Fans, ex-players, and parents gathered on campus this weekend to support the UMass program and get together one last time for the 2011-12 season. Friday night was the annual Reverse Raffle held in the Campus Center. There wasn’t too much news that came out of the Reverse Raffle and unfortunately I didn’t win anything this year but it was still another enjoyable event. It’s always a great time to get those who are most passionate about UMass hockey into one room together so I had a great time talking with friends as well as meeting some of the fans and parents that I hadn’t been able to before. Overall a great night and I can’t recommend it enough next year if you’ve never been before. It was too bad that coach Toot Cahoon was unable to make it to the Raffle or banquet as he’s still at home recovering from hip surgery, but he did join both events via Skype.
Saturday afternoon was the banquet. I didn’t make it to that one but Dick Baker does recap the awards given out there.
Most Valuable Player: T.J. Syner
Rookie of the Year: Steven Guzzo & Kevin Boyle
Jack Caniff Unsung Hero: Joel Hanley
Most Improved: Patrick Kiley
Minuteman Award for Team Spirit: Kevin Moore
I can’t complain with any of those. Stick tap to all the award winners for their efforts over this past year.
Next year’s team captains were not named during the banquet.
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I also had a chance this past weekend to go out and support a couple other UMass teams. On Friday I caught a few innings of softball playing Dayton. Pitcher Sara Plourde lived up to her reputation striking out everyone in sight and even getting the Minutewomen on the board first with a homerun in her first at bat.
The reason I was unable to make the hockey banquet was because I was at Garber Field where I finally got to see the #2 UMass lacrosse team in person as they spanked St Joe’s 15-3. Honestly, it wasn’t that close. St Joe’s was held scoreless until the very end of the game when coach Greg Canella went deep on his bench with substitutions. I’m looking forward to seeing the squad again when they play at Gillette on the 21st.
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Mike Marcou made his debut last night for the Oklahoma City Barons. Marcou didn’t register in the scoring as the Barons beat the Milwaukee Admirals 3-2 to clinch a playoff spot. T.J. Syner has played 8 games for the Hersey Bears so far and has registered one assist which came in his debut.
BC Interuption had and interesting take on what a 12 team Hockey East could look like if UConn ends up upgrading their hockey program.
Fear The Triangle - UMass Hockey Blog 
Anonymous
/ April 1, 2012Nice events this weekend, congrats to all the players.
Anyone know why captains were not announced?
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rocks22
/ April 1, 2012I haven’t heard. Usually they’re announced this weekend but not always. Toot being away from the team for the last couple weeks may be a part of it.
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Anonymous
/ April 2, 2012coach should have waited or the date should have been moved so that he could have attended .. the videos were terrible .. hign school team video’s have been better.. it’s time to move this program forward , clean house before its to late ..
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rocks22
/ April 2, 2012Please tell me this comment is a late April Fools joke. There are lots of reasons to be disappointed with the team’s recent performance but we’re now bitching about the quality of highlight videos and the timing of Toot’s hip replacement? Give me a break.
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George
/ April 2, 2012I like the 2 division plan. BC wants it to keep their rivalries and I think all Hockey East teams need it to so, but adding extra non league games is not good as brought up. Denver is not coming to Merrimack, Providence or UConn, heck it took a double date with Jack Parker to get them to the Mullins Center a while back. While no proposal is perfect or can me made perfect (Merrimack and Lowell in different divisions), I think his idea is right on target.
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Anonymous
/ April 2, 2012The 22 game schedule really kills the weaker teams. Gonna be a tough draw getting marquee teams from the midwest to come to Amherst, Providence, North Andover etc…
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Mike
/ April 2, 2012Agreed, the 2 Division plan sounds more feasible. A single Division seems to leave too many open dates to fill.
BTW Rocks, is there any progress toward a real live Hockey Band?? The powers that be seem to be shying away.
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rocks22
/ April 2, 2012I haven’t heard anything about the band, which is probably not a good thing.
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Anonymous
/ April 2, 2012Doesnt the hockey team have to give the band a scholarship for that to happen?
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rocks22
/ April 2, 2012Do they get scholarships from womens hoops? Doubt it.
They also just got a $6M building mostly paid for by the university. I think they have more than enough resources to support the teams on campus.
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Anonymous
/ April 2, 2012Solid point, I had heard from some sources though that said if the hockey team wanted a band, they had to give one band member a scholarship.
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rocks22
/ April 2, 2012That was George Parks’ demand.
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Anonymous
/ April 2, 2012Cant blame him for asking. Although I would think the band would enjoy being able to play at hockey games.
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rocks22
/ April 2, 2012Again, I severely doubt women’s hoops is willfully handing over valuable resources for their band (which usually outnumbers the crowd).
You may want to read this if you haven’t before:
https://fearthetriangle.com/2011/07/06/an-open-letter-to-timothy-anderson/
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Anonymous
/ April 2, 2012Interesting, did you ever get a response?
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rocks22
/ April 2, 2012I did get a very nice response saying he would evaluate the possibility sometime this year after he got up to speed on what’s going on with the band program.
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Anonymous
/ April 2, 2012oh sweet.
and the quality of the video was awful. no big deal, just sayin’.
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