{"id":127696,"date":"2021-04-06T07:00:39","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=127696"},"modified":"2021-04-09T09:20:25","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T14:20:25","slug":"umass-coach-carvel-overcomes-struggles-early-in-tenure-to-have-minutemen-a-national-college-hockey-powerhouse-yearly-national-title-contender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2021\/04\/06\/umass-coach-carvel-overcomes-struggles-early-in-tenure-to-have-minutemen-a-national-college-hockey-powerhouse-yearly-national-title-contender\/","title":{"rendered":"UMass AD Bamford\u2019s vision, Minutemen coach Carvel\u2019s approach quickly builds strong, national contender in Amherst"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Greg Carvel hoists the Hockey East playoff trophy after his UMass squad downed UMass Lowell last month in Amherst, Mass. (photo: Rich Gagnon).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anyone who has listened to Massachusetts coach Greg Carvel over the last few years understands that the 2019 Spencer Penrose winner, given to the national coach of the year, has a plan.<\/p>\n

When he came to the Amherst, Mass., campus five years ago, success didn\u2019t play out right away, though no one should be surprised.<\/p>\n

Five years later, though, and the ability to recruit the team he wanted, Carvel has put in place the personnel and the system he wants. The result is reaching back-to-back Frozen Fours for a program that previously had qualified for just a single NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure anyone would be surprised [to be in two straight Frozen Fours] just given how tough our conference is and where the program stood when we got here,\u201d said Carvel. \u201cWe\u2019ve brought in some real high-level players but more importantly some high-level people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just came here with a vision. I\u2019m old enough and had enough experience at different levels of hockey to know how programs should be run. It\u2019s not just about how good your players are. It\u2019s about how strong your culture is and how committed your players are to playing the game the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carvel says that his team, and most importantly his coaching staff that includes two of the nation\u2019s top assistants in Ben Barr and Jared DeMichiel, has executed well on that plan.<\/p>\n

Often overlooked, though, is the plan before the plan.<\/p>\n

When Carvel was hired, athletic director Ryan Bamford, a young, up-and-coming administrator, was a fresh face on the UMass campus. He arrived in March of 2015 and then watched his hockey program skate to an uncompetitive 8-24-4 in the 2015-16 season, leading Bamford to terminate coach John Micheletto after four seasons.<\/p>\n

Micheletto was hired in 2012 to replace long-time head coach Don \u2018Toot\u2019 Cahoon, who had guided the Minutemen for 12 seasons, including an appearance in the Hockey East title game and an NCAA regional final.<\/p>\n

But replacing Cahoon was a nightmare for UMass.<\/p>\n

Micheletto was not the first choice of then athletic director John McCutcheon. Multiple coaches were reported as turning down the job when offered including Quinnipiac\u2019s Rand Pecknold, as well as Paul Pearl, now an associate head coach at Boston University. Mike Cavanaugh, then associated head coach at Boston College and now head coach at Connecticut, was also in the mix.<\/p>\n

When Bamford began the search for a replacement, he took a very different approach.<\/p>\n

Instead of using a large committee to select the next head coach, Bamford sought advice from many but made the decision himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like when I got to UMass in 2015, we\u2019re in such a good league and Massachusetts is such a good hockey state, I\u2019d watched what [UMass Lowell coach] Norm [Bazin] and Lowell had done, my vision was to try and build what they had been able to accomplish,” Bamford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said we need to get back to a competitive level.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Bamford learned in that process, as well as in one of his previous role at Yale where he helped bring in Keith Allain, who led the Bulldogs to the 2013 national title, was that as much as it takes a great coach who can recruit the best players who can win games with skill, it wasn\u2019t all about what happens between the boards.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the off the ice stuff, I thought, was really important,\u201d Bamford said. \u201cThe accountability, the team dynamics, brings the right young men into our program and into the university. [Greg Carvel] has exceeded anything I could\u2019ve imagined in terms of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the head coaching opportunity came open position came open, it was one of the first two high-profile positions Bamford had to fill at UMass (women\u2019s basketball was the other). He put significant energy into both, but also understood that the payoff of hockey could be quick.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it my first year, I really dove in on hockey to say, \u2018What has worked at other places, where do I think we fit and what\u2019s our vision?’\u201d said Bamford. \u201c[The last question] was what is the investment. I don\u2019t think there had ever been a real deep discussion about how we wanted to invest in hockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018We\u2019re going to increase our coaching salaries, we\u2019re going to increase our recruiting and travel budgets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bamford made it clear the upgrade were coming and worked with Carvel to make multiple facility projects a priority, including what will be a $2 million investment this offseason to bring the UMass locker room and training facilities in hockey up to a standard that makes them competitive nationally.<\/p>\n

Now, after just five short seasons, UMass could be on the precipice of a level of greatness few could\u2019ve imagined such a short time ago. The Minutemen won the regular season Hockey East title in 2019, captured the postseason tournament this year with a 1-0 victory over sister school UMass Lowell last month.<\/p>\n

And now, the Minutemen, arguably playing as great hockey as anyone in the Frozen Four field, stand two wins away from a national title. That gives Bamford and so many associated with the program, a sense of great pride.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel so good for our kids and our coaches,\u201d said Bamford. \u201cI thought we had a legitimate shot last year prior to COVID. So to do it in a year where there\u2019s not as much high-end talent, to do it in a year like this, I\u2019m just so proud of our program, our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone who has listened to Massachusetts coach Greg Carvel over the last few years understands that the 2019 Spencer Penrose winner, given to the national coach of the year, has a plan. When he came to the Amherst, Mass., campus five years ago, success didn\u2019t play out right away, though no one should be surprised. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":127333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,1426],"tags":[812,1653],"coauthors":[800],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUMass AD Bamford\u2019s vision, Minutemen coach Carvel\u2019s approach quickly builds strong, national contender in Amherst - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anyone who has listened to Massachusetts coach Greg Carvel over the last few years understands that the 2019 Spencer Penrose winner, given to the national\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127696\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UMass AD Bamford\u2019s vision, Minutemen coach Carvel\u2019s approach quickly builds strong, national contender in Amherst - 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