Pine was a mistake as an AD....

I may have been the first to advocate for Pine’s firing so I agree. On the issue of a HC guy I tend to favor that direction slightly. An outsider might think baseball has 9? scholarships. If we play baseball we will have 9 as well. Not so fast. We will have zero and play against teams with 9. Too much of a culture shock for an outsider IMHO. Nate, we hardly knew ye.

Of course the answer will be: get admissions to accept more outstanding athletes --you know, the ones that get into our competitive schools but who get rejected by Anne....

Maybe I was on Crossports' hiatus at the time but since I don't know the answer to your riddle, would share it with me? PM, if necessary. Thanks.

Not easy... This guy? A Worcester native

Paul Schlickmann Named Fairfield University Director of Athletics

I am one who believes the selection of Nate Pine as our AD has been a very important and positive move, and that we have seen many positive changes since his arrival. Important things that come to my mind include:

1.) Dramatic improvement in athletic facilities. The Luth is going to have a meaningful impact on our recruiting.
2.) Strong hiring of new coaches, Bob Chesney being the latest example.
3.) Much better community relations and advertising, including the recent spate of adds on WEEI and associated stations (Amazing!), and our sponsorship of the Bob Cousey point guard award.
4.) Crusader Athletic Fund growth
5.) New hires in the AD Dep't to expand effectiveness and outreach
6.) Strong in person support of our teams and players
7.) Overall professionalism throughout our AD operations.
8.) Upgrade of Women's hockey to Hockey East, Div 1.
9.) Dramatic improvement in scheduling for football
10.) Baseball to NCAA playoffs last year

What has not happened? Wins. With some exceptions in a few sports from time to time, our teams have not had the success we want. I get that. We are in a league that many of us would rather not be in. I get that. BUT, it seems to me that the foundation is being laid for a bright new future. We need to excel in our current league affiliation, then reassess. These things take time. Go, Cross, go!

1.) Dramatic improvement in athletic facilities. The Luth is going to have a meaningful impact on our recruiting.
All of this was in readiness when DR was there. He could not or would not pull the trigger. The Luth has not won a game yet.

2.) Strong hiring of new coaches, Bob Chesney being the latest example.
Bob Chesney was not ADNP's first choice. In fact ADNP was not interested in Chesney until some Bill Carmody-like coach turned us down. Chesney was an after thought. Other coaches have been a disaster.

3.) Much better community relations and advertising, including the recent spate of adds on WEEI and associated stations (Amazing!), and our sponsorship of the Bob Cousey point guard award.
Cousy (sp). Attendance is way down in football and basketball.

4.) Crusader Athletic Fund growth
I have no data on this assertion.

5.) New hires in the AD Dep't to expand effectiveness and outreach
Total and complete waste of money.

6.) Strong in person support of our teams and players
I travel frequently to away games in a variety of sports. Dick Regan observed at way more events.

7.) Overall professionalism throughout our AD operations.
Don't know how to measure this.

8.) Upgrade of Women's hockey to Hockey East, Div 1.
Fell into our lap.

9.) Dramatic improvement in scheduling for football
Better schedule comes with scholarships which were announced under DR. DR scheduled BC.

10.) Baseball to NCAA playoffs last year
DiCenzo a DR hire who continues to succeed in an underfunded program.

You do nail it in one point. Winning at HC is an afterthought.

1.) Dramatic improvement in athletic facilities. The Luth is going to have a meaningful impact on our recruiting.

All of this was in readiness when DR was there. He could not or would not pull the trigger. The Luth has not won a game yet.

The LAC was not "in readiness." It had been on the drawing boards, in general terms, for years and if Nate didn't push this over the financial hump, it'd still be drawings. We would never have seen the proverbial "trucks going up the hill."


2.) Strong hiring of new coaches, Bob Chesney being the latest example.

Bob Chesney was not ADNP's first choice. In fact ADNP was not interested in Chesney until some Bill Carmody-like coach turned us down. Chesney was an after thought. Other coaches have been a disaster.

The jury is still out on Nate's hires. I am not convinced, yet, that Carmody is getting the job done. He still is well below .500 despite the PL championship 2 years ago and the suspensions don't reflect well on the program. That said, he seems to be head and shoulders over Dick's hires of Sean and Milan after hitting a home run with Ralph (yeah, that didn't end well either). Despite what others think, Tom Gilmore was IMO, a solid hire but perhaps he stayed too long. Chesney looks like an excellent hire with youth, enthusiasm and a winning personality and seems to be leveraging his community connections well earned at Assumption. This is important to get Worcester to think of Holy Cross as its home team again. Getting a number of local St. John's football players will help here too. I am not convinced many of Nate's other coaching hires are good ones but will purposely not name names.  


3.) Much better community relations and advertising, including the recent spate of adds on WEEI and associated stations (Amazing!), and our sponsorship of the Bob Cousey point guard award.

Cousy (sp). Attendance is way down in football and basketball.

This is perhaps a big plus for Nate, at least the advertising part. The WEEI spots will help get the Holy Cross athletic name back out there. Bill Gibbons, a native Worcesterite, has always been big in community relations but he is pre-Nate and Dick, so neither should take credit. Bob Chesney community outreach precedes his time at Holy Cross so this may be coming from bottom up, not top down. But, Nate has been very big on "branding." That was a good thing, IMO, until the Crusader decisions. I hate the "non-denominational" new logo. Guess that's not Nate's fault though.


4.) Crusader Athletic Fund growth

I have no data on this assertion.

The year is not finished but here are some numbers comparing the 2017 "I (heart) HC" 24 hour campaign vs. the 2018 "Day of Giving" 24 hour campaign:
2017 2,320 donors to Athletics and $180,118 collected
2018 1,891 donors (-429) to Athletics and $201,827 collected (+21,709)

The thing is, the fact that there is even a CAF is a tribute to Dick Regan who had to fight to even get it created. The Development people/Admistration were afraid it would siphon off donations to the general Holy Cross Fund despite many other PL schools have a similar program. 


5.) New hires in the AD Dep't to expand effectiveness and outreach

Total and complete waste of money.

Holy Cross has been trying to work leaner and more efficiently and as I was told, the Athletics department is a glaring exception to this. Where other departments are plateaued or working with fewer people, Athletics FTE has gone up. While I don't have the specific numbers, the impression one gets talking to people on the hill is that it is significant. While it may not be a "waste of money," there doesn't appear to be a lot of evidence that the impact is matching the expansion of staff. We have seen numerous examples posted on Crossports where communications have glaring typos and errors. 


6.) Strong in person support of our teams and players

I travel frequently to away games in a variety of sports. Dick Regan observed at way more events.


Nate does go to a lot of events both at home and away. You'll also see his better half, Steph, with him. Dick also went to a lot of events but in the last few years, certainly not as many as Nate goes to now. Dick had a reputation of not knowing the players or family members very well. Nate probably does a better job at that. 

7.) Overall professionalism throughout our AD operations.

Don't know how to measure this.

Nate has brought in much younger staff. They perhaps come with college degrees over many of the folks who have been working at HC for 30+ years. That doesn't necessarily make them "more professional" but certainly they are more inexperienced and, as noted above, there are a lot of clerical errors which does not bring a professional appearance to the unit. 


8.) Upgrade of Women's hockey to Hockey East, Div 1.

Fell into our lap.

Doubtful it "fell into our lap." The upgrade to D-1 has been talked about for years before Nate got to HC, just like the LAC. 


9.) Dramatic improvement in scheduling for football

Better schedule comes with scholarships which were announced under DR. DR scheduled BC.

Yep, Dick got the BC game on the schedule. From my understanding, that was a one-off. Give Dick credit for doing that and that came about because he fought for years, finally successfully, to increase the number of schollies to be able to attract the D-IA schools like BC. But Nate built on that foundation . . . . significantly.


10.) Baseball to NCAA playoffs last year

DiCenzo a DR hire who continues to succeed in an underfunded program.

Yep.


You do nail it in one point. Winning at HC is an afterthought.
Unfortunately, that does also seem to be true. But that was/is neither Dick Regan's or Nate Pine's fault. The Administration for far too long seems to have believed that today's kids, being so used to getting "participation trophies," probably thought that was good enough. I guarantee you the players, coaches, ADs want to win. I think Fr. B does too but we've been content to participate so long, it'll take some time to make winning a focus. The LAC was a huge step toward sending the message that winning is important.

Bingo. Bringing in someone who has had his mind squarely focused on setting himself up for his next job since Day 1 was a mistake.

In addition to needing someone who actually “gets” sports/coaching, we need someone who actually “gets” HC and truly cares about the school.

This is a difficult job that requires someone more skilled than NP (and DR).

At the time that HC was looking for the new AD (May-December 2013?), I spoke with one of the Trustees and received the distinct impression that the BofT really wanted to select a non-alum candidate...that being an alum was almost a strike against a prospective candidate, perhaps because every AD over many previous decades had been an alum and the BofT felt that “new blood” might be the answer. I shared my view that, while I didn’t think that being an alum was an absolute requirement for a new candidate, I didn’t feel that it should be a negative either. I felt then and still feel that being an alum provides a candidate with valuable “institutional” memory and knowledge (e.g. historical challenges with the Admissions Office, personal interaction with past Presidents, ADs and coaches) that is difficult for a non-alum AD to acquire even if he/she is around for several years.

Also feel/felt that it is more likely that the HC alum will have a true passion for the school and a Commitment to Excellence. Not to say that a non alum can’t have that (look no farther than NAD😊) but I think it’s more likely in an alum. Also felt/feel that an HC alum as AD is more likely not to be looking at the job as a stepping stone but rather as a final career stop in athletic administration. In addition, since one of the main tasks of the AD is hiring coaches, I expressed my view that having coaching experience would be an important asset for an AD candidate charged with evaluating and hiring coaching candidates.

In 2013, I passed along several names of possible alum candidates (several of whom are posters) who had significant experience in athletics/coaching, extensive business/financial experience and family tradition at HC.

Of course, as we know, the BofT went in a different direction. Nothing that I have seen in the last 4 yrs. has convinced me that my thoughts about the HC AD position in 2013 were way off base.

I don’t know what the future holds for ADNP. Hopefully, the remainder of his tenure will result in more on field/on court success than his first 4 yrs. But, if and when he moves on, I hope that the BofT will strongly consider an alum candidate with the characteristics that I outlined above.

I think H.C. leaving the Patriot League ASAP should be a higher priority than replacing the A.D.. In addition to Crossports' perennial list of reasons why H.C. is not a good fit in the P.L.. there's an "elephant in the room" problem that Crossports posters have failed to address.

H.C. needs some success NOW!

As posters analyze the future athletic scenarios while H.C. attempts to emerge from its slumber, there is very little recognition on this board, ( from H.C. alums apparently ) of how most P.L. institutions have passed H.C. by across the board..... how difficult it's going to be for H.C. to have meaningful success  any time soon ?... how steep a curve H.C. is up against ? Looking at other conference affiliations now makes the greatest sense to knowledgeable outside observers who know today's D1 athletics milieu. H.C. doesn't look anything like most other PL institutions today. It's a fish out of water. H.C. needs to be in an environment where it can achieve some success ASAP.


Holy Cross will celebrate if they end up with one winning season in any sport for the 2017-18 athletic calendar. To create context, I invite you to go down the list of of each P.L. M's and W's sport over the past 12 mos...does anyone here know/care ( for example ) that Navy WLAX made the NCAA Final Four? ...that, ( for example ) Colgate men's soccer team made the NCAA sweet sixteen ?....it goes on and on in every sport.  Let's talk about well run institutions....how does ( for example ) Bucknell do what it does year over year across the board with its resources  ? The PL is not a place where H.C, can excel anytime soon. The fact that these examples are hardly known or mean little to this board is an indication of how different H.C.'s management and aspirations for its athletic programs are today from most other P.L. institutions ? The P.L. has simply outgrown H.C.. H.C. is not in a positron to mess with the A.I. and other P.L. restrictions. A new A.D. isn't going to be able to fix this for H.C..

Start researching. Get some success NOW.

A move "up" is not the recommendation here. Perhaps you can use this P.L. site to get a more informed overview. For starters, click on the "sports" tab for an overview of the schedules and records in each sport of every institution: www.patriotleague.org/# You might click through to the schools' athletic sites via the individual school icons on the bottom of the front page: www.patriotleague.org/#