So I don't get to see/hear/read media coverage about UAA usually until late at night. Such is the case tonight as I just listened to this USCHO interview. Their last guest in this podcast is Doyle Woody. There are some things which must be addressed. Now that I've finished listening and had a nice ham and cheese sammich ...
Begin listening at 41:50.
I categorically think that Doyle has a right to his opinions. I just don't think he understands the context of college sports. Context is important even in the world of journalism. The context here is that UAA Hockey is a public institutional asset of the local community (UAA college sports belong to all of us). The community can and does derive pride from the accomplishments. It is valued by the members of the public.
Newspapers are a private institutional asset of the local community. Community newspapers are self-mandated to act as good stewards of the happenings, public information, news, entertainment and sports. Purposeful negativity does not serve that righteous ethical standard. It is also valued by the public.
These facts deserve consideration.
A natural synergy exists between these two institutions but it's being needlessly poked and prodded and derided by one of it's components.
I'd add that the UAA Seawolves hockey team is made up of amateur players. The same standard that one applies to a professional player (someone getting a paycheck in their pocket) categorically does not apply to a college player.
Is that enough context?
Now onto my specific beefs ... When asked about the recruiting dynamic for UAA, Doyle completely left out the one actual advantage that UAA has over 57 other Division 1 programs. You're in Alaska. Hey prospect ... you like hunting? Fishing? Hiking? Outdoors anything? Um ... well we have the best outdoors anywhere. Instead, we got some droning about how nobody but a bender would come to UAA.
My other main beef ... When asked about the UAA/UAF rivalry. Doyle explains how in the last ten years UAF has "certainly had the upper-hand." Reality? Well, in the last 10 years ... (since January 1st, 2006) ... the Seawolves are 16-11-2 versus UAF. End of story.
I started this blog a decade ago in large part because Doyle's default style is negative. I'd happily return to private fandom if we had someone at ADN whose default style wasn't negative. I'm not hoping for a cheerleader like me. Just someone that understands context and allows such to moderate their writing process.
10 comments:
Also ... The Seawolves would sweep the Aces.
Coaches Corner 6 pm Thursday in the Alaska Airlines Center at the Varsity Sports Grill.
Voice of the Seawolves David Tuttle hosts.
Junior forward #18 Brad Duwe will be the player guest and UAF coach Dallas Ferguson will be there to shed some light on what's happening with the Nanooks.
Coach Thomas, as always, will provide lively commentary on the Seawolves.
A game worn jersey #40 worn by Daniel Naslund will be one of the door prizes.
Great food and drink are available for purchase.
It's shaping up to be an exciting and entertaining time.
See you there.
Totally agree with your assessment of Woody. He said that the ONE reason why UAA is having success this season is Mantha. I won't take anything away from him, he's been rock solid and is indeed a part of the winning puzzle. However, he sits in 10th in the WCHA among goalies. UAA's offense WAS number 1 in the WCHA and is now a strong 3rd with 2.50 goals per game. He gave no kudos to the team for putting pucks in the net.
He also said UAA is winning by one goal. Ummm ... tell that to Bowling Green and Ferris State.
ok so I hate woody too, but unknown @ 924 he said UAA is learning to win one goal games. Yes we have blownout bGSU & FSU, but one way we struggled last year was in One goal games where we only Won 3, this year we have won 5 so far at the halfway point of the season.
GO wolves.
@ Unknown: Mantha at #10?
GAA: 10th, SVP: 7th, WinPer: 7th, avg place in WCHA play: 8th best
GAA: 9th, SVP: 6th, WinPer: 5th, avg place in total play: 6.66th best
?
No, he said "Olivia Mantha and winning one goal games". Again, I agree with him that Mantha is the cornerstone of the team, but ALL college hockey teams have to have solid goalies to be successful. Look at the USCHO, he is listed as 10th in the WCHA under "Goaltending Leaders". Woody gives hardly any credit to the team for their ability to score goals, and instead calls them very, very average.
Read more: http://www.uscho.com/stats/conference/wcha/2015-2016/#ixzz3txlnI4J9
A few points about comment from Unknown. In overall statistics, Oli is 8th among WCHA's Goalies in the top 50 list. Among those 8, he's 5th for SV% which is the most important stat! Only one Goalie saw more rubber than him and it's Tolvanen from Northern Michigan with 522 shots. Another important point is the difficult schedule the team went through: St-Cloud (#6 Poll), Penn State (#16 Poll), Minnesota State and Michigan Tech in their Conference which are respectively #20 and #21 in the Poll. His GAA at 2.63 is certainly the consequence of the quality of the opponents since the beginning of the season. Hope those numbers will help to appreciate at its real value the performances of Olivier Mantha!
Donald can we put you and woody in a room and you just hash shit out with him
I AM NOT TAKING ANYTHING AWAY FROM MANTHA. But despite what woody says, the rest of the team DOES have something to do with the teams success. They are scoring goals, give credit where credit is due. THAT is my complaint.
I love me some Woody, he tells it like it is and never crys about the ref's. All Dummy Donald can do is blame someone else, why the team lost.The ref's don't give a flip about who wins, they do the best job they can. End of story.
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