentage – but the 28-year-old has no postseason experience.
23. Columbus Blue Jackets (32-29-11, Previous: 22) – Fredrik Norrena has appeared in 29 games for the Blue Jackets, who have seen Pascal Leclaire emerge as their No. 1 with an impressive breakout season. Norrena doesn’t have a sparkling record (8-14-5) and his other numbers (2.82 GAA and .897 save percentage) are a tad below average. With 84 games of regular-season experience, Norrena has yet to appear in the playoffs.
24. Chicago Blackhawks (34-32-7, Previous: 18) – Nikolai Khabibulin returned in a relief stint Sunday after missing 12 games due to back spasms. Backup Patrick Lalime has either been on or off in the meantime. The Blackhawks are up against it to reach the postseason, but obviously both goalies have extensive playoff experience &ndash Khabibulin having won a Cup with Tampa in 2004 and Lalime has 41 games over four playoff years, all with Ottawa.
25. Toronto Maple Leafs (32-31-10, Previous: 25) – Andrew Raycroft has struggled, but he hasn’t always had a lot of help in front of him. Still, he has to be disappointed with a 4.07 GAA and .868 save percentage. The 27-year-old lost a seven-game first-round series in 2004 with Boston, but postseason experience doesn’t matter much this spring since the Leafs are headed for early tee times.
26. Tampa Bay Lightning (29-35-8, Previous: 30) – A reshuffling of the deck here as Mike Smith came in the Brad Richards trade to Dallas to assume No. 1 duties, and rookie Karri Ramo is challenging to backup, leaving Marc Denis, who is under contract for $3 million next season, in limbo.
27. Los Angeles Kings (28-39-6, Previous: 29) – Ah, the Kings. First you’d have to figure out who is their backup goalie. Dan Cloutier is still on the hook for another $3.1 million next season. The team has to seriously look at releasing him and taking the cap hit. Rookie Erik Ersberg is getting a look now, but injured Jason LaBarbera is under contract for next season as is Jonathan Quick, and most expect Jonathan Bernier to be the team’s No. 1 sooner rather than later.
28. New York Islanders (32-34-7, Previous: 27) – Wade Dubielewicz has appeared in only 13 games while backing up Rick DiPietro this season. And his numbers aren’t a whole lot different from the Islanders’ starter – 2.98 GAA and .905 save percentage compared to DiPietro’s 2.82 and .902 save percentage. Dubielewicz appeared in his lone postseason game last year but that won’t be repeated this season since the Isles will be missing out.
29. Atlanta Thrashers (31-35-8, Previous: 26) – Battling Johan Hedberg has appeared 32 times for the Thrashers, a good chunk while starter Kari Lehtonen was injured early in the season. The 34-year-old has 22 games of playoff experience during three postseasons all with different teams, but it doesn’t appear he will have a chance to add to that total this spring.
30. St. Louis Blues (29-32-11, Previous: 28) – Hannu Toivonen has appeared in only 18 games partly because No. 1 Manny Legace has been so good for the Blues. The other reason is Toivonen hasn’t been very good, sporting sub-par numbers that include a 3.51 GAA and .874 save percentage. The 23-year-old doesn’t have any postseason experience, but it’s irrelevant since St. Louis won’t be in a position to call on emergency relief after the regular season.
Ross McKeon is the NHL editor for Yahoo! Sports. Send Ross a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
CAPS GOALIE REPORT: HUET IN LOCKDOWN MODE
The Caps this season have had difficulty taking the 2 points while shutting down their opponents when the score has been tight and they are the leader. Olie and Johnson have both let up goals at inopportune times in these situations. Not so this night. Goaltending and defensive play pulled down a win from a Predator team that did not quit.
Huet was the catalyst in all of this. Congrats to the Caps. Good luck this evening. Highlights to come...
Monday, March 17, 2008
CAPS GOALIE REPORT: HUET WINS DEFENSIVE STRUGGLE
Huet pulls in #1 star. Very strong on the shootout.