ALTOONA, Pa. -- At this time last year, Robert Morris head coach Derek Schooley was in Iowa recruiting and to say there was uncertainty would be a vast understatement.
The patriarch of the men's ice hockey program had been at the forefront of a professional gutpunch as the hockey programs had been eliminated by then-university president Dr. Chris Howard. Schooley wasn't sure what would come next or if there would be Robert Morris hockey again.
Fast forward to this year. Schooley was back in Iowa recruiting, but this time searching for the next line of successful Colonials hockey players. The programs were reinstated in December with the necessary funds to restore and return them back to their rightful place on Neville Island.
Schooley might be out recruiting, but it's far from normal with the relaunch of Robert Morris hockey coming in 2023-2024.
"I'm out recruiting right now, in the middle of Iowa USHL out trying to identify players for starting to our recruiting list for this year, because it's not as a typical year," Schooley said. "Usually a typical year, you're recruiting, anywhere between four and eight players. And we're working on recruiting close to 20."
The Colonials on both the men's and women's side are tasked with rebuilding rosters that saw dozens of players transfer or graduate as a result of the original elimination of the programs. It's beyond a unique situation because many of the players they are recruiting will be on campus next year rather than this year and the transfer market is everchanging.
"You can't really plan for what's going to happen in recruiting process right now, because of the transfer portal, you don't know who's gonna be on or you don't know what's gonna come available," Schooley said. "You have a loose idea of what you're going to do, but you try to figure out, put yourself in the best position for getting the best recruits, and be ready to jump when need be."
Schooley is also tasked with hiring a new set of coaches with one coming already in Matt Nicholson who had previously been at Robert Morris from 2009-2015.
"I've got a great comfort level with Matt, I know what he brings to the table. I know what I bring to the table. And we've worked together before. We've learned. We've grown and we've got some new ideas since then," Schooley said. " It'll be a good way to get him back at Robert Morris, and then I'll hire another assistant next summer in June, to be prepared for the following year. So right now that there'll be a staff of two and we'll try to move forward and get as many good quality hockey players as we can and will rely on the transfer portal to get them."
While Schooley and Nicholson try to find future Colonials on the recruiting trail, there are still a handful of Robert Morris players who will be on campus this fall despite not having games. Those players will be a major factor moving forward in rebuilding the program both on and off the ice.
"We have some coming in this year, we've got two incoming freshmen that have aged out of junior hockey," Schooley said. "And we will have some of our returning players that are coming back that are haven't left yet, there's some coming back that haven't left. So we should have between five and seven players on campus this upcoming year."
Work still needs done to build the roster and the remainder of the staff, but Schooley and Nicholson are well on their way to rebuilding Robert Morris and preparing the program for a return to championship hockey.
"We're not just back to starting at an eight win year. We had an eight win year the first year and it was awesome. We were we were so excited that we got that, but those aren't our goals anymore," Schooley said. "Our goal is to back to where we were because we know what we had in the past. We don't know what's going to happen in the future, but we know where we need to be able to go and where we need to strive for."
