{"id":22897,"date":"2000-10-02T09:07:13","date_gmt":"2000-10-02T14:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2000\/10\/02\/season-preview-colgate-red-raiders\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:53:56","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:53:56","slug":"season-preview-colgate-red-raiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2000\/10\/02\/season-preview-colgate-red-raiders\/","title":{"rendered":"Season Preview: Colgate Red Raiders"},"content":{"rendered":"
“At Colgate this year we are going to find out what life is like after Andy McDonald,” head coach Don Vaughan said. “You just don’t replace a guy like that.”<\/p>\n
You certainly don’t replace a guy like McDonald. An All-American, Hobey Baker finalist and ECAC Player of the Year, McDonald captained last season’s Colgate squad to one of the most successful finishes in Red Raider history. But as with any collegiate program, student-athletes graduate: such was the case for McDonald and six other Red Raiders. That would make a lot of coaches nervous, but not Vaughan.<\/p>\n
“We graduated six very good players, yet we still have nine seniors on this year’s team,” he said. “So we are top heavy with older guys. However a lot of these guys haven’t had the opportunity to play in the big roles on your team and be the go-to guys. We’ll see how some of them face that challenge this year.”<\/p>\n
A team laden with seniors with playoff experience is a team to envy in this day and age, but the coaches in the ECAC seem to have a little bit of a different view, picking the Red Raiders to finish sixth in the preseason poll. The Red Raiders did pick up three first-place votes in the preseason media poll.<\/p>\n
“The media gave us three first-place votes and I don’t think we’re quite there yet,” said Vaughan. “It’s a catch-22. It’s tough to be the frontrunner, and it always seems easier to come from the middle of the pack. We can’t get caught up looking at polls and [at] last year.”<\/p>\n
But nonetheless, a team with seniors can’t be overlooked, especially on the forward side, where the Red Raiders have seven seniors and two juniors. Leading the charge is Sean Nolan (19-18–37).<\/p>\n
“You expect guys to step up and that’s the nature of the game,” said Vaughan of Nolan. “He played basically on one leg last season and he’s somebody we’ll turn to time and time again this season offensively and in the locker room.”<\/p>\n