The 2017 UAH Hockey Frenchy Open will tee off at 8 a.m. on Saturday, June 24 at Hampton Cove Golf Course.
The golf tournament is the program’s biggest summer fundraising event. The tournament layout will be a four-player scramble with prizes going to the top three teams and individual winners. Raffle and door prizes will be available.
Register online to reserve your spot. Registration per player is $150, which includes 18 holes of golf, a cart, a UAH Hockey souvenir, refreshments, and dinner. Full four-player teams can register for $600.
Sponsorship opportunities are also available. For more information, contact assistant coach Matty Thomas at 256-824-2989 or matthew.thomas@uah.edu.
In addition, there will be an UAH alumni hockey game at the Wilcoxon Municipal Ice Complex in Huntsville on June 24 at 6 p.m.
“The Frenchy Open” is named after Charger left wing Jean-Marc Plante, who died in 2001. Also known as “Frenchy,” the Laval, Quebec, native played for UAH from 1988-92, scoring 16 goals and 19 assists in 94 games. Plante worked at the front office of the Florida Panthers and became the athletic marketing director at UAH. A memorial scholarship is awarded in his honor to the Charger hockey player who demonstrates leadership, sportsmanship, and team spirit, and who participates in community and university volunteer service.
Commitments: Bauer Neudecker of the Fairbanks Ice Dogs (NAHL) announced his commitment to UAH. He is expected to join the Chargers in the 2019-20 season.
Neudecker, 18, is a native of St. Louis Park, Minn. He joined the Ice Dogs after scoring 39 goals in his senior season at St. Louis Park High School. With Fairbanks, he scored five goals in 11 regular-season games and three goals in seven playoff games.
Neudecker was selected in the 12th round by Dubuque in Phase II of the USHL draft last week.
Connor Merkley, who will join the Chargers this fall, is a 20-year-old forward coming from the Carleton Place Canadians of the CCHL, where he played with current UAH forward Jordan Larson.
Merkley had 29 goals and 66 points in 61 games for the Canadians this season.
Cole, Luongo reunited at Michigan State: Former UAH coaches will be trying to bring the Michigan State hockey program back into prominence.
Danton Cole, who helmed the Chargers from 2007-10, was named the Spartans’ head coach on. The Chargers won the CHA Tournament title and earned an NCAA Tournament berth under Cole’s watch in 2010, after which Cole left UAH to coach in the U.S. Hockey National Team Development Program.
Chris Luongo, who was an assistant under Cole at UAH and was the head coach from 2010-12, will assist Cole again at Michigan State. Luongo also worked with Cole at the NTDP.
Both Cole and Luongo are MSU alums, playing from 1985-89. They won the 1986 national championship as freshman and made two more Frozen Four appearances in 1987 and 1989.