The DePaulia

Issue date: 11/9/09 Section: Sports

DePaul Club Hockey players (From left to right) Rob Bellavia, Jeff Fehrmann, Goalie Cory Netrefa. (Media credit: Kyle Gronert)

DePaul's Billy Allen tries to slide one past the Miami of Ohio defense. (Media credit: Kyle Gronert)

The cool blades slice the smooth ice as the skater weaves through defensemen, pushing the puck towards the net in an attempt to score a goal. On their feet, the crowd is anxious and cheering when the puck handler is slammed into the boards, rattling the Plexiglas panes and shocking those in the front row. Anger and adrenaline pulse through the skater's veins and a shoving match erupts, gathering members of both teams despite the consequential suspension for fighting in college hockey.

Ranked seventh in the nation as of last season, the DePaul Hockey Club is working to achieve a similar ranking this year despite the loss of 14 graduated seniors. The team, currently 4-7, will compete in 34 games throughout the season, playing games Friday and Saturday nights until March.

"We have to schedule our classes around practice. I take a lot of night classes. I don't really take Tuesday or Thursday classes. I don't take Friday classes anymore because I miss a lot when we go out of town," said Taylor Paine, a right wing who has played with DePaul for three years.

On top of organizing their school schedules around practices and games, players must also manage their social lives.

"We're pretty disciplined. Thursdays we usually get food and hang out at someone's apartment. On Friday we sometimes get food, but usually we just go to bed after the game. Saturday's our big night," said Kevin Bolger, junior, in his third year playing forward.

If these responsibilities were not enough, players run the organization as well.

"We lost our manager last year, so the team became a student-run organization. We had to step up and take over. I was approached and asked to do the finances for the team, so I took over the treasurer position," said Oliver Stone, sophomore, in his second year as a defenseman.

"[A student-run organization] gives us more power as students to run everything rather than have everyone do everything for us. It makes us more responsible," said Paine.

With a budget of about $120,000 per year, each player pays about $4,500 to play, which covers travel expenses, a $50,000 ice time bill, coaching salaries and equipment fees including the new jerseys.

"To maximize the budget, we do fundraisers and collect player fees. We only get $9,000 from the school because we're not a varsity sport," said Stone.

The team cannot become a varsity sport until they move up from American College Hockey Association (ACHA) Division II to ACHA Division I. The team also needs to develop a fan base.

Moving up to Division I requires more funding due to the amount of traveling required to compete against the 42 teams in the division. The team was offered the opportunity to move up to Division I, but decided not to due to a number of factors including the loss of seniors.

"We do really well against ACHA Division I teams. We played Arizona last year and won both games. We should've won both games against Indiana," said Paine. The team, which played ACHA Division I Indiana University in September, won one of two games although both were within a point.

In addition to the loss of seniors, several players did not return, leaving Coach Jerry Fronek with only eight players from last year's team. Despite the youth of the team, Fronek said that "on any game day, we can compete."

"It's kind of tough right now. A lot of the younger guys are getting used to the fast paced game, which takes a little while to get used to. I see no reason why we shouldn't have another chance to make regionals," said Paine. "We have some players coming in at the break. At least three or four guys are coming in to play hockey that are really good. They'll come in around January and play the second half of the season," said Paine.

Fronek, in his third year of coaching at DePaul, has brought the team to regionals and nationals and has never been ranked outside of the top ten.

"The team has really started to draw players," said Fronek, who had 70 athletes try out this year. The team has players from Detroit, Connecticut, Atlanta and Minnesota.

Despite the draw for players, the club has struggled to develop a student fan base. The late-night weekend games and 30-minute drive to Northbrook where the home rink is located results in a lack of student interest.

"I think we're used to it. There are some games when we get a good crowd. The opener last year was a good crowd because we had a fan bus," said Paine. Although there was a fan bus for this year's opener, which picked up at State Restaurant & Café, notification was not sent out earlier enough, resulting in a smaller crowd than last year.

"There will be some parents and kids. It won't be empty. We get about 30-40 people sometimes," said Paine.

Fans that come early enough have the pleasure of seeing the team dressed in suits and ties. "We are the best dressed athletes," said Bolger.

"Without having a football team at DePaul, students miss out on the whole fall college football experience. I think that has a negative impact on attendance at other DePaul sports. It's difficult to raise school spirit," Gronert said.

"Hockey is an enjoyable sport. There are never really any bad moments. We may not be the greatest because we lost a lot of talent last year, but it's still fun," Stone said.

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