RPI fires Coach Seth Appert After 11 Seasons

CHN Staff Report

Rensselaer has fired head coach Seth Appert following an 8-win season, the school said today.

The move comes despite a contract that takes Appert through the 2020-21 season.

“As a coach, you know those things are always possible,” Appert told the Schenectady Gazette. “Certainly, I have full understanding that two of the last three years weren’t what they should be."

Appert signed a seven-year extension in 2011 that took him through 2018, then signed for another three-year extension on top of that in 2013, just after he interviewed for the then-vacant Denver position.

"We conduct annual evaluations of our athletic programs and the performance of all our coaches at the end of the season and we have determined that a change in leadership is necessary,” RPI presdient Lee McElroy said in a statement. “We appreciate Coach Appert’s contributions and wish him the best in his career.”

Appert was 32 years old when he was hired in 2006 to replace Dan Fridgen. He was previously an assistant coach at Denver, where he was on the staff that won back-to-back national championships in 2004 and 2005. After three years of sluggish results, Appert's RPI teams won 18 then 20 games in 2010-11, culminating in the team's last NCAA tournament appearance.

But despite a couple of 18-win seasons since then, the team never reached 20 wins again. In 2012-13, RPI finished in second place in the ECAC. Last season, the team won 18 games and finished sixth in the league.

“The biggest disappointment was not winning a championship in the ECAC and getting to a Frozen Four in those four or five years where we were capable,” Appert told the Gazette. “I think the biggest one was in 2012-13, because that team was capable of winning a national championship the way were playing in the second half of that season and coming up one game short (of the NCAAs).”

This season, RPI was 11th in the ECAC, and its season just ended with a two-game sweep at the hands of Clarkson in the ECAC Tournament First Round.

The Cottage Grove, Minn., native was a goaltender at Ferris State. He had a 152-221-48 record in 11 seasons leading the Engineers.