February 9, 2005
Canisius A.D. Dillon Resigns
By
James Jahnke and Nate Ewell
A tumultuous
season at Canisius, which has thus far seen the firing of head
coach Brian Cavanaugh and the suspension of five student-athletes
for at least two games each, took another turn on Wednesday, as
athletic director Timothy Dillon resigned following the school's
internal investigation into the team. Dillon has been a member
of the NCAA Division I men's ice hockey committee, from which
he will now resign, and was a driving force for Atlantic Hockey
on issues such as the decision to admit RIT to the
conference.
Associate
athletic director Marshall Foley also resigned, and interim co-head
coach Clancy Seymour was reprimanded following the school's investigation
into incidents two months ago in North Dakota.
"Over
the past several weeks, we have been conducting an investigation
into the incidents involving the men's hockey team during its
December road trip to the University of North Dakota," said
Canisius President Vincent M. Cooke, S.J. "Our investigation
concluded there was inadequate supervision of the team during
that trip leading to the use of alcohol by some team members,
damage to a hotel room and injury to a student-athlete. This is
completely unacceptable to Canisius College. Further compounding
an already bad situation was the lack of an immediate and appropriate
response by senior athletics-department officials to the incidents
when they occurred and in the aftermath."
According
to Dillon, the North Dakota fiasco went down like this: After
the team’s 4-1 loss to the Sioux in the series finale on
Saturday, the team had dinner until a little after 11 p.m. Foley,
the senior athletics department official on the trip, knew that
the players would want to go out for a bit before retiring for
the night. Dillon said he had sent Foley with the team because
he “didn’t want anyone to get in trouble or do something
stupid” in the wake of bad-PR events such as Cavanaugh’s
dismissal and forward Dan Bognar’s arrest for exposing himself
and punching a police officer shortly after a game in December.
But, according to Dillon, Foley felt that he could appease the
players’ desires and still keep everybody out of trouble
by busing to and from a nightclub en masse. So Foley, Seymour
and the 21-and-older players who wished to go out hit the town
in a bus. While the players socialized, Foley, Seymour and the
bus driver sat in the corner of the nightclub eating snacks. Dillon
said everybody was well-behaved and the group left the club at
12:45 a.m.
Back at the
hotel, more beer found its way into a few players’ hands
–
possibly
from parents who were on the trip. The players –
apparently
Jon Durno, Tim Songin, Billy Irish-Baker and Mike Ruberto, all
of whom subsequently were suspended for a series against the Under-18
U.S. National Development Team last month - were roughhousing
and “stage wrestling” late into the night when Durno
did a somersault off the bed and hit a wall, causing a framed
painting to fall and break. Durno cut his arm and foot on the
broken glass, and when the players couldn’t stop the bleeding
themselves, they called the team trainer, who, in turn, called
Foley between 4:30-5 a.m. Durno received stitches to close his
wounds.
When the team
returned to Buffalo, Foley called a vacationing Dillon to inform
him about the events. Foley told Dillon that there was an incident
during which a player injured himself, but “everyone was
safe and everything was taken care of.”
At that point,
Dillon admitted to INCH on Wednesday, he “failed to investigate
or ask any more questions.”
“I know
I’ll take some heat for this, but it was right around the
holidays, and it was my first vacation in months,” Dillon
said. “I just heard that everyone was OK, and I failed to
follow up on it. That was a mistake.”
A few weeks
later, when school administrators got wind of the incident, school
vice president Ellen Conley ordered an internal investigation,
of which Dillon was not a part. That’s why, he says, he
didn’t publically comment on the incident until he resigned.
Dillon refuted
reports that alcohol was purchased for players with a university
credit card and also that Foley was drinking with the team. Fr.
Cooke did say that Canisius self-reported an NCAA violation regarding
the sequence of steps taken by the college to reimburse the North
Dakota hotel for the damage. When the hotel discovered the broken
frame and a small hole in the wall, it immediately charged the
college's credit card. While Durno ultimately agreed to reimburse
the college for the damages, Canisius allowed him to play in three
games before he established the repayment plan, thus resulting
in the violation.
Overall, Dillon
said the whole situation was “not appropriate,” but
he doesn’t have any hard feelings toward the team or the
school.
“It
was a mistake in judgment by Marshall taking them (to the nightclub),
and then I didn’t ask the right questions afterward,”
Dillon said. “The only thing that people were talking about
was what happened at North Dakota, so I thought it might be time
for new leadership, and Fr. Cooke agreed. I’ve taken myself
out of the picture, so now the story can be on the student-athletes,
where it belongs.”
Dillon was
the chair-elect of the Division I Ice Hockey Committee before
his resignation. He was hired by Canisius in April of 2000 and
has helped run two NCAA Frozen Fours: in Anaheim in 1999, while
he was athletic director at Alaska Anchorage, and in Buffalo in
2003.
He said he
might stay in the hockey world, but it’s too soon to know
what his future holds. For the time being, he’s planning
to spend time with his family, which still lives in Alaska.
Despite the
turmoil, Canisius stands in first place in Atlantic Hockey (10-5-3)
and has a .500 record overall (12-12-4). The Golden Griffins hold
a three-game unbeaten streak and have this weekend off before
traveling to Quinnipiac for two games Feb. 18-19.
