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St. Cloud State University
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Retention hurts hockey
By Ben Birnell
Published:
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Media Credit: Adam Hammer
Huskies hockey forward Billy Hengen and defenseman T.J. McElroy look over their notes at the Miller Center Tuesday. The men´s hockey team ranked in the lowest Academic Performance Rate among Division I teams in the WCHA while maintaining an accumulative team GPA of more than 3.0.
In an effort to make collegiate athletic programs aware of their student athlete's academic progress, the NCAA has released the Academic Progress Rate (APR) evaluating each Division I team in the nation.
For the SCSU men's hockey team, that report is a good news/bad news situation, with more good news than bad news.
The report, which details academic eligibility, retention and graduation rates of student athletes, places the Huskies near the bottom of the pack among men's college hockey teams with a score of 97 out of 108 possible points.
Released two weeks ago, the report, which relates to the 2003-04 school year asked four basic questions about each student athlete on academic scholarship. Those questions included if the athlete was academically eligible after the fall semester, if they returned for the spring semester, if they were academically eligible after the spring semester and if they returned to the university the following year.
For each of the four questions, one point is received. However, the score doesn't factor in a student athletes grade-point average.
"I think we as players are getting a bad reputation that is undeserved," SCSU junior forward Billy Hengen said. "We're doing well in classes and the formula doesn't show that."
The report takes the number of points earned and divides it by the number of possible points. SCSU's score of 97 translates into 89.8 percent. According to the NCAA, an APR score of 925 or 92.5 percent is equivalent to a graduation rate of 50 percent.
According to SCSU's compliance officer Sue Becker, teams with scores below 925 after two years will be subject to a loss of scholarship for players who were academically ineligible.
"We're aware of the situation and we're dealing with it," SCSU athletic director Morris Kurtz said. "It's a weird situation when you have a few players leave the program. We have no concern that we will be above the number (925) in next year's evaluation."
Because the Huskies had eight players leave the program for various reasons after last season, their APR number dropped.
"The reason the team's score is 898 is because there was so much turnover," Becker said. "You can't really get a good reading after the first year, so that's why it is evaluated over two years."
SCSU lost two points after sophomore defenseman Tim Conboy left in the middle of the spring semester, making him academically ineligible after he was released from the team and signed a contract with the NHL's San Jose Sharks. Two more points were lost after freshman forward Brent Hill left in the middle of school year to play in the Western Hockey League. Sophomore forward Brian McCormack lost two points for the team because he was academically ineligible and released from the team.
"I think the rule will change a little bit because if there's a player that wants to go play major junior hockey somewhere or sign a pro contract, there's nothing I can really do about it," SCSU head coach Craig Dahl said. "What am I supposed to do if a player wants to transfer to another school? I can't really stop him, especially if it's a better move for him."
One point each was forfeited after redshirt forward Billie Luger transferred to St. John's, junior forward Garrett Larson transferred to Wisconsin-River Falls and seniors Matt Hendricks and Colin Peters decided to play minor league hockey instead of finishing their degrees in the fall.
One of the criticisms of this assessment is that the report doesn't reveal how the team is actually doing in the classroom. The team had 10 players earn WCHA All-Academic honors last year. For the third consecutive semester, SCSU had a team GPA above 3.0. SCSU earned a 3.08 grade point average in the fall semester and Dahl expects it will be around that again at the end of this semester.
"Anyone who knows the inside of the program and how it has been worked over the last 18 years, knows that I place a high emphasis on academics and I don't cut corners," Dahl said.
It's possible for the team to total a perfect score in the next report, but it is probable that seniors Mike Doyle, Matt Gens, Dave Iannazzo and Peter Szabo will pursue other hockey options before getting their diplomas. If the rest of the team returns, the score would be 958.
However, some see the number and think the team is doing poor in the classroom. For some players that mystique is wrong.
"If anything comes out of this, I want people to know that we have some pretty smart players on the team," said Hengen, who is on the All-Academic team. "The APR doesn't take into consideration our performance in the classroom."
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