LetsGoDU

A Young Man's Game
Appert brings energy to RPI


(left) Old Baby Blue Eyes returns to DU this weekend


From: Times-Union
By PETE IORIZZO, Staff writer
October 13, 2006

Troy, NY - As a rambunctious kindergartner, Seth Appert spent his early mornings on skates, gliding across the frozen channels of the Mississippi River that twisted behind his family's Minnesota home. Playing hockey with his brothers, he used an arrangement of six hay bales as a net and, in lieu of a goaltender, propped a motorcycle in the crease.

During summers, he pulled on his baseball jersey, concocted bases from whatever he found around the house, then danced across his makeshift diamond, playing imaginary innings against fantasyland opponents. In fall, a hand-held football game occupied him for hours, especially after he devised a complicated scoring system, then tried, over and over, to beat his top mark.

He was competitive. He was energetic. He was innovative beyond his years.

He was not much different from the 32-year-old man who will stand behind the bench Saturday night for his first regular-season game as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute men's hockey coach, a man whose stated mission is to restore this rigorous academic institution's only Division I athletic program to national prominence.

Even while shouldering such very adult pressure -- coaching a once-storied program that produced two national championships and several NHL stars -- Appert promises to pursue his goal with the vigor of a 5-year-old firing pucks at hay bales.

"To a lot of people, I might be too young," said Appert, his boyish face and baby blue eyes making every word ring truer. "People can think what they want to think. I know in my heart I was ready to take this step."

Those who know and coached with Appert agree, noting his credentials supersede those of most coaches his age: nine years as an assistant with Denver, where he won two national championships; a reputation as a top-notch goaltending coach who found, then developed, several future NHL players; a master recruiter whose eye for talent is matched only by his charm.

For RPI, the blend of youth and experience, savvy and energy played well, especially given the program's recent stagnation. Though reminders of national championships and past stars such as Joe Juneau and Adam Oates hang in Houston Field House in the form of banners, the program hardly resembles that which won a title in 1985. Last year under Dan Fridgen, a 12-year coach who won and lost more games than any in program history, the team finished 14-17-6 and fell in the first round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey League playoffs.

"I think we can have success here," Appert said. "It's going to take time for the players to get acclimated to how we want to play. Obviously it takes time over a four-year period to bring in the recruits that play the style we want. But I think with the young men we have in our program right now, we can have success, no question."

Some of this appears familiar to Appert. At age 23, he had just started as an assistant at Denver, which was coming off an 11-win season. Worse, because the school was in the process of building a new rink on campus, the team hopped from rink to rink for home games, making it difficult to recruit talented players capable of reversing the losing record.

Appert, though, found such a player.

Overlooked throughout high school and junior hockey, goaltender Adam Berkhoel caught Appert's attention a year before Berkhoel's breakout season in the United States Hockey League, the top junior league in America. By the time the rest of college hockey noticed, Berkhoel had committed to Denver. As a senior in 2004, he backstopped the Pioneers to their first national championship in 35 years.

"He's one of the many guys Seth identified that may not have been on anyone's radar screen," said George Gwozdecky, Denver's head coach. "To be able to maintain a strong recruiting class through all our trying times was really a testament to Seth."

Appert honed his eye for goaltending through experience. He played the position since age 8, taking to it for the same reasons he played running back in football and catcher in baseball -- the position afforded the greatest outlet for his energy and maximum control of the game, a necessity to satiate his competitive drive.

Appert, a charismatic, extroverted kid accustomed to being captain of his teams and president of classes, played goaltender true to his personality, flopping and diving for pucks while becoming known across the state for dashing to the blue line to intercept passes. Central Collegiate Hockey Association coaches still joke that he's the only goaltender in league history to receive and serve a 10-minute misconduct penalty.

Because of his unorthodox style, Appert knew his goaltending career would never continue far beyond Ferris State, where, in mostly a backup role, he never finished with a goals-against average below 4.29. In other words, he was a terrible goalie.

At 22 and unsure how he planned to make a living, he accepted a job as a volunteer assistant, first at Ferris, then at Denver. In his early years with the Pioneers, he worked 40 hours a week as a coach, took a full course load toward his master's degree and, to make money, worked at a hockey store, where his duties sometimes included stocking shelves after midnight.

"There are days when we wouldn't see him because he was so busy," said former Denver assistant coach and current Miami (Ohio) head coach Rico Blasi, who roomed with Appert in Denver. "But he always paid his rent on time."

In his nine years as a Denver assistant, Appert never applied for a head-coaching job. But, sensing an opportunity at RPI and wondering if he had any more left to accomplish at Denver, he decided to make his move.

Not knowing that RPI athletic director Ken Ralph already tabbed him as one of 12 candidates to replace Fridgen, Appert, in Rochester on a recruiting trip, called Ralph to set up a meeting and a tour of campus. Ralph agreed. They spent a day strolling campus, and at the end, Appert said, "Ken, I want this job."

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Appert instantly climbed Ralph's list. He was one of three candidates interviewed on a conference call with high-ranking RPI administrators. Again, at the end of the phone interview, Appert reiterated his earlier statement to Ralph. He said: "I want everyone to understand, and make no mistake about this, I want this job. This is the only job I applied for. I want this one."
Appert, it turned out, chose his words well.

"Him saying that was so important," Ralph said. "We didn't just want someone who wanted to be a head coach. We wanted someone who wanted to be the head coach at Rensselaer."

Still, Appert faced another obstacle. Former NHL coach Andy Murray remained in the candidate pool and showed considerable interest in the job. RPI offered Murray the job first, but he turned it down. Ralph turned to Appert next, though he said to call Appert a second choice would be "dramatically oversimplifying" the situation. Appert accepted, signing a four-year contract, then later said he understood why RPI first sought Murray.

Being the second call hardly tapered Appert's enthusiasm. Soon after he spoke to Ralph, he phoned his parents. He told his mother, as soon as she answered the phone, "Well, you're talking to the new head coach at RPI."

Appert, his wife of six years, Jill, and their 2-year-old daughter, Addison, live in a home the couple bought in Niskayuna. Jill and Addison sat in the Houston Field House stands last Saturday for RPI's exhibition against York, which was no bother for either, seeing as Jill, from a suburb of Detroit, grew up a die-hard hockey fan and Addison begs her parents for skates and a helmet, so she can learn to play. Until then, her favorite game with her father is horsey; he gallops across the floor on all fours as she rides his shoulders.

"He loves to throw her around, making all the women nervous with how high he throws her," Jill said. "He's very energetic, and that works well with 2-year-olds."

Appert is learning energy works well with 20-something hockey players, too. So far, players have embraced his intense, offense-first approach. He encourages risk-taking, movement and flow. In practice, he devises drills that thrust players into competition.

"Practices are super-intense," captain Kirk MacDonald said after RPI's exhibition game, a 5-1 win. "It makes the game seem easy."

Players say Appert is detail-oriented, too. He spent the summer reviewing film of every RPI game from last season, then met with players to offer constructive criticism. He demands precise execution in practice, and without it, players say he screams and shouts more than his demeanor suggests.

"He's a guy who, when he comes in, you just feel the energy coming off him," goaltender Mathias Lange said. "He's standing in the middle of the locker room with all that energy, and you just want to go out on the ice and bring some of it out there."

After the exhibition game, Appert deflected a question about coaching for the first time at RPI, saying it held no personal meaning for him, because, he said, "It's about the 26 guys in that locker room, not just me."

It was a wise answer from a man whose ear-to-ear smile never made him look so young.