Let’s be frank: The likelihood of UAH restoring the NCAA hockey program is pretty low.
UAH has maintained that conference membership is mandatory. Current Division I leagues do not seem interested in expanding or realigning even to help the independent teams that are playing. And a common refrain is: Why would any conference accept a school who isn’t even playing?
But UAH is playing hockey right now. The club Chargers have been active since 2018, and have continued to play while the varsity program has been dormant.
“We know how much hockey has meant to this university and the alumni,” UAH club team head coach Tim Flynn said. “We want to make everyone who played and supported hockey at UAH, whether it be the club days, Division II or Division I, to be able to support their old team and be proud with the product we put on the ice as well as the student athletes that graduate from it. We’re certainly not a replacement for the Division I program, nor are we trying to be.”
Perhaps that’s been a problem the past couple of years. We’ve been lamenting about the hockey we’ve lost so much that we’ve forgotten about the hockey we have.
I admit I fell into this. For the last two years, I hated checking Twitter on Friday and Saturday nights during the fall and winter because seeing updates on NCAA hockey games only brought sadness.
Over the summer, head coach Tim Flynn told me the club team was looking to get more alumni engagement and sponsorship opportunities and really grow the program.
This finally got me thinking: I could spend another season sulking, or I could spend it writing again. The student-athletes and staff are willing to put in the effort to grow hockey at my alma mater. I want to help them in those efforts.
The NCAA program isn’t coming back, at least any time soon. Don’t let this prevent you supporting UAH hockey. The sport still exists at the university. Just because it isn’t Division I doesn’t mean it can’t be good or isn’t worthy of your time.
Besides, if the club team is well supported, then the odds of bringing back the NCAA program can only go up. It would show UAH and college hockey leadership (read: conferences) that Huntsville can support a Division I program. Honestly, that’s all we have right now.
In 1985, UAH needed sports as it was joining Division II of the NCAA. With three national club championships and drawing thousands at the Von Braun Center, adding hockey was an easy choice.
In recent years, schools like Penn State, Arizona State, and Lindenwood took strong club teams and turned them into varsity programs. It’s also the path another school in the South wants to follow.
Just over 100 miles from Huntsville, Tennessee State will start its club program in 2024. The first hockey team at an historically Black college or university has an eye toward NCAA Division I, although there is no specific timeline to get there. A probable factor deciding when TSU will make the jump is the likelihood of conference affiliation.
Wouldn’t it be great if UAH and TSU could start a hockey rivalry at the club level? And it eventually leads to the NCAA team coming back, joining TSU in a Division I conference?
That might just be a dream, and there are no guarantees. Even if it never materializes, the UAH club hockey team is important enough to be nutured if we really want college hockey to be a part of UAH’s identity again.
Let’s start growing the club again by attending games, donating, or buying merch. Show why hockey is worth investing in at the school that holds the trademark of “Hockey Capital of the South.”