A note to anyone reading this. This is the annual column where the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u009d will be used. Sparingly to be sure, but used none the less.<\/i><\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m an old married guy (20-plus years of connubial bliss) and never experienced the pleasures (or is that pressures) of speed dating.<\/p>\n
Yet I feel as though I learned all that can be known about the subject one day last fall during the ECAC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s preseason coaches’ conference call, set up by the league\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s PR maven, Ed Krajewski.<\/p>\n
You know the drill, each of the women’s league’s 12 head coaches comes on for about five minutes to answer questions about the upcoming season (among other topics).<\/p>\n
Except this year, your faithful correspondent (okay, I) was the only media member on the call.<\/p>\n
Which means I had each of the ECAC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dozen coaches all to myself, rapid fire style, one after another, for five minutes.<\/p>\n
Ding. Time\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s up. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Next up is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
On and on we went. Ed was settin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcem up, and I was layin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcem down. Alphabetically, beginning with Union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Claudia Asano, right through Yale\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hilary Witt. Keeping the questions coming, and the conversation going. Just like speed dating, or so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m led to believe.<\/p>\n
At any rate, that talk marathon was one of the highlights of the season for me.
\nIt also produced some good insight into some of the primo players of the ECAC. (Prepare for the segue).<\/p>\n
Among them was Harvard coach Katey Stone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s take on her incomparable forward, Sarah Vaillancourt.<\/p>\n
This week Vaillancourt added her second straight Ivy League POY award to a trophy case that already includes one Patty Kazmaier Award and surely must have room for another. Asked whether Vaillancourt had more potential to be tapped into, Stone said she felt there was.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got more,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tremendous talent right now. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s incredibly intense, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably the reason why she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so good. But, the older you get, your eyes get a little bigger, and you see things a little bit differently. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got plenty of room to grow, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already a better player this year than she was last year.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The ECAC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153other Sarah\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, Sarah Parsons of Dartmouth, came up in conversation with her coach Mark Hudak. Hudak noted Parsons\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 ability to singlehandedly take over a game, making her teammates better while making the opposition beg for mercy.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of those players who can make a difference in that game. And not just offensively, but defensively.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Hudak said that Parsons brought a finely trained eye for detail to each Big Green game.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think back to last year,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was a pretty tight game. There were battles all over the ice. I Think Sarah had six blocked shots. One of those ended turning into a 2-on-1 which we scored on, which I believe was the game-winner. She didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get an assist, and she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the goal. But what she did in the defensive end made a huge difference for us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Maybe my favorite snippet came in my exchange with Brown\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Digit Murphy, whom I used to cover quite a bit when I strung lots of college games for the Providence Journal.<\/p>\n
We talked about sophomore defenseman Stephanie Stortini, who, yes, is the sister of Edmonton Oilers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 tough guy Zack Stortini. The first thing I wondered was whether the Stortini Sibs play in the same roughhouse manner.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The funny thing is,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153we have these team pictures of the kids down the hallway (at Meehan Auditorium). And Stortini\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got boxing gloves on. That\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcs indicative of the family tree.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
You see what the all the other hockey scribes missed out on?<\/p>\n
Thursday saw the awarding of next year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Womens Frozen Four to the University of Minnesota, while, for the first time ever, Erie, Pa., will stage the event in 2011, to be hosted by Mercyhurst College.<\/p>\n
The interesting thing there is that the action will take place in Tullio Arena, home of the OHL\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Erie Otters, and a building which is distinctive for two reasons.<\/p>\n
The first is that the press box is completely enclosed, which for an indoor facility is an oddity. Sort of like an airplane control tower. And the second is that the north wall of the arena runs parallel to the outfield fence at Jerry Uht Park, the home of the Double-A Erie SeaWolves. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been to one hockey game at Tullio, but have covered several games at the adjacent ball park.
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen many a ball yanked off the Tullio fa\u00c3\u00a7ade, although I have yet to see one of its windows shatter.<\/p>\n
As well, the Tullio basement serves as the both the home and visitors clubhouses, which means one has to walk across the outfield and through the fence to get there.<\/p>\n
It is one of the more interesting sports venue set ups in North America, and should prove to be a fine site for the WFF.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A note to anyone reading this. This is the annual column where the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u009d will be used. Sparingly to be sure, but used none the less. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m an old married guy (20-plus years of connubial bliss) and never experienced the pleasures (or is that pressures) of speed dating. Yet I feel as though I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n