Stephen Trinkwald
Equinox Staff
The Keene State College men’s club hockey team recently began its 2012-2013 schedule.
The team upset the number two ranked club hockey team from Northeastern University in their first game of the season last Sunday. This is just one of the many signs of the program’s growth.
Team Captain and senior forward Patrick Sullivan said the team has improved by raising the bar in the goals set. “The goals for the last four years, since I’ve been here, have changed. Meaning we wanted to go .500, now we want to make the league championship, now we want to make the regional championship,” Sullivan explained.
Head coach Bobby Rodrigue said the key to a successful program is a healthy team culture.
“One of the things that we really stress with our guys is the culture of the team. We have to have a healthy culture; they have to be good students and good citizens first. Our job is to focus on their play, but we take their discipline and their academics very, very seriously,” Rodrigue said.
Sullivan also said academics is part of the team focus, “I think a lot of people don’t realize this but we’re actually very smart. Academically, every year we come in right under 3.0 [GPA]. So we shoot to get over a 3.0,” Sullivan said.
Rodrigue said last year’s success really showed people around the country the improvement of the program.
“I think we opened a lot of eyes in terms of the strength and the growth of our program. We were able to finally pick up some games against some teams we’ve been looking for games with. Teams like Boston College club hockey, UNH club hockey typically did not want to take games with us. They were happy to take games with us this year,” Rodrigue said.
Rodrigue said that the big catch in their schedule this year was defending champion and number one ranked, Florida Gulf Coast’s club team.
“I think most importantly is Florida Gulf Coast. They are always a very strong team,” Rodrigue said.
Rodrgiue added, “They invited us to come down to play them and we took them up on the offer, then they went out and won the national championship after that.”
Rodrigue said that with improved schedules, comes increased travel costs.
“In terms of funding, our guys, because the Florida trip is very expensive, our guys have made a larger commitment. I think the guys used to pay about $900 each per year to play, this year they’ve bumped it up to $1,100. That’s a lot of money,” Rodrigue said.
Rodrigue said this cost has caused players to choose against student hockey at KSC. “I do think over the years we have encountered students who have said, ‘Coach it’s just too expensive, I can’t afford to do it,’ and that’s unfortunate. I wish there were a way to make it more affordable,” Rodrigue said.
Another issue is the lack of a rink.
“The rink situation is tough. There is no question in our mind that it’s the one thing that holds us back in spite of our rapid growth The lack of a suitable facility and the lack of true support from the athletic department and from the administration here,” Rodrigue said.
Student Assembly Chair Chelsea Clouse said the budget committee does the best they can to distribute money as fairly as possible.
“We have to make it as fair as possible, which means some get cuts and some get more, while new organizations pop up and other ones drop,” Clouse said.
The club hockey team next plays at University of Maine on Oct. 13th at 4:30 p.m.
Stephen Trinkwald can be contacted
at strinkwald@ksc.keene.edu