Q: What's the difference between coaching the guys and coaching the girls?

A: I get that question a lot. They are very, very comparable. The girls want to do right by their teammates and the coaching staff and are very coachable almost to a fault. They will almost be too specific with what you tell them and forget about the other things they need to do. They come together as a team a lot easier than the guys do. They want to have a more cordial relationship with the coaching staff as opposed to the guys, where it's kind of a harder, sterner atmosphere to keep that intensity level up. The girls finds ways to get that finite intensity just knowing that you care about them.

Q: Coaches in other sports, such as basketball, have said guys tend to rely more on their athletic ability where girls are better at running set plays. Is it the same way in hockey?

A: Yeah, a little bit, and like I said, it's almost to a fault because sometimes they get very stuck in that system. So we've installed system-type things to give them structure, but then we also have to remind them that they also have to play the game and there's a lot of flow to the game. You try to find that healthy balance between the two and give them some options.

Q: You have a couple local players on the team but there aren't any girls' high school hockey teams around here, so what do you do for scouting? And, with that in mind, how is the girls' talent in this area?

A: The hockey community in the Pittsburgh area for girls has been growing pretty quickly and a lot of that has to do with the success of the Penguins, and the generation that's coming through. There are a lot of young girls who in the past never thought to pick up a hockey stick, now they are asking for Crosby, Malkin and Fleury jerseys and that's a huge part of it.

We tend to go out and look at club teams all over North America. In Ontario, it's a little more organized and they have some leagues that mirror kind of a junior structure, and there are a lot of tournaments all over. What you find is that girls are playing on one, two, maybe even three teams, but the community as a whole is still pretty spread out. So, you have girls in the area here, not enough teams to play in a Pittsburgh-exclusive league, but they're going to play in tournaments like the Connecticut Polar Bear Tournament and they ran a girls' tournament here [Island Sports Center] over Thanksgiving and they get teams from all over to come in.

Q: If you hear of an area girl who is playing on a boys' high school team, are you more likely to go watch her play?

A: We are not in a position to be particular. We'll go and watch anybody play whom we can get some eyes on. And the Pittsburgh group of kids who are coming up are a pretty skilled and talented group and we're pretty excited about the future of Pittsburgh hockey, let alone our program. There are some good kids who have been working very hard and have been playing a lot, and the coaching is getting better. But we don't typically go across country just to see a girl play on a boys' team, but here in town or if we're on a recruiting trip, we will.

Q: You mention coaching. Is there a big difference in the coaching level between the men's game and the women's game?

A: I think in the girls' game you have an awful lot of strategy and skill, not that there isn't strategy and skill in the guys' game, but when that breaks down, intensity, brawn and brute force is an equaling factor. So, we constantly have to be looking at what kind of skill development, what kind of player development are we doing and that occupies a lot of our time. Conditioning becomes a factor because you just can't recruit 6-foot-5 kids who can knock people off the puck. There isn't checking [in the women's college game] so you can't rely on it. We try to play a physical brand, but we have to make sure that everyone's on the same page.

Q: Is the women's game at the collegiate level more wide open?

A: I think so. It's skill-based, it's a skating game with structure. There are times in the guys' game -- you take a defenseman's position, which is hard to play anyway, and in the guys' game you can get away with having a thumper who's going to bang people around, but we don't have that luxury. Even our people who are a little bit more physical still have to be able to make a play, still have to be able to think or they get exposed quickly.

Q: Is it tougher to find girls who will be a little more physical on the ice?

A: I think that's kind of your personality. It tends to be the type of players you recruit. If you have players who just skate around and won't touch anybody, that's what you're going to get. We try to look for competitors, kids who care, kids who want to be here and want to get better.

Q: Do you see the women's game starting to take off in this area, much like it has with the guys' game in the high school and college level?

A: I think the quality is going to take a huge boost here in the next little bit. As far as at the collegiate level, sometimes it's a hard sell. Everybody wants to draw the comparisons between the guys and the girls and be able to say you're not as good as the guys. But you know what? There's a fan base there for women's basketball, which is clearly different from men's basketball. So, I think that's the same with us. We are going over some hurdles and making progress, but I think it's going to take a little bit of time. I think revenue is going to drive a lot of that because if another school wants to start hockey, and women's hockey in particular, it's a pretty expensive endeavour. And when you aren't really 100 percent certain you're going to have revenue to drive that, it's a risk.

Q: It seems like women's hockey is on the rise, right?

A: I think it will tend to stay on the rise, I just don't know how fast it will continue to grow.

Q: I'm sure you had a plan when you took over the team. Do you see it being a championship team down the road?

A: I think we are right on the cusp of it. I think we did have one-, three-, five- and 10-year plans put together for how we were going to continue to evolve. Part of that is recruiting and making sure you get a foothold in the recruiting community and my assistant coach, Scott Spencer, has been doing that and he's our head recruiter, and we are putting together classes that are coming in and each year are a little better and a little better. We're right on the horizon of landing a premier recruit who can change the dynamic of your team. We don't have the luxury of always going head-to-head against Wisconsin [for a recruit]. Occasionally, we'll take our chances and we're getting in there and kids are starting to narrow their lists to a final three, a final five and we're on that list. It's only going to take one or two [high-profile recruits] and it will start to take off.

Q: Isn't it like any other sport? You start to win and you have a chance with better recruits, right?

A: It makes it easier. What we've been doing to date is selling a plan and a vision of where we're going to get to and we are sincere in that, it's not smoke and we're not blowing smoke at kids. In the girls' community recruiting is a little bit different. You have parents who have a vested interest in their kids because it is such an expensive sport to play. I'm a parent myself and we sell the idea that we are going to take care of your kid and help them grow up.

Q: Do you feel like you're finally starting to get the word out about the women's program?

A: Anybody [girl] who is within a two- or three-hour radius, we're it. And, again, we have to be able to prove ourselves on the ice and get it done and I think we are on the verge of that. We've already done that a couple times this year ... we've beaten Minnesota. Our schedule gets a little bit tougher each year. We'll lose some seniors to graduation and we haven't finalized our schedule for next year, but it'll be the toughest to date.

Q: Can one outstanding player change the whole dynamic of the team?

A: Yeah, it can, provided you have all the other pieces right. A couple years ago Mercyhurst landed Megan Agosta, one of the best players in Canada, one of the best players in the world, and had a really solid foundation of kids who had been around ... a lot of senior leadership and she put them over the top. The other thing that's different in girls' athletics than the guys is that the girls who play together as a team often time can beat the skill.

There's a team concept that often carries you over the top. When you throw an individual in there who's a little better than everybody else, it can cultivate a little bit of jealously in the locker room, some turmoil, and that can throw the team concept out the window. Every girl we talk to we say we believe it's the team that's going to get it done, not one individual. Sometimes it's a slippery slope ... it has to be the right kid.

Q: About fan following, do you get decent crowds?

A: It has grown and that's a little of us getting out into the community, the girls' hockey community. Because there's so much travel in the girls' hockey community for the youth teams, they're often playing at the same time we are. But during the tournament that we had here, we had sellouts both nights so both nights were great atmospheres. It comes with time and it comes with winning ... people want to get behind a winner.

Q: The other thing Robert Morris seems to have going is the Island Sports Center. It's a nice facility and I would think it would impress a recruit when you bring them in, right?

A: For us relative to other places around the country, we can get it done. We are lucky to have the building ... the facilities.

Q: How about your team?

A: The best thing about our team is not so much the play on the ice but the quality of our kids. We've got great kids who are always out in the community. They raised nearly $10,000 for breast cancer this year, and our kids care and they get good grades. To be honest, they deserve to have people come and sit and watch and cheer because they are good kids.