By Eric Avidon, Daily News Staff
It begins with attitude.
The Framingham State men's hockey team has been about as bad as
a team can be for a while now, since the early part of this decade.
The Rams won 12 games in 2003-04, but after that the victory total
declined each year to six in 2004-05, five the following year, two
in 2006-07, one two years ago and then rock bottom last year - not
a single victory.
Coach Chris Heaney left after the end of last season with just
eight wins in his four seasons at the helm.
In stepped T.J. Brown, who had been an assistant under Heaney
for two years. And while he couldn't overhaul the talent in one
fell swoop, one thing he could do immediately was change the
attitude that had crept into the program through all the losing
seasons.
Before he could train the players' bodies to be better hockey
players, he had to change their minds.
"The first thing was to change the general attitude," Brown
said. "Losing was accepted. In my first meeting with the captains,
I let them know that losing wasn't an option. They needed someone
to tell them that they can win."
Brown knows what he's talking about. He played his high school
hockey at Framingham and went on to UMass-Dartmouth. But he wasn't
given a scholarship - there was no guaranteed spot on the team. He
was a walk-on, yet scored 77 career goals for the Corsairs and
added 78 assists. At the time he graduated, the player who had to
try out as a freshman was the leading scorer in ECAC Northeast
history.
"In the past, some of the kids playing in the program were just
happy to say that they were playing college hockey," said Brown.
"This year, I let them know that this is not youth hockey, that
they need to make the effort both on and off the ice. The captains
had a good fall with the team with off-ice workouts.
"The effort is there, which is a positive sign, and that wasn't
necessarily there in the past."
There's no miracle on the ice taking place at Framingham State,
where the Rams are 1-8-1. Turnarounds of the magnitude Brown and
his staff - assistants Adam Bouchard and Don Pacific - are
attempting take time. When you're as bad as possible - absolutely
winless for an entire season - a better outlook doesn't immediately
translate into a slew of victories, but it's a place to begin.
"The point of taking over the program was to turn it around,"
said Brown. "I don't see why in two, three or four years we can't
be a legitimate playoff team. I still think we can be a playoff
team this year, and I look for us to be a playoff contender year in
and year out."
Regarding the way the team has bought into his demand for a
better outlook, there's been some success. Again, however, when no
player on the roster has won more than two games in a season since
arriving at Framingham State, it takes some time.
"For the most part (they have had a better attitude)," said
Brown. "Some of them are so accustomed to losing that when they
give up a goal they think the worst. I preach staying on an even
keel, that they need to stay on an even keel regardless of what
happens. They have to remember the positives and get better from it
and forget the negative."
Framingham State, which last played on Dec. 12 (a loss to
Becker) and won't play its next game until Jan. 7 against
Assumption, won a game on Nov. 21. The Rams, who hadn't tasted
victory since Dec. 4, 2007, beat Worcester State 5-3, ending a span
of nearly two winless years. Five losses followed that first win,
but Brown is seeing positive signs.
"It was a really good win for the guys," he said. "They've been
in a lot of battles, so there was some relief. It helped them to
realize that we have the talent to beat some of those teams, that
we just have to put it together."
There are 14 games left on the schedule for Framingham State,
and all but two are in MASCAC play. The Rams' one win was over a
MASCAC opponent, and in six conference games they've only been
blown out once. Brown hopes that given how close Framingham State
has come against league opposition, and how many conference games
remain, that the Rams can move into one of the top four positions
in the six-team league and make the playoffs. Fourth place right
now is 1-4-1 UMass Dartmouth.
If they do have more success in the second half of the season,
it will be in large part because of players like senior Joe Hurley,
who leads the team with 12 points (7 goals, 5 assists), and fellow
senior Jason Anderson, who has 10 points (5 goals, 5 assists). In
addition, freshmen defenseman Nick Calma has made a major
contribution, and junior goaltender Terence Sullivan has been huge.
"If we can bring in some guys on the recruiting trail, within
two or three years I don't see why we can't be the top team in the
league," said Brown. "We've got a good base group. We just need a
couple more guys."
But until the arrival of those players - the ones Brown hopes
will take Framingham State forward as he tries to rebuild the Rams
from the very bottom up - and before the victories come one after
the other, the first thing that must change is the mindset. In
Brown's program, losing cannot be accepted, and there must be
effort. There haven't been many wins yet, but there has been a
different outlook.
"In past years some guys were hard workers," he said, "but some
guys were the opposite. This year, the ... effort has been great."
It begins with attitude.
