Robert Morris hockey players feel 'double crossed,' doubt school's sincerity about reinstatement plan

The Robert Morris men’s and women’s hockey programs are about to enter another postseason overtime period.

The clock isn’t reading 20 minutes. It’s reading four months.

For a second time, Robert Morris University officials have given both teams nothing more than a foggy possibility as to whether they will be reinstated.

The only clarity is that if the teams do return to action, it won’t be this season. And if they do get reinstated for 2022-23, they may not find out until mid-December.

That’s the latest development in what has become a three-month rollercoaster for players, coaches, alumni and boosters of the Colonials program. It’s a saga that took another twist Thursday with an announcement that the hockey programs would be paused for at least one year with no assurance that they’ll be brought back again thereafter.

Another delay

On May 26, the RMU board and president Chris Howard surprisingly cut the successful hockey programs.

A group of supporters formed the Pittsburgh College Hockey Foundation to raise funds in an effort to save the teams, and a batch of players hired renowned sports attorney Jeffrey Kessler and an attorney for many Cleveland-based athletes, Kevin Spellacy, to represent them.

In the wake of that development, the university gave the team a two-week reprieve on July 14. The challenge from the school was to raise “sufficient additional funds by July 31 to bring the teams back and position them to be financially sustainable for the foreseeable future — with an overall fundraising goal of $7 million over the next five years.”

At the time, the deadline was put into place because RMU allegedly needed to notify the NCAA by that point if the school planned on having hockey teams.

That deadline came and went with inaction from the school. The next communication from RMU officials came Thursday in a press release that stated the school would be “eyeing a comeback in 2022-23.”

“Eyeing a comeback” is a long way from a guarantee of reinstatement. And it’s a shaky plank to walk for those who remain with the programs given the lack of transparency from the administration and its stall-and-starve tactics.

RMU athletic director Chris King already admitted to the student-athletes on a Zoom call that a decision was reached to scuttle the programs at least two weeks before players were informed.

From there, university officials did little to engage in plans with Penguins president and CEO David Morehouse and hockey rink magnate Murry Gunty, both of whom wanted to brainstorm ideas to keep the teams afloat. They had to be prodded by the PCHF to engage in their so-called “partnership” to fundraise in July.

All the while, players from both rosters were desperately transferring to new schools and the coaches were disappearing, culminating with women’s coach Paul Colontino taking a job outside of Rochester with Bishop Kearney Select Academy last week.

At the time of Colontino’s departure, he estimated four or five women remained with the Colonials program. On the men’s side, Derek Schooley said Thursday he thought he may be able to cobble together 14 to 16 from last year’s squad if the team was going to play this season.

Now he may have to entirely reboot for 2022-23. That’s if Schooley decides — or is allowed — to stay.

The school’s press release stated, “RMU will in the coming weeks hire head coaches for both the men’s and women’s teams.”

So, technically, it appears Schooley has to reinterview for his job, even though he’s maintained the function of the position since May. On Thursday, King said Schooley is the “first and only choice” for the job in his mind. And Schooley sounds like he is willing to rebuild the program from scratch, as he did when the program launched in 2003-04.

“I’ve been here from the start,” Schooley said Thursday. “We’ve built this from nothing to where we are today. And I’d want to be part of building it back up to where we were.”

‘Double crossed’

On Thursday, players questioned the university’s tactics, sincerity and math when it comes to the potential for reinstatement.

“I’ve felt double-crossed the whole time,” men’s player Geoff Lawson said. “There have been hopeful tasks that they have given us, and we have completed the tasks. Then they’ll give us another issue. I have no doubt, come Dec. 15, they are going to find another reason to delay their decision a little bit more and try to gouge a little bit more money out of the public.”

One of those “issues” Lawson mentioned appears to be Title IX. Because the women’s team is beyond the point of reconstructing in time for the 2021 season, King said the school consulted with “outside Title IX counsel” and “it was determined to reinstate one team without the other wasn’t the best path forward.”

That’s odd, seeing as how when the programs launched, they did so with the men beginning play in 2003-04 and the women beginning a year later. So why couldn’t the men’s team reconvene this season with the women coming back in 2022-23?

“Would a Title IX lawsuit be successful? Very unlikely,” former RMU athletic director Craig Coleman told me Thursday. “Especially if the stated goal is to bring the women back. But would they have to defend themselves? Very likely.”

Coleman, who navigated Title IX issues often while leading the department, said that even ex-players from the women’s team who have left for other programs could sue based on Title IX. But Michaela Boyle, an ex-RMU player who has transferred to Boston College, said she wouldn’t be part of such an action.

“If the men’s team can have a team, they deserve to play,” Boyle said. “If (the administration) is going blame the fact that there are insufficient amounts of players on (the women’s) team as to why no one should have a team, that’s stupid.”

Boyle added that if the administration’s goal was to essentially use Title IX as a shield for the school and as a way to divide the teams, it won’t work.

“If anything, this whole process has brought us closer together,” she said.

Numbers don’t add up

The other source of frustration for the players and PCHF is the floating fundraising bullseye.

Howard said in May that the cost to keep both programs afloat for 2021-22 would be roughly $1 million. In its announcement Thursday, RMU revealed “$754,000 in pledges payable in 2021-22” had been raised, adding that the total was “about half what is needed to fund the teams for one year.”

I’m no math major, but—for simply the first year—$754,000 is more than half of $1 million originaly stated back in May. Also, now we’re only talking about funding the men for 2021-22 anyway.

What changed between May and August that made the cost of funding both teams suddenly approximately $500,000 more expensive? Where exactly did that $1.4 million for five years referenced in the university’s latest news release originate?

And if the goal is to have “$1.4 million in immediate contributions and another $1.4 million in pledges,” aren’t people more likely to donate if one of the teams is actively skating?

Wouldn’t someone be more willing to write a check that helps keep a program — which actually exists — alive instead of the nebulous theory of one that maybe, possibly might restart someday?

“That’s really a question for the university leadership,” King said.

Yes, it is. Perhaps King would be so kind as to pass it along.

Legal change of course

If there was an error made by the PCHF and the coalition of players who hired legal reps, it may have been failing to sue right away. Or at least being as patient with their university counterparts as they were.

That nuclear option probably would’ve blown up any hope of a season in late June, not to mention whatever funds they did raise would’ve ended up in legal fees, so they eventually could’ve won a case but had no cash left to sustain the program.

Yet here they are anyway.

Regardless, holding the legal hammer now does little in terms of hockey. Students will be returning to school in a few weeks. Games are supposed to start in October. And the Colonials could only ice half a men’s roster at this point.

So if they sue, they’d likely be suing for civil damages, not seeking an injunction to resume play for this year or the long term.

In the case of Spellacy, he is representing his son, Aidan, who would’ve been a full scholarship player at RMU this season. But he is not getting the same package after transferring to St. Cloud. Boyle is under similar circumstances following her transfer to Boston College.

“Economic damage. Personal damage. Psychological damage. I’m contemplating what I’m going to do next,” Kevin Spellacy said.

Not to mention travel. Housing. Moving expenses. Lease breaks. That could be a hefty chunk of change for RMU to absorb.

“My parents are keeping tabs on every dollar that’s being spent,” Boyle said.

Meanwhile, Kessler doesn’t appear to be giving up on seeing the teams in uniform. “My clients are assessing what is the best means to ensure that the teams will be restored next season and thrive thereafter,” he said.

That could be driving a wedge between the board and Howard. To that end, a Change.org petition to remove Howard as president has been started and circulated by some of the players.

If things have gotten this bad, how can the PCHF expect to operate in good faith with the university moving forward? PCHF member and RMU hockey alum Logan Bittle said they’ll have to hope for the best.

“Our goal was to get the programs back and reinstated,” Bittle said. “There have been a lot of great people who have made this happen so far.”

So maybe that overtime hockey analogy was the wrong one to make. Maybe it’s more like extra time in soccer.

You just keep running around, trying to win, even though you have no idea when the clock is going to expire.

Either way, if the Colonials teams don’t make it back, this will have been anything but sudden death.