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Thats not it at all. I personally wouldn't know the guy if I ran into him. Its just that if his former players respected him as a coach, whether they won or not, than why not have him back? Isn't it more about what the players think anyway? Not the parents, I hope.
Honestly I could really care less. Its really only a thought. I suppose if people thought that Mike Howe, Grant Clafton or John Harrington could do it and have everyone happy, than awesome.
Guess my point is, its the kids that have to spend the most time with him. I haven't heard one bad word about him from any of the guys that I played with at Intramurals. I'm sure there are some that didn't like him either but I'm hearing more really did. Like western, said another forum, "its about an opinion". If I even knew the guy, I wouldn't take it personal.

Hey, Matt Hartman is back in town. He's an Apollo grad and knows his stuff. I'd love to see Apollo or Tech get a young guy with some D1 experience at the helm. Just thinkin' out loud.

[quote="Blue&Gold"]Hey, Matt Hartman is back in town. He's an Apollo grad and knows his stuff. I'd love to see Apollo or Tech get a young guy with some D1 experience at the helm. Just thinkin' out loud.[/quote]

Actually if Clafton does end up getting the Apollo job he would most likely have Hartman assist him.

That would be cool. Two Huskies taking the helm. Did Hartman play for Larson or is that before he was there? Have either Clafton or Hartman coached before? Would be a sweet new start for new coaches. Only problem is, the expectation might be to high for them early. Might be fun to see though until the win column desn't quite add up. then the parents will begin the issues, I'm sure.

Clafton was an assistant last year at Hibbing but I don't think he has ever head coached before. Stepping into an Apollo program your expectations can't be too high. They won all of 4 games last year so anything is improvement.

Hartmen was a year before Larson i think, but don't take my word for it.

And Hartmen doesn't have much coaching experience to speak of, but he was helping with the Granite City Lumberjacks this past season.

He skated with the Jacks very often and I believe was an assistant for awile with them but not positive on that, but it would be a great sight to see him come back and coach were he played his high school hockey

Cheese wagon driver wrote:Did Hartman play for Larson or is that before he was there?

Hartmann played for Larson for two seasons (sophomore and junior) I believe. Had some pretty solid teams with him, Howe and Henkemeyer.

Wasent Harrington on those teams for a year or 2 with Hartman?

Yeah he was on it for one year with Hartman...They had a great team that year.

The 1999 year or close to that, the year they won conference and lost in the section finals I believe

I found that it was either the 00-01 or 01-02 season....either way they played together for a year.

Has anyone even found out of Howe is still playing? Its looked as though he was still playing in the East coast. Hope I'm not mistaken. I'm a Gopher fan, so I follow up on their careers.

Last I heard he was, out in the ECHL I believe, I cannot be sure though but if he isnt, maybe he would like to come back and coach where he played his high school hockey

So apparently the AD at Apollo really wants someone like an Apollo teacher to take over.
WHAT A JOKE!!!!!! Every teacher at Apollo knows nothing about hockey and hes gonna pass up D1 players?! Wow!

Whats your source on that?
Id much rather see a person with hockey knowledge take the job like a D1 player over a teacher who has never coached

I heard it straight from Clafton himself. He said the AD didn't sound interested and sounded like he had no hockey knowledge at all. However Grant did not tell him about his hockey past so that could have swayed him.

I hope theres another meeting between them, hopefully this was only a "yeah im interested" interview, once the AD finds out about his past and his interest in the spot, that should get Grant to be the top canidate

The AD at Apollo is fairly new to the school and in most schools the coaching positions are offered to the teachers first. If a qualified teacher is not found, they go outside the school to fill the position. Isn't that partly the reason for Voss getting the job at Cathedral after Boerger left?

Since the AD was new this year, he doesn't know if there are any qualified teahers to take over the program.

Also in many cases a coaching job will help a district will package a coaching job with a teaching job. For example, if they have a social studies opening they would tell candidates that a head hockey coach position is available (or tell hockey coach candidates that a social studies position is available).

That is if the Coach is a teacher or wants to be one

Love4Hockey wrote:I hope theres another meeting between them, hopefully this was only a "yeah im interested" interview, once the AD finds out about his past and his interest in the spot, that should get Grant to be the top canidate

Love4hockey - Why do you think Clafton would be such a good coach? Do you know him? Have you skated at a camp where he was an instructor?

I'm not sold on the fact that just because he played D1 he will make a good coach.

I dont know him but hes got the expierence in his past to show that he can be a good coach and he has great hockey knowledge, its a fresh start at Apollo so why not start it off with a new young coach too

Just curious, is this the same Clafton that's currently involved with the Minnesota Crunch girls U19 team out of Grand Rapids?