Noah West wasn’t supposed to 
play at Michigan.
In the tumultuous past few 
seasons 
of 
college 
hockey, 
program growth and collapse 
remains a constant headline. But 
when those programs expand and 
contract, the pool of players does 
too. The Wolverines’ sophomore 
goaltender 
understands 
that 
reality well.
In the middle of an offseason 
workout last summer — after 
backstopping the Robert Morris 
University men’s hockey team to 
an Atlantic Hockey Western Pod 
title — West joined a mandatory 
Zoom call with his team. He 
couldn’t have predicted what he 
was about to hear.
“(Robert 
Morris 
President) 
Chris Howard hopped on the call, 
and he goes ‘We decided to cut 
men’s and women’s hockey,’ ” West 
told The Daily. “And so I kind of 
figured my time with that meeting 
was over and left it in the middle 
of my workout. I had to make a 
few phone calls to get everything 
situated and (do) what I needed to 
do to get in the transfer portal.”
After 
committing 
to 
the 
Colonials for four years, West 
was out of a home after only one. 
Thankfully, a school to the west 
expressed interest in his services.
The last thing a coach wants 
to think about is shipping their 
players off to another school, but 
it became a grim reality for Robert 
Morris men’s hockey coach Derek 
Schooley and his coaching staff 
when both RMU hockey programs 

were cut. Forced to find homes for 
his players, the school’s hockey 
coaches reached out to their 
networks to find places for their 
players.
Thankfully for the players, 
there were plenty of suitors. 
Three members of the women’s 
team transferred to Ohio State 
— who won the 2022 National 
Championship 
— 
and 
four 
members of the men’s team played 
for schools that made the men’s 
NCAA Tournament.
“There were a lot of players that 
found good homes,” Schooley said. 
“The biggest objective that we 
had when this all happened was 
to find a really good home for our 
players.”
But some homes were easier 
to find than others, and finding 
new programs for goaltenders like 
West proved difficult.
With 
COVID-19 
eligibility 
policies allowing some athletes 
another 
year 
to 
play, 
many 
programs opted to give fifth-year 
seniors and graduate students 
— 
who 
had 
already 
proven 
themselves season after season 
against stiff competition — the 
opportunity 
to 
play 
another 
season.
For West, an Atlantic Hockey 
All-Freshman 
goaltender 
and 
second team All-Atlantic selection, 
the abundance of older goalies at 
other schools stood as a roadblock. 
It didn’t matter that he had proven 
himself the season prior — he still 
had to stack up against the field.
But West caught the eye of one 
coach: Michigan associate head 
coach Bill Muckalt.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
8 — Wednesday, June 15, 2022
‘This team is like Rocky Balboa’: 
A Michigan baseball season full of 
underdogs and shortcomings

This year’s Michigan baseball 
team can be summed up in one word: 
resilient.
The Wolverines have endured 
a rollercoaster of a season. For 
most of the year, they fell short of 
expectations. 
Michigan 
showed 
flashes early in the year. With close 
losses to No. 14 Texas Tech and No. 
4 Vanderbilt as well as a win over No. 
21 Maryland, it seemed like the team 
had a shot to compete amongst the 
elite programs.
But then it got a reality check.
In their first Big Ten series, the 
Wolverines’ once-potent bats ground 
to a halt against Iowa, scoring just 
2.3 runs per game in the series loss. 
From March 15 to May 10, they lost 
six straight midweek games due to a 
lack of pitching depth, an issue that 
plagued Michigan all year. The 7.00 
ERA of 2022 was the program’s worst 
for a full season in over 20 years and 
ranked second to last in the Big Ten.
After 
dominating 
Michigan 
State and Ohio State on consecutive 
weekends 
in 
mid-April, 
the 
Wolverines’ morale was at its peak. 
Rivalry wins are nice, but at the end of 
the day, both of the series wins were 
against losing teams in the Buckeyes 
and the Spartans. Michigan still had 

to prove it could compete with the 
best.
And in the regular season, it 
couldn’t.
After two more series losses, rock 
bottom came in College Park where 
the Wolverines were throttled by 
Maryland, looking all but dead in the 
series sweep.
“ 
It’s never too late to continue 
to improve,” Michigan coach Erik 
Bakich said after the third loss to the 
Terrapins. “And we’re going to have 
the right mindset whatever happens 
we’re going to make sure we have the 
right mindset we’re gonna compete. … 
We’re not going to go down without a 
fight. We will do everything we have 
to do to extend our season.”
But after getting dominated, a 
switch 
flipped. 
The 
Wolverines 
reached a point where they had little 
left to lose. They got back up and kept 
fighting. 
From May 19 on, Michigan was the 
underdog in all 12 games that it played. 
And in those games, the Wolverines 
emerged victorious in eight. 
Going into the final weekend of 
the season, Michigan had one thing 
on its mind: making the Big Ten 
Tournament. This was far from a 
guarantee for the Wolverines, who 
were slated against a tough opponent 
for their final series of the regular 
season in Rutgers. After winning 
the first two games of the series, 

something seemed to change for 
Michigan.
“You got to understand what this 
team is like Rocky Balboa, who’s been 
beaten and bloodied and battered and 
knocked to the mat many times, 24 
times, and we get back up every single 
time,” Bakich said after clinching the 
series win and a Big Ten Tournament 
berth. “I don’t know if I’ve been 
more proud of the group. … The guys 
respond every single time and it feels 
special.”
At the time it was easy to dismiss 
the Rocky comparison. Although 
Michigan earned a spot in the Big 
Ten Tournament, it fell short of the 
expectations all year. The Wolverines 
regressed 
from 
their 
projected 
second-place finish in the Big Ten, 
barely getting the fifth seed going 
into the conference tournament. And 
to extend its postseason and make the 
NCAA Tournament, Michigan had to 
make history.
It did.
With 
wins 
against 
Illinois, 
Maryland, Iowa and Rutgers, the 
Wolverines became the first team in 
Big Ten history to beat all top four 
seeds. Despite being the underdog in 
each of the games it played, Michigan 
won the conference championship.
And the Wolverines rode that into 
the Louisville Regional. 

The road west: how 
Noah West navigated 
his transfer journey

SARAH BOEKE/Daily

Read more at michigandaily.com

JENNA HICKEY/Daily

JOSEPH ZAIN RODGER
Daily Sports Writer

CONNOR EAREGOOD
Daily Sports Writer

Read more at michigandaily.com

