Dartmouth HC Position Opens Up
by dillon77 (2023-06-05 10:25:55)

Dartmouth went 6-6 this year -- best in ages -- with an upset of Gerry Byrne's Harvard squad for their first Ivy regular-season win in years.
Most top scorers are back, but Big Green brass decided to find someone else to build on this .500 squad.

The only other D1 lax program in need of a head coach is Queens (Charlotte, NC), which went 2-13, playing in the ASUN. (For reference, they lost to Cleveland State 13-12, but got shellacked by Utah, 18-6).

So, would either of ND's assistant coaches be interested/be of interest to either of these programs?

OC Chris Wojcik has extensive experience in the Ivies, having been an assistant at Penn and Harvard, before being head coach for nine years in Cambridge. He's a northeast guy (from New Jersey, with all that New England experience) and might want to head "back" east. One would think he'd know the terriory, recruiting-wise, even though Wellner heads that up. However, this doesn't appear to be a tear-down job ...


...On the other hand, Queens looks like a nearly start from scratch job. Would Wellner be interested in a rebuild? Maybe ASUn wasn't first choice, but with his recruiting background, he could redirect some kids down "south" and his defensive approach could serve as a groundrock start.

Any ideas?




Dartmouth has always seemed like a tough place to win to me
by FL_Irish  (2023-06-05 12:59:43)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Doesn't have the same academic cachet as Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. The fact that Penn has Wharton and Columbia (and I recognize Columbia doesn't have lacrosse) is in NYC often also give them a leg up in recruiting over Dartmouth.

Their football team has historically been good and went on a bit of a recent upswing, but in general I think of them as an Ivy League athletics also-ran.

I wonder if someone like Wojcik bides his time for a better opening.


Fair Enough, But It's an Ivy Program....
by dillon77  (2023-06-05 16:44:55)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

...and there's not going to be a lot of openings there with Princeton, Yale, Cornell and Penn all playing top-notch ball and Harvard & Brown not far behind.

Like I said, they went 6-6 this year and are returning some top-notch underclassmen.

Now, the key to me is: does Dartmouth have the will and funds to put into athletics like its southern neighbors do? Outside of skiing and soccer (both Bobby Clark and Chad Riley coached there on the guys side, as did Teresa Romagnolo before coming to ND), they haven't been at the top of ranks in most sports.

But Lax could be an exception, given their proximity to all so many prep schools.

BTW, while Dartmouth isn't the big three of Harvard, Yale or Princeton, it's still a pretty darn good university, as I'm sure you know. Wharton is a great part of Penn, but the +1 there is the MBA, so most undergrads aren't being drawn there for that. (BTW, Tuck is a darn good MBA at Dartmouth).

Still, I'm making this suggestion for Wojcik, given his familiarity with both the league and the northeast. It could be a differentiator for him.

(BTW, full admission which doesn't cloud my opinion: my older brother went to Dartmouth -- think he would've liked Yale more -- and many soccer players from the Youth club I worked on ended up playing for the Big Green.)


I agree that lacrosse seems like a natural place where they
by FL_Irish  (2023-06-05 17:27:03)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

…might be able to make a push.

Nothing against Dartmouth. I’ve visited many, many times and like the campus and area. And it could be a good fit for all the reasons you indicate.

I’m just saying if it were me, I’d have at least some misgivings based on the lack of success of their athletic department more broadly.


With You on That ....
by dillon77  (2023-06-06 10:48:50)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

My brother was a freshman when the Big Green went into the Yale Bowl and beat the Eli to win the Ivy League and be the last Ivy League Team to finish in the Top 10.

Outside of some success by Buddy Teevans, that's been in for the gridders. And a team they should be good at -- hockey -- was horrendous this year.

But if there are some core players and a guarantee of some resources for lax players/facilities, maybe?

On the other hand, Coach W's could stay at ND and wait a year for other programs to shake out. Stay tuned.


From purely a selfish standpoint
by tf86  (2023-06-05 12:11:49)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

I'd prefer that both Wojcik and Wellner remain at ND. But I understand the desire to get a head coaching position, and on the heels of a national championship, the timing could be right.

Of the two positions, I'd say that Dartmouth probably has the greater upside. But they also face tougher competition in the Ivy League than Queens does in the ASun, certainly at present.

Dartmouth also strikes me as likely the more stable of the two spots. Lacrosse is sort of a calling card sport for the Ivies. And travel costs certainly are lower at Dartmouth, in that every conference member is within bussing distance even for a school like Dartmouth, which is at the geographic outposts of the Ivy League. For Queens, by contrast, Mercer and Jacksonville are the only conference opponents within bussing distance. Then again, Queens is transitioning from D2 to D1, which shows a commitment to continuing and strengthening athletics (and likely an acknowledgment as well that there will be growing pains along the way.) Queens isn't really a "startup" job, per se, in that they had an existing program at the D2 level before transitioning.

Whatever Wojcik and Wellner decide to do, I wish both of them the best.