If Bentley College becomes known for one thing around the MAAC, it will be their head coach Jim McAdam.
At age 61, McAdam has the feistiness of a coach just starting his career, coupled with the honesty of a man who has been around for a while.
So much was apparent at MAAC media day. McAdam, who ran his first team practice Monday morning, hustled as fast as he could from the team’s facility in Watertown, Mass., to Storrs, Conn. His fastest speed could only get him there an hour late, but that didn’t stop him from marching right up to the microphone and telling it as it is.
— Bentley head coach Jim McAdam
“I didn’t eat and I’m starving, I hit traffic and I had practice today,” said the lively McAdam sans necktie, one of the things left behind in hysteria. “So let’s see. I’d like the goalie from Canisius, I need a goalie. I’d like a couple of forwards from Mercyhurst. I know Pearl [at Holy Cross] have a couple of guys I can use. And let’s see, Rob Riley [head coach of Army], welcome to the league, and I’d like a couple of your forwards.
“I need tons of players.”
He put it simply. No beating around the bush. No hiding his cards. Jim McAdam tells it like it is.
But if you didn’t talk to McAdam for the rest of the day, there’s still a lot he’s not telling you.
Like the fact that Bentley will boast one of the best defensemen in the league in Steve Tobio. An all-league defenseman last season, Tobio will be joined by a host of freshmen who McAdam thinks have the ability to make an impact.
Is that enough? It’s hard to say.
Bentley did lose one of the MAAC’s best one-two scoring punches in Ryan Soderquist and Brian Gangemi, as well as goaltender Joe Cullen, who backstopped the Falcons in nearly two-thirds of last year’s games.
One name that will stand out on the list of recruits, though, is Joe Lovell, whose brother Tim played at both Maine and UMass-Amherst in the mid-to-late 90’s. McAdam hopes that someone, possibly Lovell, is able to step up and lead the Falcons’ charge.
When asked what will have to happen to keep the Falcons on par this season, McAdam was his usual honest self.
“I like to run my practices,” said McAdam, about to being his eighth season behind the Falcon bench. “I keep telling the players to work hard, and with that, I work hard. I think that rubs off. I’m 61 years old and they look at me and think, ‘If this old guy can do these things, why can’t I?’
“I just want to keep things positive. That’s how I keep things in focus.”
Something this year’s Falcons will need.
