April 19, 2006
RPI Impressed With Appert So Far
CHN Staff Report
TROY, N.Y. — Two Rensselaer players and athletic director Ken Ralph met with the media Wednesday to discuss the hiring of Denver assistant Seth Appert as the head coaching successor to Dan Fridgen.
Appert will be officially introduced at a news conference on the RPI campus Friday at 8 p.m.
Other than a meeting with Appert during the interview process, RPI players are not that familiar with the 31-year old former Ferris State goaltender. But so far, they like what they have seen and heard.
"It's a new beginning here," said Kirk MacDonald, who sat out all of last season recovering from testicular cancer but will return for his senior year. "I don't know a whole lot about the guy. But everybody who's spoke about him and met him said he's an outstanding coach. He knows what he's talking about. He's a great recruiter. He's young. There isn't any negatives at this point."
Brad Farynuk, a senior who will be graduating next month, agreed.
"In what [time] I've spoken with him, he's one of the most enthusiastic and energetic young coaches I've ever met," Farynuk said. "He's exciting. I want to put my gear on right now and play for him."
Ralph said it was crucial for him to find someone from a winning environment. Appert was a part of two national championship teams at Denver, in 2004 and 2005. That gives him a lot of experience despite his young age.
"Our alums were very clear with me," Ralph said. "Their big criteria that they wanted is that they wanted a winner, somebody that's experienced winning and somebody who knows how to bring a winner's attitude into our locker room. And I think we found that."
This week, it came to light that Ralph had first offered the job to former NHL coach Andy Murray, who was let go by the L.A. Kings last month, the same day Fridgen stepped down. Murray declined the offer, and Ralph turned to Appert. But Ralph said the selection of the "second choice" should not be viewed negatively.
"There's no way he is anybody's second choice," Ralph said. "Yeah, we actively talked to Andy Murray about the position. We've never hidden that fact. We didn't hide it from Seth, either. He knew he was in the process. It was only a matter of time [that] he was going to be a head coach in Division I in the relatively near future. I feel real good that he's going to be the coach here."
Appert received a four-year deal, the terms of which have yet to be disclosed.
"It's highly competitive within our league," said Ralph. "Comfortably in the upper half of our league."
Thanks to Ken Schott of the Schenectady (N.Y.) Gazette for his contribution to this report.
There aren't any comments yet for this article. Add a comment in the form on the left.
