NEVILLE TWP.,Pa- “I’m a different coach now than I was then,” Robert Morris Men’s Hockey Coach Derek Schooley said, after his team had just come off the ice from practice this week, talking from his office which may have been the same one that he was issued in 2003 along with a pen and a desk. He was asked to build an NCAA Division One hockey program and set out to build an immediately competitive one that bore the fruit of conference championships years later. And, almost 17 years later, had to go about the task of doing it all over again, but he’s taking the lessons he’s learned along the way.
“I learned to be more of a delegator than I was; when I first started out I thought I could do everything. It’s one of things where you have to continue to evolve and learn and go forward. It’s a different animal now. We’ve got history, we’ve got championships, and we’ve got a locker room that’s state of the art now and an area down there that we can show people.”
The lights went out for both the men’s and women’s hockey programs nearly 853 days ago when it was formally announced that Robert Morris was dropping the programs citing any number of reasons which at the time seemed more conjured than solid. However, the public spoke and spoke loudly, via social media outrage, which in terms of sheer number of program supporters and alumni was impressive and perhaps miraculous to say the least. And, the coach was committed to seeing the process towards reinstatement through.
“It was a tough day,” Schooley added, recalling the moment the news hit him. “But my feelings towards being a part of Robert Morris didn’t change and the alumni and everybody rallied behind the group. It’s been a long time since we’ve played a hockey game and by the time we play it will be 964 days and 854 days since we dropped hockey. We’ve done a lot of recruiting and a lot of general manager stuff but now it’s time to the things we want to do like coaching hockey and continuing the history of hockey at Robert Morris.”
The momentum turned into fundraising efforts, spearheaded by the newly created Colonial Hockey Foundation and within seven months, it was announced both programs were reinstated. The hard work will be celebrated in a joyous day at the Island Sports Center on Saturday, October 7 as both programs host their home openers, with a full day of activities, hockey , tailgating and food trucks as well. There will be hockey for sure, but for many it will be an emotional celebration of the program’s return which will be just as anticipated by the capacity crowd as a positive result in either or both games. The countless supporters, who would not be denied, will have a day to celebrate together as a hockey family who helped secure the biggest win in the program’s history, their return.
“We underestimated our impact on the community and the city of Pittsburgh and how we were at Robert Morris University,” Schooley said. “We’re greatly appreciative of the people that helped us and came to all the events and donated whether it was 20 bucks or a thousand. You’re just so thankful that everybody believed in the little engine that could. We’re still here and we’re still going, they couldn’t get rid of us.”
TO THE ICE THEY GO
And so there will be hockey on Saturday night as the Bowling Green Falcons make their way to Clearview Arena. Schooley and his staff have assembled a roster that just doesn’t have credibility, its pure street cred, it’s legitimate and it comes from the net out. With great goaltending, great things are possible, and the Colonials look to have that area of the game as strong as any team in their conference.
“Our graduate transfers and guys that were here before are going to play prominent roles,” Schooley stated. “ We’ve got Chad Veltri in goal and Francis Boisvert who’s played in some big games for St. Lawrence and we’ve got four defensemen and four forwards in that group plus Gavin Gulash who played a year for us and Cam Hebert who played two years for us and Matt Hutton who played a year for us. We’ve got a good group of older guys that have been through the wars and are ready to go to battle again and get Colonial hockey back to where it belongs. I still like offensive hockey and I still want to play the same way. We’re not as big and heavy as we have been in the past but we’re faster and we skate just as well. You’re going to see a different type of Colonial hockey, kind of like we were when we were winning championships. It’s easy to say what we have, until we actually play. We’re a month and a half into this and we’ve had our good days and our bad days. We’re going to have to outwork teams and do things the right way and play within ourselves and do the little things well, block shots, finish checks and work hard. Usually when you have a returning team, you have an idea of what you have and I don’t know what I have again.”
One thing they may very well have is an underestimated scoring attack as veterans with a track record of success lead the charge ahead of some talented freshmen who have shown some flashes of things to come so far.
“Logan Ganie played on the power play at Michigan Tech and in the NCAA Tournament,” Schooley said. “Rylee St. Onge has scored 15 goals in Atlantic Hockey already, Dallas Tulik was the third leading scorer for Ferris State a few years ago. We’re going to have to get goals by committee and maybe one of our newer guys pops like Cody Wydo or Zac Lynch or Daniel Leavens did in his second year. We’re going to need guys to pop. We really like McKay Hayes, he’s going to be playing on a top line with Tulik and St. Onge, he’s a big power forward that skates really well and Tanner Klimpke has really had a good training camp. Those are two left wings that look to figure in to our top two lines.”
For Ganie, the chance to be a leader and the flexibility to do his thing were attractive in his decision to come to Robert Morris.
“We’ve got a great group of guys this year,” Gainey said. “We’re all getting along really nicely right off the bat and we’re pretty close already, we’ll be ready to go on Saturday. It’s a good opportunity to come in as a leader and for me, to be able to play my game is important. The coaches talked a lot about how they wanted to play and I thought that fit my style of play and I was really excited to come here.”
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
The first time the Colonials hit the ice in 2004-05 for their opening season they hit the ground running, managing eight wins while proving to be hard to play against, all with nearly 20 freshmen on the roster. Schooley made believers fairly quickly almost from the first puck drop, forging a brand of hardworking hockey that was also entertaining to watch. This time out, he’s got more tools at his disposal than the pen and a desk he walked into in his first day as head coach, and it looks as if he’s used them wisely.
Recently, the Atlantic Hockey Preseason Poll was released and the Colonials chimed in at position number 10 among voters, out of 11 total conference mates. Robert Morris looks primed to be better than that expectation, though how much better is anybody’s guess. Look for a speedy unit on the ice that will be looking put their opponents’ turnovers and mistakes into the back of the net, and a mobile but disciplined defense anchored by experienced goaltending capable of a high level of play and a bounty of game experience thanks to their transfer and graduate year acquisitions. They won’t be outworked and will be hard to play against, that much is a known fact. The smart money says, they’ll have some ups and downs, but they’ll be capable of knocking off anybody they face on any night including the opening weekend and even at Minnesota later in the season. Look for them in the playoffs come springtime, which here, has the meaning of finishing in the top eight in the Atlantic Hockey standings and perhaps with a little luck and some quick maturation from some of the freshman class, even much higher than that.
“People picked us 10th,” Schooley remarked, “I think it was a shot at some of our players and our players think we’re better than that. Our goal is to have first round home ice in the Atlantic Hockey playoffs which means we need to finish in the top four and if we can do that we can be successful.”
