Paluch leaves... now what?

BOWLING GREEN - With no guarantee of BGSU hockey after next year, different players left Bowling Green. Some came back, but now that Scott Paluch is leaving the head-coaching job for a player development position with USA Hockey ...

"I really believe that our program... we're gonna be fine," said the Falcons' coach of the last 7 years.

For BGSU, this comes as they're seeing how much money can be raised to keep the program from fading away.

"I can't predict what the community as a whole will say," said BGSU Athletic Director Greg Christopher. "I will say that in the last hour, I've been making some calls to some of our key supporters and key hockey alumni."

"I would say the assessment, at least from those phone calls, and you can count them on a couple of hands, was positive."

He clarified things by saying, "It was positive for Scott and certainly they thought it was positive for Dennis, and the hockey program."

But while many positives hover over the program, so does that cloud of uncertainty.

"With everything hanging over my head, as far as the program - you'd be lying if you're not thinking about it, um, so I think everybody's just trying not to think about it and just worry about this upcoming year," said senior defenseman Kyle Page.

As for what new interim head coach Dennis Williams thinks?

"I'm just focused on these 27 players and our staff and whatever happens on the outside, that's noise to me and I'm just worried about our 27 guys."

His predecessor adds, "We're gonna be fine. I don't think, uh, my decision to, uh, make a career move is gonna affect the, uh... there's a lot more than that here. There's a lot of years of proud moments. Good teams. Great players, and really good people. It'll carry on," said Paluch.

Thing is, anybody attached with BG hockey wants to know if those moments will just stay on the hockey wall in the same places - or if there's more on the way after next season.