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Anna Maria College adding hockey and a few other things.

B

Buckeye22

New member
Anna Maria College in Paxton, MA (just northwest of Worcester) will be adding men's and women's ice hockey for the 2018-19 season. Apparently they'll play their games way off-campus at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, replacing Becker who just moved their games to the new Worcester Ice Center. Anna Maria will be an independent to start, but will presumably try to join the NEHC to be with their fellow GNAC teams Norwich, Johnson & Wales, and Suffolk.

Also interesting to note that Castleton is moving from the North Atlantic Conference to the Little East next year. That will bring the number of Little East schools with hockey to five; three in the NEHC (UMass-Boston, Castleton, and Southern Maine) and two in the MASCAC (Plymouth State and UMass-Dartmouth). They'll need another couple of schools, but hopefully there's not a big realignment on the horizon.

Finally, SUNY-Canton is joining the North Atlantic Conference, not the SUNYAC, as a full member. With the SUNYAC apparently uninterested, do you think Canton will look to one of the New England conferences for hockey as well?
 
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Re: Anna Maria College adding hockey and a few other things.

Buckeye22 said:
Anna Maria College in Paxton, MA (just northwest of Worcester) will be adding men's and women's ice hockey for the 2018-19 season. Apparently they'll play their games way off-campus at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, replacing Becker who just moved their games to the new Worcester Ice Center. Anna Maria will be an independent to start, but will presumably try to join the NEHC to be with their fellow GNAC teams Norwich, Johnson & Wales, and Suffolk.

Also interesting to note that Castleton is moving from the North Atlantic Conference to the Little East next year. That will bring the number of Little East schools with hockey to five; three in the NEHC (UMass-Boston, Castleton, and Southern Maine) and two in the MASCAC (Plymouth State and UMass-Dartmouth). They'll need another couple other schools, but hopefully there's not a big realignment on the horizon.

Finally, SUNY-Canton is joining the North Atlantic Conference, not the SUNYAC as a full member. With the SUNYAC apparently uninterested, do you think Canton will look to one of the New England conferences for hockey as well?
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Is there a reason the SUNYAC wouldn't want a SUNY school?

As for Anna Maria, the school really seems to be investing a lot in athletics over the past few years. They added football 5 or so years ago and the school seems really excited about the program even though they're terrible. It's good to see. Football has the benefit of playing on campus, but if it's any indication I expect hockey to get a similar reception.

From what I have read, Anna Maria really seems to get the importance of athletics for a small school in terms of branding and attracting students to campus who otherwise wouldn't have considered the school.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T377A using Tapatalk
 
Re: Anna Maria College adding hockey and a few other things.

NU Pastime said:
From what I have read, Anna Maria really seems to get the importance of athletics for a small school in terms of branding and attracting students to campus who otherwise wouldn't have considered the school.
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Ya I've heard a lot of small colleges throughout New England have been struggling financially over the last few years. Hopefully investing in sports works out for them. I can't imagine their hockey teams will get a huge turnout just based on the fact that they'll play almost 40 minutes away from campus, but I hope students still get behind the team.

CARDS_rule_the_Burgh said:
Rumor has been that the SUNYAC rejected Canton based on their “Academic Profile” not matching that of the existing members... whatever that means...
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Generally I'm ok with conferences having some academic standards, but when your conference is clearly just based off whether or not you're a SUNY school, it seems kind of silly to keep out Canton. If they're good enough to have the SUNY name, they should be good enough to join in the reindeer games. I mean the SUNYAC has a little bit of a range of schools academically speaking as it is. As for hockey, the only conference that seems to have consistent academic standards is the NESCAC. Everyone else runs the gamut. They have an on-campus arena and everything, so I would think Canton would be a desirable addition for any conference.
 
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Re: Anna Maria College adding hockey and a few other things.

Anna Maria adding hockey is the most shocking thing I’ve heard in years. I’ll be even more shocked if they haven’t closed their doors within 10 years.
 
Re: Anna Maria College adding hockey and a few other things.

Any plans to put up a rink on campus at Anna Maria College? It's going to be hard to build any sort of competitive team when players have to travel 1.5 hours a day, 4 to 6 times a week to the rink. I can't think of many other teams that have to travel this far to practice and play.
 
d3hockey57 said:
Any plans to put up a rink on campus at Anna Maria College? It's going to be hard to build any sort of competitive team when players have to travel 1.5 hours a day, 4 to 6 times a week to the rink. I can't think of many other teams that have to travel this far to practice and play.
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I’ll put about a 1 percent chance Anna Maria builds on an on campus rink in the next 20 years.
 
Re: Anna Maria College adding hockey and a few other things.

PrezdeJohnson09 said:
I’ll put about a 1 percent chance Anna Maria builds on an on campus rink in the next 20 years.
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Agreed. It would be interesting to compile a list of DII/DIII teams by distance to their off-campus rink. Nichols College plays over 30 minutes from their campus and their team has survived (competitive or not). Post is a new program playing around 30 minutes from their campus, so we'll see what effect that has on them (I mean, they're terrible, but who knows how much their arena has affected that).
 
Re: Anna Maria College adding hockey and a few other things.

Buckeye22 said:
Ya I've heard a lot of small colleges throughout New England have been struggling financially over the last few years. Hopefully investing in sports works out for them.
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That didn't work out so well for Daniel Webster, did it. I know a lot of schools see football as a way of getting more students just from the 45-90 man roster. Hockey could bring in 45 or so students if you have both men's and women's programs. Whether either plan is cost effective remains to be seen.
 
Buckeye22 said:
Agreed. It would be interesting to compile a list of DII/DIII teams by distance to their off-campus rink. Nichols College plays over 30 minutes from their campus and their team has survived (competitive or not). Post is a new program playing around 30 minutes from their campus, so we'll see what effect that has on them (I mean, they're terrible, but who knows how much their arena has affected that).
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I believe from Anna Maria -> NESC is less than 30 minutes.
 
Re: Anna Maria College adding hockey and a few other things.

Buckeye22 said:
Agreed. It would be interesting to compile a list of DII/DIII teams by distance to their off-campus rink. Nichols College plays over 30 minutes from their campus and their team has survived (competitive or not). Post is a new program playing around 30 minutes from their campus, so we'll see what effect that has on them (I mean, they're terrible, but who knows how much their arena has affected that).
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I'll do more later. I added google map times because a 2 mile drive can differ by ~10 minutes depending on location.

CCC
Becker: Fidelity Bank Worcester Ice Center - 1.5 miles (8 mins)
Curry: Max Ulin Rink - 1.5 miles (3 mins)
Endicott: Raymond J. Bourque Arena - On campus
Johnson & Wales: Dennis M Lynch Aren - 5.0 miles (12 mins)
University of New England: Harold Alfond Forum - On campus
Nichols: June Rockwell Levy Rink - 19.2 miles (35 mins)
Salve Regina: Portsmouth Abbey Ice Rink - 10.7 miles (24 mins)
Suffolk: Emmons Horrigan O'Neil Rink - 1.4 miles (11 mins)
Wentworth: Allied Veterans Memorial Rink - 10.4 miles (26 mins)
Western New England: Olympia Ice Center - 9.0 miles (17 mins)

MASCAC
Fitchburg State: Wallace Civic Center - On campus
Framingham State: Loring Ice Arena - 2.1 miles (5 mins)
UMass Dartmouth: Hetland Arena - 4.0 miles (10 mins)
Plymouth State: Hanaway Rink - On campus
Salem State: Rockett Ice Arena - On campus
Westfield State: Amelia Park Ice Arena - 2.9 miles (7 mins)
Worcester State: Fidelity Bank Worcester Ice Center - 3.1 miles (12 mins)
 
Re: Anna Maria College adding hockey and a few other things.

MIAC
Augsburg: Ed Saugestad Rink - On campus
Bethel: Schwan Super Rink - 10.2 miles (14 mins)
Concordia: Moorhead Sports Center - 2.0 miles (7 mins)
Gustavus Adolphus: Don Roberts Ice Rink - On campus
Hamline: TRIA Rink at Treasure Island Center - 5.0 miles (12 mins)
Saint John's: Herb Brooks National Hockey Center - 18.7 miles (22 mins)
Saint Mary's: Saint Mary's Ice Arena - On campus
St. Olaf: Northfield Ice Arena (New on campus rink in progress) - 2.5 miles (7 mins)
St. Thomas: St. Thomas Ice Arena - 8.4 miles (15 mins)

NCHA
Adrian: Arrington Ice Arena - On campus
Aurora: Fox Valley Ice Arena - 15.3 miles(23 mins)
Concordia: Ozaukee Ice Center - 5.0 miles (8 mins)
Finlandia: Houghton County Arena - 1.3 miles (4 mins)
Lake Forest: Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse - On campus
Lawrence: Appleton Family Ice Center - 3.4 miles (10 mins)
Marian: Blue Line Family Ice Center - 1.5 miles (4 mins)
Milwaukee School of Engineering: Kern Center - On campus
Northland: Bay Area Civic Center - 1.0 miles (3 mins)
St. Norbert: Cornerstone Community Center - 3.3 miles (10 mins)
St. Scholastica: Mars Lakeview Arena - 1.6 miles (5 mins)
Trine: Thunder Ice Arena - On campus
 
Re: Anna Maria College adding hockey and a few other things.

The only one of the 10 NESCAC hockey schools not to have a rink on campus is Tufts. They play at Malden Valley Forum, fifteen minutes off campus. Interestingly, Bates has a rink on campus, but they do not play NCAA hockey.
 
OhioMule said:
The only one of the 10 NESCAC hockey schools not to have a rink on campus is Tufts. They play at Malden Valley Forum, fifteen minutes off campus. Interestingly, Bates has a rink on campus, but they do not play NCAA hockey.
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If Bates played off campus, could they field an NCAA team??
 
Re: Anna Maria College adding hockey and a few other things.

joecct said:
If Bates played off campus, could they field an NCAA team??
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I believe they could. The way I understand it is that the donor who funded the rink included some kind of restriction that it could not be used for intercollegiate hockey. That might also mean that they could play if they built another rink on campus. Judging from the discussion that pops up every now-and-then on D-3 forums, the rest of NESCAC would love it if Bates joined play. And there would be that natural rivalry with the other two Maine teams.

A quick check of the Bates College Ice Hockey website revealed this: Bates’ men’s club ice hockey team competes in the American Conference of the Northeast Collegiate Hockey Association (NECHA), which is part of a larger regional league known as the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) and has seen tremendous success in the past ten years as a club program.

Maybe someone else on here can offer a clarification. I sure don't get it.
 
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Re: Anna Maria College adding hockey and a few other things.

OhioMule said:
Maybe someone else on here can offer a clarification. I sure don't get it.
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Don't get what? Why they can't play NCAA hockey on-campus or what their ACHA affiliation. Why they can't play in the NCAA I have no idea. It seems like kind of an obnoxious donation to say "here I'll build you a skating rink but you're not allowed to play varsity hockey in it." It's especially stupid when you consider that their club team plays there, so there is intercollegiate hockey in the building, albeit at a much lower level. If they really wanted to start varsity hockey, they could always play at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee which is about a 15 minute walk down the street from their campus.

As for their club team, the NECHA is a conference in the ACHA, the major governing body for club hockey in the United States. The NECHA is divided into three divisions roughly based on the level of play of their teams. The top two, the Patriot and American divisions, play at the ACHA DII level while the Colonial division plays in ACHA DIII. Each division in turn is divided into East and West to make travel and scheduling easier.
 
Re: Anna Maria College adding hockey and a few other things.

Buckeye22 said:
Don't get what? Why they can't play NCAA hockey on-campus or what their ACHA affiliation.
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I don't get why they can play intercollegiate hockey in the ACHA, but not in the NCAA. Maybe the story about the rink is just Fan Forum rumor and it's just that the Bates College administration doesn't want to take the next step. That, of course, is their prerogative. Back in the 60's I was at a football game at Trinity and members of their club hockey team were circulating throughout the stands with a collection jar to support the team. The guys were talking about going varsity. I gave them a buck and look where they are now :D.

BTW, I'm another New Englander living in Ohio - not an hour from Columbus. I love streaming the games from northern New England and imagining I'm sitting in the stands of some frigid old hockey barn.
 
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Re: Anna Maria College adding hockey and a few other things.

Great for more college hockey teams but it seems a bit late in the recruiting cycle for AMC to start men's, and especially women's, hockey for 2018-19 season.
 
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