By Denton Josey, Staff Writer
The ACU hockey team enters a new season with high expectations, and with good reason, but their question is: Will anyone notice?
Great play and impressive records have ensured that teams across the nation know who the ACU hockey team is, and the team hopes another national tournament bid will catch some attention on campus.
Entering its sixth season in the Division II Southwest Collegiate Hockey League, the roller hockey team looks to improve on last year’s outstanding finish of third in the conference with a 13-3-2 record.
In five years, the team has lost only17 games but has received little recognition from the campus.
For the past three years, Caleb Dickison, junior exercise science major from St. Louis, has learned to deal with silent success.
“We’ve been invited to nationals three out of five years we’ve played,” Dickison said. “Obviously none of us gets the exposure, nobody really knows who we are; we just love to play.”
After winning the conference title in 2001-02, it has been difficult for the team to improve, especially considering the competition. The team competes in NCAA Division II, so team plays against schools where enrollment can reach 18,000.
“We are proud to play for ACU and wear those colors and that name. We try to represent ACU and their values,” Dickison said.
Despite the tremendous competition, the team has managed to have the kind of success that usually is attributed to the ACU track and field team; except the hockey team celebrates with far less fanfare.
“We’re always in the top three in our conference,” Dickison said. “We’re not stumbling over ourselves or falling down all the time, which is what a lot of people think it is.”
Ashley Rosbury, senior family studies major from St. Louis, travels with the team to watch it play.
“Being from a place where there is hockey and then coming here where there’s not a lot of enthusiasm, it is good to see it,” Rosbury said. “They’re really good at working together. It’s cool to watch them gel throughout the season.”
Rosbury has to travel around the country in order to watch the team, because the team has no home games, only weekend tournaments throughout Texas and Louisiana.
The team not only receives little moral support, but also has to pay for most of the $3,400 team fee, which pays for referees and tournaments, with almost no help.
Certainly appreciative, the team of about ten players is thankful to the Students Association for financial contributions in the past.
“What we get we’re more than thankful for,” Dickison said.
Road trips to tournaments in cities such as Dallas, Arlington and Houston are often on a budget.
“I’ve stayed in hotel rooms where it’s $20 to $25 a night, and with six guys in a room it gets crazy,” said Jon Andrews, junior marketing major from Midland.
“The level of play is good. It’s really awesome to see. It’s 15 minutes of action, non-stop,” Andrews said. “It makes for a real interesting sport to watch.”
The team faces the dilemma of playing an exciting sport that doesn’t attract a large following.
“It’d be nice to have a bigger fan base on campus. People on campus don’t really know about us,” Andrews said. “Three to four people at a hockey game would be awesome.”
To Andrews’ recollection, not one member of the faculty has ever been to an ACU hockey game.
“It’d be nice to have more support from ACU, but up to this point what they’ve given, we’ve made do with,” Andrews said. “At some point you think someone would say, ‘Man, this team is really good and they represent our school all across the nation.'”
Andrews sees another dominant year for the hockey team.
“I definitely see this team making an impact in the SCHL; I’d be disappointed if this team did not receive a bid to nationals.”
With no facilities set aside, the team practices at Cal Young Park. The game consists of three 15-minute periods. “It’s a lot different than what people think,” Dickison said. “Most of the games are high-scoring; sometimes it gets really tight.”
Like basketball, ten players participate–each team has a goalie and four players in the game. “Basically it’s like ice hockey without the ice and shoulder pads,” Dickison said.
The team has already begun practice, but anyone interested can e-mail Dickison at cgd02b@acu.edu.
