“We want it to be a different year every year. We’re elevating. … Our hard work is paying off.” – Rivier women’s hockey coach Chris Czarnota after a win over JWU in late November.

Here we go again at Rivier University.

Another coach departs, and likely not of his own volition.

Certainly, that statement from now former Rivier women’s head ice hockey coach Chris Czarnota after an early season win doesn’t sound like a coach who was ready to jump ship, now, does it?

Now we’re not here to pass judgement. We don’t know what we don’t know. Word began to materialize that different coaches were running the last couple of hockey practices this week at Conway Arena, so something was up. On Thursday, the school told us what that was, saying Czarnota resigned, effective immediatley. With six games left of that hard work he was talking about? Doubt it.

And whether it was intended or not, this is part of Rivier’s athletic makeover. It’s the second time in just over a year a coach is out the door – for whatever the reasons are, we cannot speculate – before a season ends. Lance Bisson and the school he attended, played basketball for and then coached left last January with a month to go, and now Czarnota with about three weeks left in his campaign. In between, any part time coaches, gone. Men’s hockey coach Matt Keating, gone. Men’s soccer coach Hayden Barbosa, gone.

Not a great look.

“Certainly I can’t control that,” Harper said. “But what I can control is our actions as a staff, and the coaches on our coaching staff are commited to providing an improved experience year over year. We’re noticing an improvement year over year in all our programs, and that has to be our top priority.

“Perception is up to the individual. But I’m really proud of our program, where we’re going and where we’ve started from, building on that foundation.

“We’re just trying to move forward and provide the very best we can, providing upgrades in facilities to everything that’s going on on campus around here. We’re just looking for constant improvement in the student-athlete experience.”

There is no common theme with hockey,

Harper said, and he took the chance at that question to say he was “thrilled with the job (new coach) Shaun Millerick is doing on the men’s side.”

That’s what is a great look, the job some of the newbies that Harper has hired have done, especially in men’s basketball, baseball, women’s soccer, etc. Riv has targeted either assistants or head coaches who have come from successful programs, because winning attracts recruits, and recruits bring enrollment, etc.

Hockey has gone through the expected growing pains on the ice of a new program on both the men’s and women’s side. But the pitfalls off the ice have been too many. The coach originally hired for the men in December of 2020 – around the same time as Czarnota for the women – Eric Sorenson, left six months later to take a Division I assistant’s job at Holy Cross, and now after two years there he is an assistant just down the road at UMass Lowell. Enter Matt Keating, who coached for two full seasons, was thrilled last June that the program finally got into a conference, the MASCAC, and then was on a zoom call while on vacation in Florida a couple of weeks later and was told he was toast. And now Czarnota, despite a season of vast competitive improvement at 7-8-1. This probably isn’t what Rivier school president Sister Paula Marie Buley had in mind when she posed with a hockey mascot at a crowded news conference at the school’s new science building in October of 2020 to announce its two newest athletic programs. Or sat in the stands at a packed Conway Arena for the inaugural, and historic, hockey games in late October of 2021.

Rivier women’s hockey coach Chris Czarnota talks to his team during a game this past November. Czarnota and the school parted ways Thursday with six games left. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Again, we don’t know what we don’t know. Harper, once again to his credit, made himself available Thursday to answer what questions he could answer. And say no comment to those he couldn’t, even though he and the rest of the Rivier administration has to know this doen’t look good.

Not only did the school part ways with Czarnota, but with two of his three assistants as well. Harper pulled together, it seems, anyone on his staff who could skate, even if, in the situations for new softball coach Noelle Sass and Riv’s women’s lacrosse coach Maura Ellins, their preseason practices are underway.

“We’re looking to build programs,” Harper said, “not just be successful here or there. We want a sustainable model.”

But right now, unfortunate as it may be for all involved, that model needs some glue once again.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on X, formerly twitter, @Telegraph _TomK.

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