Coach searches take different paths

On March 8, Princeton men's hockey coach Len Quesnelle '88 was fired amidst growing dissatisfaction within the Department of Athletics and among the team's players. Quesnelle compiled a four-year record of 29-84-11, including only eight wins over the past two seasons.

The search for a new hockey coach, which officially concluded two months later with the hiring of Guy Gadowsky on May 7, stood in marked contrast with the rapidity with which Princeton replaced former men's basketball head coach John Thompson III '88. Just one day after Thompson announced his decision to take the Georgetown head coaching position, Joe Scott '87 was presented as his replacement.

If anything, this speed in replacing a coach was the exception rather than the norm. Coaching searches usually follow a thorough process in which the open position's availability is advertised, a diverse pool of candidates are encouraged to apply, and a variety of names and resumés are evaluated.

Program favoritism

The disparity in time between the two coaches' replacements has left the athletic department open to criticism of program favoritism. While the hockey team experienced a coaching vacuum, two talented recruits who had made verbal commitments to attend Princeton decided to pursue offers elsewhere.

Nick Dodge and Jean-Francois Boucher, highly touted Canadian players, both rescinded their intentions to play for Princeton and decided to go to Clarkson and Yale, respectively, both ECAC rivals of the Tigers. Dodge, an imposing 5-foot, 10-inch, 175-pound center from Oakville, Ontario, piloted his team, the Oakville Blades, to the Junior A West Conference Championship this past year.

Boucher, a 6'0,'' 195-lb. forward from Rosemere, Quebec, would have added a sniper threat to the Tiger offense and provided a much-needed physical presence on the ice. Although he was extremely interested in Princeton and its hockey program and had planned to enroll, Dodge was discouraged and frustrated by his inability to get in touch with the athletic department about the status of the coaching situation.

"I wanted to go to a place where I'd be comfortable with all the players and coaches," Dodge said. "I made a commitment to Len [Quesnelle] because I felt comfortable with him. When he was fired, no coach was named, and I didn't hear anything from the athletic department. I wasn't sure I wanted to go to a place where everything was up in the air."

Walters acknowledged the difficulty of the situation.

"Sometimes when you have transitions, there is some collateral damage," he said. "I don't want to hold somebody to a commitment that was made with a set of circumstances that are no longer in place. We've rarely had kids change their minds when there's been a coaching change. But the uncertainty of not having a coach may be such a tipping point for a particular individual that he or she wants to choose another school."

The search for a new basketball coach did not follow this approach, in part because the Princeton program possesses a distinct history, necessitating a search for potential coaches from a small subset of individuals that share those values.

"The Princeton basketball program is a sui generis program; it's unique; it's one of a kind," Director of Athletics Gary Walters said. "When you're conducting a national search for this team, you need to find someone who understands the Princeton system, who is a product of the system and who has been trained to see the game a certain way."

Therefore, it was critical that the new head coach be committed to maintaining the renowned "Princeton offense." Scott, a three-year starter and former assistant coach at Princeton who finished fourth in the Associated Press National Coach of the Year voting this year after leading Air Force to the NCAA tournament, was a logical choice to replace Thompson.

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The hockey team, however, did not need to find a coach who would preserve a stylistic tradition — it needed a coach who could turn around a languishing program. As the only Division I school that was looking for a hockey coach at the time, Princeton's traditional national search strategy was judged the most efficacious in attracting the highest caliber applicants.

Undoubtedly, this year will be a rebuilding one for the Princeton hockey program. Although the Tigers could have used the talents of the two lost recruits in this process, the current task is to restore confidence and stability to the team. This falls not only to the more experienced players on the Princeton squad, but also to Gadowsky.