When the Mullins Center opened in 1993 it was the rebirth of college hockey at UMass.
Or so we thought.
In the ensuing years three coaches have come and gone, all leaving town with losing records. It’s been like watching a million dollar racehorse repeatedly spit the bit.
Now there’s another jockey on the horse, and despite Greg Carvel’s solid credentials people are taking a wait-and-see attitude.
Maybe it’s that, or maybe because athletic director Ryan Bamford chose to break the news on ESPN that the Boston Globe’s account of Thursday’s press conference was relegated to the bottom of page D-7. “Carvel the right fit for UMass.”
Where and how many times have we heard that before?
After nine straight losing seasons under Toot Cahoon and John Micheletto, it’s Carvel’s turn to wake “the sleeping giant.” He was hired away from St. Lawrence University where he was 72-63-15 in four seasons.
“He’s a good coach. What’s the phrase, he hit above his weight that’s for sure,” said Tom Glaser, editor of the Daily Courier-Observer in upstate New York. “He’s my neighbor. I didn’t think he’d move. He grew up here, you know.”
Longtime followers had hoped that Springfield native Rick Bennett or former UMass assistant Mark Dennehy would get the job. Bennett coached Union College to a national title and Dennehy rose Merrimack from out of the ashes to be a contender in Hockey East.
Others see it differently. “It’s a good move,” said UVM assistant coach Kevin Patrick. “He’s an excellent coach. He works hard, he thinks the game and is good with people, not just his players. I believe he will do well there.”
The 45-year-old Carvel scores high on the hockey-coach checklist. He’s recruited All-Americans and Hobey Baker nominees, worked the AHL front office and the NHL bench and he won’t need a GPS to find the Mullins Center. He went to grad school at UMass, was an assistant coach at Amherst College and he married an Amherst girl.
“He was one of the assistants when Doug covered the men’s Worlds in the Czech Republic last spring,” said Bob Weiss, whose son Doug is an orthopedic surgeon. “I think he’ll do a good job. I mean, he was good enough so they invited him to the Worlds.”
Yeah but this is UMass, where building a winning program has taken longer than getting to Mars.
Deerfield’s Jim Antone reports that preliminary work has already begun for a new rink that will have “a field house over it and possibly a tennis court on top of that.”
Preliminary work has already begun near the Old Deerfield Burying Ground. “If they think there’s any Indians they have to bring in the archaeologists, but all they found were broken dining hall plates.”
A $10 million contribution helped spearhead the project, enough to put a sunroof and palm trees next to the tennis courts.
Undefeated Nyquist will earn a $1 million bonus by winning today’s Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. Normally Nyquist would stay on the West Coast and go for his seventh straight win in next week’s Santa Anita Derby.
As a 2-year-old Nyquist was sold at the Fasig-Tipton auction at Gulfstream Park for $400,000 and then shipped out west. Fasig-Tipton offered a $1 million bonus to any 2-year-old auctioned at Gulfstream that subsequently wins the Florida Derby.
Gulfstream-based Mohaymen was auctioned for $2.2 million at the Keeneland sale and isn’t eligible for the bonus. Mohaymen is also undefeated at 5-for-5, and consequently today’s Florida Derby is the race before The Race.
It’s a dilemma for both trainers. Nyquist’s Doug O’Neill can’t pass up an opportunity to win a $1.6 million purse, and Mohaymen’s Kiaren McLaughlin can’t pass up the $600,000 winner’s purse with a colt that’s already won two stakes races at Gulfstream.
Mohaymen is the even-money favorite and Nyquist is the 6-5 second choice. The third choice in the 10-horse field is Fellowship at 15-1.
Business has been good at Gould’s Sugar House in Shelburne. It always is. They make the best pancakes in the world and the maple syrup is golden amber. That’s the good news. The bad news was the lousy sap run. “How many gallons?” I asked Helen Gould.
“That woodshed will yell you,” she answered. “There’s a lot of wood left. We thought we’d get one last good run but …” She shook her head.
“The sugaring season ended the week of Good Friday. I got a decent enough run from five buckets on the five trees I tapped to get a half gallon of maple syrup — not golden amber but it’s not dark as molasses.”
In North Amherst, a sign advertising maple syrup boasts, “New crop just in.”
Atkins bakes delicious pies, but to advertise a “new crop” of maple syrup is a tad disingenuous. Maple syrup doesn’t age. It isn’t wine, but it can ferment. I learned that the morning a bottle of it exploded in my daughter April’s cupboard. Now she buys her own.