At this time last year, optimism was the key word around UMass athletics.
When we rang in 2019, the hockey team was atop the Hockey East standings and ranked No. 2 in the country. Walt Bell was on the job for less than a month as he tried to rebuild the football program, and he was winning press conferences with his infectious energy. And even though the men’s basketball program was having a poor season, there was still hope they might be able to put it all together for Atlantic 10 play.
The spring had yet to start, too, and that has always been the strongest season for UMass with several perennial conference title contenders. Yes, on Jan. 1, 2019, all that was in front of UMass fans was hope for a magical year.
What transpired over the next 12 months, however, was largely disappointing and frustrating for those cheering for the Minutemen and Minutewomen. A school that prides itself on conference championships and playing in the national postseason failed on those fronts in 2019. Excluding hockey, UMass won just two conference titles in a team sport – women’s lacrosse won the regular-season Atlantic 10 title while the men shared the regular season in the Colonial Athletic Association – and none of the school’s other programs qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2019.
But in reality, none of that matters. The frustration, the disappointment, the anger that came from a difficult calendar year on a macro level is washed away by the 26 men who wore the maroon and white on the ice last season. When UMass fans think about 2019, very few will remember the lost championship opportunities or the lack of success in other major sports. All they’ll think about are those magical weekends in Manchester, New Hampshire, and Buffalo, New York.
No one was sure at the beginning of 2019 that UMass would even qualify for the NCAA Tournament, let alone make it to the Frozen Four in Buffalo. But by the third week of the new year, there was no doubt that whatever happened between Jan. 1 and April 13 was almost certainly going to be the story of 2019 in UMass athletics.
When you think of the best moments in UMass athletics over the past year – and you could argue the past decade, too – almost all of them occurred in the first 103 days of 2019. The now infamous photographs of coach Greg Carvel and the team celebrating the Hockey East regular-season championship in the Merrimack locker room after defeating the Warriors on a snowy Thursday night. The matching 4-0 shutouts pitched by Filip Lindberg to send the Minutemen to the Frozen Four for the first time in school history.
And of course, the shot that was heard around Amherst just after midnight on April 12 when Marc Del Gaizo sent UMass to the national championship game.
Even though the Minutemen fell short of their ultimate goal against Minnesota-Duluth, the hockey program’s accomplishments in 2019 erased much of the bitterness in the mouths of UMass fans. It provided the hope and the evidence that UMass can return to glory in the major sports with enough patience and trust in the coach and his process. It’s what Bell preached after an underwhelming 1-11 season this season and what Matt McCall has explained as he hit the restart button again on the basketball program entering this season.
Perhaps one day, fans will look at 2019 as the turning point of the UMass athletics programs. They’ll see 2019 as Bell installing a culture of winning in a program that hasn’t had success in more than a decade. They’ll view 2019 as the year McCall brought in the recruits that returned the Minutemen to being perennial contenders for the NCAA Tournament.
But for right now, 2019 was the year UMass hockey transported us all on an unforgettable ride that captivated the hearts and minds of a community.
Josh Walfish can be reached at jwalfish@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshWalfishDHG. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.