Kudos to Freddie!!!

[Falcon Fanatic]

Others on this board have mentioned some of idiotic posts that people form other schools have put on USCHO regarding Jordan getting sympathy votes for the Hobey. One of our own, Freddie, posted this. It's a phenomenal read!!

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From Freddie (posted on USCHO):
I'm going to try to sum up the rationale behind the effort from BG fans in support of Jordan Sigalet for Hobey. I'm not going to waste any time or space quoting from previous posts, but will, when necessary, paraphrase instead.

BG's once proud hockey program had laid dormant for a number of years. Six straight losing seasons, no NCAA appearences in 15 years, declining attendence...a vicious cycle of: can't recruit top talent to a struggleing program...without top talent the program will struggle. It's way to easy to lay all the blame at the feet of the head coach, but he took his lumps, and a new coach came on board for the 2002-03 season.

Without going in to a bunch of technical detail, let me just say that Paluch and Powers are very dissimilar...they have contrasting styles and employ different tactics. Many amoung the longtime BG faithful (altho we hoped for the best) were preparred for several years to pass before we started to see real progress. Jordan Sigalet has been our 'bridge'. While the team learned to adapt to the new coach's expectations and style of play, Siggy quietly went about the business of keeping us in games, even when (AND THIS IS A KEY POINT) even when we had no business being in those games.

Ask any CCHA coach what concerns they had when facing BG in '02/03 or '03/04, and they'd say "Jordan Sigalet." We've seen SO MANY games where we're out-shot 45-25, but we're still hanging around...it's been unreal. Too often when one key player 'carries' a team, that player will cop an attitude. Never happened with Siggy, and it never will. He's a fierce competitor, never satisfied with anything less than his best effort...and yet his manner is quiet and low key. He leads by example...his teammates would walk through fire for him, and it A'INT GOT A FREAKIN THING TO DO WITH M.S.!!!

This year's sophomore class (the first class recruited by Paulch's staff) was small in number, but long on talent. Progress. The team grew and improved all season, and while they were learning and adjusting to a totally new system, there was Jordan...leading the nation in saves, keeping us in games. This year's freshman class brought in the best fresh talent we've seen in MANY YEARS. Without Jordan's solid play over the past two years, could we have made the progress we have? Without that progress, how many of this year's freshmen would have given BG any serious consideration? "Recruits Attracted" is not a stat you'll find listed anywhere...but those of us who've had the pleasure of watching this change unfold know that Siggy has been key to the process.

Last spring there was grumbling on this board that Jordan was over-rated in the Perani Cup because (to paraphrase) he played on such a weak team that nobody else ever earned any nightly 'stars'. I didn't make up the rules for the Perani Cup, and I'm reasonably certain the BG athletic department didn't have any input on them either. According to my calculations, he earned more stars on the road than he did at home, so you can't even shout 'homer'. Well now his team is vastly improved, and he's still way out in front for the Perani Cup...could it be because people who know hockey recognize talent when they see it? No, it couldn't be that...people just shower praise on him because they feel sorry for the poor sick kid. BULL CRAP!!!

There were even louder grumblings (from a couple of the same sources) when Jordan earned first team all CCHA honors last year. Of course he only won because the two 'deserving' candidates (Montoya and Kowalski) split the vote, right? Twelve CCHA coaches cast ballots, and Jordan was selected. Do you suppose that those twelve hockey professionals might possibly know a thing or two about hockey?...or were they influenced by BG's agressive marketing campaign to vote for the guy with a tragic disease? That's some marketing campaign!... especially when you consider that the votes were taken before he was diagnosed.

Now let's get to the matter of the Hobey. If you have not already done so, I'd strongly suggest you go to Hobeybaker.com and actually READ the criteria. Character. Sportsmanship. Leadership. Scholorship. Hockey skills. There's no reference to any objective measurement or statistical standard. The press compares it to football's Heisman because that award has more name recognition amoung the casual sports fan. We (uscho posters) are not CASUAL hockey fans...we ought to know what the award is for, and ought to respect its true meaning.

Neither the BG Athletic Department nor I had any input on the decision to open a part of the selection process to the fans. We didn't choose to allow people to cast daily ballots, and we didn't leave the door open for people to cast multiple ballots by using different e-mail addresses. We just followed the rules, and make no appologies. If there are people out there who voted for him because of his condition, I can't help it...but I'm quite certain that if those votes could somehow be weeded out, Jordan would gladly give them back.

If you think someone else is more qualified, vote for 'em. Do it every day from every e-mail address you have access to. I'll do the same, and when the fan's votes are given 1/50th of the final vote weight, we'll see if any of this even mattered.

I am truely disturbed by the inference that our Athletic Department is "shamelessly promoting" Jordan 'BECAUSE HE HAS M.S." That is NOT the case, and anyone who says it is, is badly misinformed or purposely distorting the truth. Jordan made the decision to go public about his condition. Not the coaches, administration or some public relations guru.

His lifelong dream is to play in the NHL (assuming there is any such thing, anymore). He simply refuses to beleive that this illness is going to keep him from that goal. He knows that nearly half a million people in the US and Canada are affected with some form of MS, and that many of them have lost hope. As he came to grips with his own condition, he felt it was his duty to go public. Somewhere out there is another young man or woman close to losing hope. Perhaps they see what Jordan's accomplishing, and are inspired to not give up. HOPE!!!

Character...........CHECK
Sportsmanship........CHECK
Leadership......CHECK
Scholarship........CHECK
Hockey skills......CHECK


Shameless promotion: SIGGY FOR HOBEY!

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Here's the original thread if you want to read it all. Several lpeople have applauded it already. Well done, Freddie!!!!
http://board.uscho.com/showthread.php?t=46625

[Falconfreak90]

WOW!!! *STANDING OVATION!!!!*

Nice job, Freddie.

[SaxyIrishTenor]

What were the responses on that board to his post??

[TG1996]

What were the responses on that board to his post??

I haven't read, but my educated guesses would be:

"F*ck BG!"
"Yeah, but he still has MS"
"I like cheese"
and... "Uh...duh...ummm... GO BUCKS!"


(the latter followed be feverish high fives, and a warm sense of accomplishment.)

[UK Peregrine]

Awesome piece of work!!!

[FliccGirl]

Actually, most of the responses to Freddie's post on that board are the same type as on this board!

[bgbill]

Freddie, thank you so much for taking the time to compose that post. I certainly have the same viewpoint as you, but didn't want to take the time to make any response to the obvious jerk who questioned Jordan's worthiness. Frankly, the more I thought about what to write, the more angry I got that we even had to dignify the stupidity that person was displaying. I thought if I just ignored him, he'd go away. 'Course, then he started ranting about Jonathan.

I really feel sorry for those college hockey fans who have never had the opportunity to watch Jordan perform, and to see how cordial he is to anyone who wants to talk to him after a game. I hope the underclassmen are taking note that you can be a great player without being a prima donna.

[Falcon Fanatic]

Freddie, thank you so much for taking the time to compose that post. I certainly have the same viewpoint as you, but didn't want to take the time to make any response to the obvious jerk who questioned Jordan's worthiness. Frankly, the more I thought about what to write, the more angry I got that we even had to dignify the stupidity that person was displaying. I thought if I just ignored him, he'd go away. 'Course, then he started ranting about Jonathan.

I really feel sorry for those college hockey fans who have never had the opportunity to watch Jordan perform, and to see how cordial he is to anyone who wants to talk to him after a game. I hope the underclassmen are taking note that you can be a great player without being a prima donna.

I agree, bgbill!! Freddie took the time to post what most of us wanted to say and already know about Jordan and the kind of player and person he is!! And the underclassmen couldn't have a better role model to follow!!!

Hope the Broncos hit a STONE WALL both nights every time they shoot the puck!!! This weekend is for JORDAN!!!!

GO BG!!
BUST THE BRONCOS!!!

[FindlayFalcon]

As I posted on USCHO, Freddie said what a LOT of us wanted to say but couldn't put the words together as well as he did. The guy from OSU is a total jerk. I "yelled" at him on another USCHO thread when he started this whole thing but of course, he found an excuse for saying what he did. Thanks again, Freddie. All I can say is "WHAT HE SAID!!!"

[Falcon Commander]

WOW !!

BEAUTIFUL !!

GREAT JOB !!

[bacn3]

Wow all i can say is wow that was awesome.