Frank Serratore‘s persistence eventually paid off, and as a result, the Robert Morris hockey program has been the beneficiary.
The Colonials pay their first visit to Cadet Arena in two years this weekend to play Air Force in a matchup that offers compelling story lines on a variety of levels.
To begin with, the Falcons and the Colonials have met in the Atlantic Hockey Conference championship game the past two seasons, with Air Force winning both times to advance to the NCAA Tournament. Next, the series features two of, if not the two, top goaltenders in the conference – Air Force senior Billy Christopoulos and RMU junior Francis Marotte.
Aside from that, it pits Colonials coach Derek Schooley against his one-time coach, longtime mentor and friend, Serratore.
MORE: RMU-Air Force series preview
“I wouldn’t have got the (RMU) head coaching job without the mentorship of Frank Serratore,” Schooley said this week. “I worked with (assistant coach) Joe Doyle, recruited (assistant coach) Andy Berg. I went to Andy’s wedding. They’re good people.
“We’ll do our best to win two important hockey games, but afterward we’ll still be friends.”
The recruiting pitch
Serratore and Schooley first crossed paths in 1986, when the former was coaching the Rochester Mustangs of the United States Hockey League and the latter was a 16-year-old defenseman with an offensive flair from St. Louis.
“He recruited me to play at Rochester, but I did not go,” Schooley recalled. “It was good because Frank went to North Dakota in 1987 (to be an assistant to Gino Gasparini).”
In 1989, Serratore was back in the USHL as the head coach of the Omaha Lancers. This time, Schooley went to play for him, beginning a relationship that now spans three decades.
“I gladly accepted, and we had a great year,” Schooley said of Omaha’s worst-to-first USHL championship season.
The next season saw Serratore accept the head coaching job at Denver, which he held for four years, then worked as coach, general manager and then director of hockey operations for the Minnesota/Manitoba Moose of the International Hockey League for three years, before arriving at Air Force in 1997.
Schooley, meanwhile, went on to play collegiately at Western Michigan before spending three seasons in pro hockey, culminating in 1997 as well. The end of his playing days brought some inevitable what next questions, and one key person he bounced ideas off of was … Serratore.
“We had maintained a friendly relationship,” Schooley said. “I asked him for advice and a letter of recommendation.”
Schooley landed an assistant’s job at Cornell. Six months later, in 1998, a job on the Air Force staff came open and he applied. The rest, as they say …
“I had five outstanding years in Colorado,” he said.
The Falcons’ foundation
Schooley was part of building the foundation of Falcons hockey as it is today. In 1999-2000, the program earned its most wins (19) in 23 years. Shortly thereafter it joined the newly formed College Hockey America conference, something Serratore had a huge hand in forming.
“We had a lot of good players – Andy Berg, Brian Gornick, Brian Rodgers, Jace Anders – building blocks for future years,” Schooley said. “I got a lot of experience and gained a lot of knowledge and lifelong friends.”
Serratore had realized when Schooley played for him in Omaha that the young defenseman had plenty of potential as a coach down the road. At that time, he didn’t realize the road would intersect just off of Interstate 25.
“I knew when he was a player he could be a good coach,” Serratore said. “There are just certain guys you know they have that mind, that passion for the game.”
Those attributes, combined with Serratore’s mentorship, have created a welcome challenge in Atlantic Hockey. The student is 15-18-3 against the teacher.
“He doesn’t have a huge weakness. He knows what he’s doing,” Serratore continued. “He brings good balance. He’s got a good feel, a head coach’s feel. Some guys do, some guys don’t. Some guys can assimilate to head coaches, some can’t.
“He has a feel for people. He had a good command.”
Frank Serratore, athletic trainer Erik Marsh, Derek Schooley and equipment manager Robert Rush in England in November 2001.
Schooley relished his time at the Academy but said one memory in particular remains vivid in his mind.
“In November 2001 we were fortunate enough to go to England to play,” he said. “After we got back, we visited the World Trade Center site after 9/11. The building was still smoking, there was wreckage everywhere.
“To do that as a member of the Air Force Academy, with a bunch of future leaders of America, was pretty humbling.”
Building a program
While Serratore continued to build the Falcons into a program that has reached the NCAA Tournament seven times in the past 12 years and hit the Elite Eight three times, including the past two seasons, Schooley undertook a different challenge.
He was hired in 2004 to construct Robert Morris’ Division I program from scratch. What he built is a program that reached the NCAA Tournament in 2014, nearly 250 victories and appearances in the AHC final four four of the past five seasons and the title game the past three.
“You better be pretty good defensively to get to as many conference finals as he has,” Serratore said. “He’s a good recruiter. He’s always had depth and pretty good high-end talent.”
Schooley adapted what he learned while on the Falcons staff to his teams. Watch closely this weekend and you might recognize some of the similarities.
“They’re always aggressive, in your face,” he said of Air Force. “Some of my fondest memories were those Air Force-Army games. I wanted to bring that in-your-face, hard-nosed, fast style that I learned at the Academy to Robert Morris. I was part of some exciting games there, just as I have been here.
“I’ve done pretty well outside on my own and they have continued to do pretty well.”
Neither team plays a style where there is the luxury of taking a shift off. As he thought back to his five seasons in Colorado, Schooley was reminded again of the strong ties.
“It doesn’t seem like it’s been 15 years,” he said. “Frank’s wife Carol is the godmother of our oldest daughter and she’s flying out this weekend to see them.
“I’m still good friends with Andy, Joe, everybody there. We haven’t played there for two years, and it’s exciting to go back. But we’re on a business trip.”
For both the Falcons and the Colonials, business has been real good these past several seasons, and the teams’ coaches – and their 30 years of friendship – are one big reason why.
©First Line Editorial 2017-19
