By Scott McLaughlin and Jake Seiner/DFP Staff
Former Boston University forward Vinny Saponari has had his transfer application denied by Boston College admissions, according to U.S. Hockey Report. On Oct. 7, The Daily Free Press broke the news that Saponari had decided to play for the Eagles next season.
Saponari and his brother Victor were dismissed from the Terriers in May. BU coach Jack Parker cited “cumulative instances” of displaying “conduct unbecoming of a Boston University hockey player” in the school’s press release announcing the dismissals. The Daily Free Press reported that Vinny Saponari was involved in a team drinking incident on March 17 and then showed up late for a team bike ride that served as punishment.
Saponari currently leads the United States Hockey League in scoring with 30 points (8g, 22a) in 21 games and he has captained the expansion Dubuque Fighting Saints to first place in the Western Conference.
“He’s very disappointed,” Dubuque coach Jim Montgomery told USHR. “He had a long face in my office.”
“It’s too bad, because he’s been playing great. I think he’s the most dominant player in the league now. He’s ready to play in the AHL and develop into a professional player.”
Montgomery also told USHR that the BC coaching staff “was not happy” with the denial and that Saponari “is keeping his options open” and will start talking to other schools in February. Mike McMahon of The (Lawrence) Eagle Tribune is reporting that his sources say Saponari is considering a move to the American Hockey League. His hometown Atlanta Thrashers own his rights and could sign him immediately.
A phone call and text to Saponari have not been returned.
Aha…haha…ha…hahaha…ha…haha…(wait for it, wait for it)…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
What does that say about BU academics and the standard expected from it’s athletes?
This does not make BU look good.
While I agree w/ the 2nd Anonymous poster in that this doesn’t make BU look good, I strongly feel it’s up to each student-athlete to make the most of their academic commitments. There are some who take their school work very seriously and others who are more than content just to do enough to stay academically eligible (2.0 GPA or higher). I suspect Vinny was one of the latter.
may be tacking a year off from school was the greatest idea ever either and maybe if he didn’t get caught drinking he wouldn’t be in this mess.
I actually don’t see how this reflects upon BU academics at all. He came to BU, did terribly for two years and as a result, got denied the possibility to transfer to BC. The two schools were looking at two different sets of data when they decided to admit/reject him. But anyways, when it comes to athletes, the school can try as hard as they want to try and help the person succeed but it ultimately comes down to how much motivation and hard work that individual has/puts in.
He is already drafted and figured he would stay here for 3-4 years then go right to Atlanta probably never working a normal job where he had to use his classes therefore he probably didn’t go and did enough for 2.0 in CGS or MET for two years. Now it is just funny. He’ll end up at Northeastern mark my words. They have less rigorous academic demands(5 year undergrad) and were on his list originally when he picked BU over Northeastern,UVM, and BC.
vinny saponari can kiss my ass. this article made me pretty happy, he only got what he deserves. frankly i thought it was appalling that he was going to get off so easily for breaking the rules so flagrantly but i guess not! never thought i’d say it but YAY BC! good job on that one.
This absolutely reflects very poorly on BU academics. He did less than average and/or took useless classes so he wasn’t able to get into BC but BU was perfectly happy to let him keep playing.
Saponari’s move has gone up-in-smoke, perhaps literally as well as figuratively.
What classes do you think their(BC) players are taking down there? high level biochemistry? I think not. Parker can’t tell them what classes to take or not take. Saponari was a dick and probably wanted to take classes that required the least amount of work. He wasn’t taking classes to transfer schools after his sophomore year
OK guys this move has nothing to do with BU academic whatsoever. It’s very simple, as one person pointed out already; he probably did not work as hard as he should have at BU and did not have a good enough transfer record to get in because of that. And that’s besides the point…the point is not to take for granted the privilege of playing college hockey and he wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.
So if he didn’t work as hard as he could in the classroom to be able to transfer to BC, then why was he able to continue playing at BU? Does BU have no standards for its hockey players?
BU standards for real students seem to be much higher than they are for the “students” who play hockey.
Well, barely maintaining a 2.0 GPA like commenter 3 described would be enough to stay on the hockey team without any sort of probation, but it certainly wouldn’t be enough to transfer into a school like BC. I don’t know if that was or wasn’t the situation with Vinny, but I agree with the commenters who are saying that’s on the player, not the school or the team. The coaching staff has a responsibility to know what’s going on school-wise, but they certainly don’t have a responsibility to be tutors.
College athletes in the major sports (and yes–although I’m biased, I consider hockey a major NCAA sport because there is a major professional league in which the players can continue their careers) generally lean pretty heavily towards the athlete side of the student-athlete title.
I give the guys playing hockey at good schools a lot of credit for doing what they do. Antonio Cromartie got through Florida State without being able to read.
And if this reflects poorly on BU academics, then I think the fact that Shatty graduated a year early on top of all the hockey-related commitments–both for BU, Colorado training camps and team USA duties, I think that should even it out nicely.
I gotta agree with Scott here. The hockey players at BU have the same GPA requirements as other students. They do not have the financial aid issue to worry about though. So yes they have it easier and are provided with tutors by the team. The coaching staff is not responsible to make sure the players has the GPA to transfer to a different school just enough to get through school. Parker tells each recruit that 95% of his players need a degree because they wont make it in hockey for the rest of their lives but he isn’t going to follow them to class everyday.
The hockey players do not have the same requirements as other students. If that were the case, how do you explain Dan LaCouture and Chris Borque?
LaCouture and Borque were both freshmen. They had one semester under their belts. Who is to say that they would have been academically eligible had they decided to return to school. Maybe they left because they know they would have been ineligible?
A lot of freshmen don’t make it. Athletes have tutors and manditory study halls, but even with that, they’re all not going to make it.
Vinny Saponari had it made, and he blew it.
BU and BC are both lucky to not have him and his attitude of entitlement.
I agree with you on all of that except that BC is lucky to not have him and his attitude of entitlement. That whole school is built around an attitude of entitlement. They chanted “Jesus loves us” at the game down there. Arrogance and their attitude of entitlement is the reason I hated them before I even came to BU
I was at the BU-BC game at Conte and the only chats I kept hearing was “safety school” and “sucks to BU” and “BU sucks”.
I don’t remember if they chanted “Jesus loves us” this year, but they definitely have before.
They started it once this year right before BU’s second goal , ironically. The fact that that chant exists is pathetic. There is plenty of stuff to say back and forth…no need to act like you are better than others because you take have to take religion class to graduate at your school.
while irrelevant, they did chant “jesus loves us” at conte this year. i believe it was sometime in the third period. also this literally projects nothing upon bu as a school, simply upon saponari. it’s not as if the kid got rejected from bc with a 4.0 from bu. just another example of bc superfrauds trying to appear superior
The group to the left of me at Conte chanted: “Parker, Parker, Parker…you suck” over and over.