To the Editor,
The editorial comments of Mr. Dan DiTursi concerning the coaching staff of your men’s hockey team, were filled with inaccuracies and an obvious vile bias.
He talked of Coach Fridgen passing responsibility for on-ice deficiencies to anyone other than himself. I’ve never seen or heard Coach Fridgen deflect re-sponsibility for anything that happens in the game. However, it’s a common strategy to critique the officiating. Many believe this may give you the benefit of the doubt on the next call.
He questioned Coach Fridgen’s use of his goalies. If a goalie isn’t at his sharpest and giving up goals he’d normally stop, you don’t leave him in until his confidence is shattered and risk a long-term setback. You remove him and put someone in the net who may be a little sharper on that particular night. The psychological aspect is critical for all players, particularly goalies. Anyone who has ever played hockey at any level knows this.
There are times when the upperclassmen have to show leadership. These upperclassmen haven’t done this consistently. These same upperclassmen are taking the same foolish penalties, or allowing defensive lapses at critical points. There’s a lot of talent on this team. When they play as a team, they win, when they don’t, they struggle. This is as much the players’ responsibility as it is the coaches’. The upperclassmen need to step up and to show the leadership that’s expected of them, leadership the underclassmen need and ultimately look for. I believe the upperclassmen will show this leadership and inspire their teammates. You should too.
The season is only half over, or more appropriately, there’s still half a season to play. There’s plenty of time to make adjustments and to gather victories. It’s unfortunate that uninformed people like Mr. DiTursi have a forum to promote his counterproductive and pessi-mistic views. You and your fellow students should be rallying around and supporting your team. They deserve more than to have you undermine their efforts with misinformation and uninformed opinions.
He also singled out Coach Fridgen by referencing his college career at Cornell. He didn’t play at Cornell; he played at Colgate. He does hold the record for penalty minutes at Colgate. He also held the record for most goals in a season. I read his bio in the game program. You should read it too. I find it offensive, irresponsible, and malicious when someone can print such inaccuracies and be so lazy in their preparation prior to having such a letter published. You took this opportunity and this forum to take personal shots at Coach Fridgen. I’m sure he is well- adapted to dealing with the criticism. It comes with the territory. But you have missed the bigger picture.
Your men’s hockey program has enjoyed many successes. It has also suffered lean times. In the 1980s you experienced one of college athletics’ pinnacles by winning the NCAA championship. You also experienced one of your Institution’s most embarrassing moments when a minority player was assaulted with racial slurs. In that tenure, a championship was won but so much more was lost.
The goal of college athletics is to teach valuable life lessons through sports. These are learned through the successes and failures experienced on the field of play (or ice). It’s what we take away from the college experience that is important. From what I see, the academic standards and integrity of RPI are well represented from this group of student athletes. They appear to be a terrific group of “student citizens.” I’ve never seen them on the news for illegal or immoral activity. I’ve never seen them tarnish the college’s reputation through immature and cruel acts of hazing or other forms of idiocy—can you say that about the other students? These are young men prone to mistakes, yet they have made remarkably very few of them. I believe that this is because of the leadership, not in spite of it. This tells me that the most important aspect of a coach’s job is being done at the highest level, molding and guiding these boys into responsible and prepared young men, ready to take on their most challenging task of all, being leaders in our communities.
