We stopped for an early dinner at Gannucci’s Italian restaurant in West Duluth, and owner and chef Bill Kalligher asked how my radio show is going. I told him it’s fun, and that the next day I was going to have Shannon Miller on the show for a live interview.

“Oh,” said Kalligher.  “She’s the women’s hockey coach at UMD, right?”

I told him he was correct, but that she has been terminated by athletic director Josh Berlo. Kalligher works such long hours, he’s a fan-from-a-distance. He hadn’t heard the latest news, and he was shocked, asking me to fill in the details. I told him athletic director Josh Berlo had announced that UMD’s budget was so short, the college wasn’t going to renew Miller’s contract.

“Well,” he said, “I don’t know anything about the team, but I have heard a lot about Shannon Miller. Does UMD have any idea what an impact she has? Everybody knows who Shannon Miller is.”

The longer we discussed it, the better his questions were, and the sillier I sounded repeating UMD’s reasoning for the midseason move. I understand that Miller is making $207,000 a year and that’s the highest in the country for a women’s hockey coach. I understand the need for cutbacks. It happens. But there are some elements of Berlo’s statement that don’t match Miller’s explanation of her surprise at the move.

Berlo said that the move had to be made now because the contracts for Miller and her staff are in June, and they’d automatically renew if the change wasn’t made now. Last I heard, December is half a year away from June.

My other biggest question to Berlo was that if the cutback was necessary, did UMD ever ask Miller if she would take the lesser amount to keep coaching? He repeated that certain contractual stipulations prevented him from negotiating a new deal with her.

Miller, however, points out that she spoke to both the chancellor, Lendley Black, and Berlo last summer and expressed several points, mainly that she grew up in a single-parent family and knows all about tight budgets, so if she had to take a reduced contract, she’d be willing to discuss it. Mainly, she stressed the desire to discuss it.

Next thing she heard was that her contract, and those of her staff, would not be renewed, meaning her time as coach of the UMD women’s hockey team ends when this season ends. At that point, Berlo will post the opening and conduct a nationwide search.

There are issues that keep boiling to the surface, and they include discrimination -- some say they have never heard of a men’s coach in any sport being fired because he was making too big a salary. Others are sexual discrimination -- all but one WCHA women’s hockey team has had a female coach at some time in the 15 years the league has played varsity women’s hockey, but UMD remains the only one that still has a female coach.

Miller created the UMD program 16 years ago, and with incredible tactical and people-handling skill, her Bulldogs won the first three NCAA tournaments ever held for women, and later won two more. Those five titles are the most of any team, with Minnesota and Wisconsin each having four.

Rumors were that outgoing chancellor Kathryn Martin gave Miller the large salary boost before she left, but Miller said that’s incorrect. “When we won our fifth NCAA championship, my staff and I willingly took a reduction in salary because the recession was hitting everyone,” Miller said. “One year later, the UMD men won their only NCAA championship, and the entire men’s staff got big increases.”

True, men’s coach Scott Sandelin moved up to $265,000 a year, passing Miller.  The explanation is that UMD’s men have moved up to elite caliber and Sandelin should be paid about what other coaches at that level make. But Miller was making more than the coaches at Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the school has said that even though Miller is rated among the best coaches in women’s hockey history, it cannot pay its women’s coach at the same rate as Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Sports fans and ordinary people around Duluth don’t much go to UMD women’s games, a problem throughout the league. Drawing 800-1,000 fans a game isn’t enough to make any money, especially compared to the UMD men’s team, which gets 6,000 a game and makes a lot of money. They are the only two Division I programs at the otherwise Division II college, and they require larger budgets.
 
After incredible success, UMD faltered the last couple of seasons. A few problems with European players gaining clearance to play caused UMD to suffer a downturn in talent in the past three years, but things seem to be bouncing back this season. After going 0-3-1 in the first four games against No. 2 Wisconsin and No. 1 Minnesota, the Bulldogs went into their month-long holiday break having won 12 of their last 13 games to move into contention in both the WCHA and NCAA.

When they come back to resume play in January, they will be coming off holiday vacation, and they will have to be wondering why the coach they came to UMD to be coached by is suddenly bigger news than the hockey team itself.

Area High Schools Having Banner Hockey Year

The big news of the week in high school sports is that Marshall has made the decision to move up from Class A to AA next season, and will play the big boys as a decidedly small-enrollment school.

It makes for interesting conjecture amid those fans of high school hockey who have been waiting for years for Marshall and Hermantown to make the move, just for the protection of the heritage of high school hockey up north.

Duluth East remains as Duluth’s lone AA team, with Cloquet-Esko-Carlton also playing AA, and Grand Rapids makes it three teams in Section 7AA. Trouble is, the section adds large schools from the northern Twin Cities suburbs to fill out its eight teams. Based on enrollment, Class A teams can move up, but Class AA teams cannot move down.

“You can only opt up every two years,” said Marshall coach Brendan Flaherty. “And you can choose to go back, but only every four years. We thought the timing was perfect right now for us to move up. It should give our school and our program a shot in the arm, with more exposure, and more interest, plus the chance to further develop our objectives.”

The Hilltoppers, who have the proud tradition of having an elite program back in the days when Marshall was Duluth Cathedral, wore throwback jerseys from the 1960s last Friday when they beat Rochester Lourdes 5-4. Ironically, star goaltender Alex Murray had a rocky night, giving up goals right to the end but hanging on for the victory.

The victory kept Marshall’s perfect record intact at 8-0. That’s remarkable because Marshall has played a tough schedule, and the school lost a couple of skilled players who transfered back to East and Denfeld before the school year started.


“We wish those players well, but I’m extremely proud of the guys in our locker room,” Flaherty said. “Our locker room is a good place to be. Ninety percent of our players have been at Marshall since ninth grade.”

Early victories over Grand Rapids, Breck and Roseville got Flaherty thinking how unlimited this year’s team’s potential might be. “We started against Roseville and we were down by three,” he said. “We scored three in the third and won 4-3 in overtime. I learned a lot about our kids that game.”

Marshall is host to its own holiday tournament this week, and while Flaherty said his players are excited about moving up to AA, he doesn’t want it to be a distraction to the task at hand this year in 7A. Arch-rivals Hermantown and Denfeld are both strong, and it will be a huge task for Marshall to beat them and reach the state tournament. Hermantown is ranked No. 1 in the state, although Marshall has kept winning and moved up to No. 2.
With Duluth East improving with a young team in AA, using great speed and balance to earn respect state wide, the Twin Ports area has its best overall strength in decades. Superior is also good, having given Duluth East a strong run before the Greyhounds won 4-3. But Denfeld stunned Superior 6-0 a week ago to flex its muscle.

Then There’s Ice-Racing

The International Ice Racing Association is still at it, racing in a wintertime series on various lakes throughout the Upper Midwest. The series begins next weekend (January 2-3) on Big Lake, near Cloquet.

All classes of cars are eligible, and they mount studded tires and churn wildly around a road-racing course carved into the snow atop the ice on frozen lakes. It is a captivating variety of motorsports, but beware -- if you go to see it, you will be enticed to get a set of those tires and try your own skill.

Great way to start the new year. Meantime, hope you all have a great holiday season.