Re: UNH Women's Hockey 2014 - 2015 Looking FORWARD to the game~
A bit off topic, but I wanted to put this put here to raise awareness of a team I didn't even know existed until this morning!
N.H. Cats play on while seeking club-sport status
By John Doyle
jdoyle@fosters.com
Thursday, September 25, 2014
ROCHESTER — Abby Angelosanto wasn’t just looking for a place to play hockey when she enrolled at the University of New Hampshire as a freshman in 2013. She was looking for a new lease on her hockey life.
She got one with the N.H. Cats, the unofficial women’s club-hockey team at UNH. The sophomore English major played varsity hockey for Exeter High School, where she injured her ulnar nerve during a game against Oyster River (at the Whittemore Center, incidentally). She played through the injury to finish her high school career, but she was finally sidelined for her freshman year in college. Now she’s back on the ice with the N.H. Cats.
“I wanted to get back,” Angelosanto said. “Now I’m finally able to play. It feels amazing.”
Angelosanto is one of about 29 players slated to suit up this season with the N.H. Cats, who call the Rochester Ice Arena home and kick off the season Friday night against the club team from the UMass-Amherst.
“It’s a good atmosphere,” Angelosanto said about her new team. “Everyone’s really friendly in the locker room. We all have a lot of fun. Everybody’s just really nice. I like it.”
The N.H. Cats were founded last year by Julia Hird of York, Maine. An avid hockey player who was a member of the York High School girls varsity team, Hird wanted to play club hockey when she enrolled at UNH her freshman year. Along with her father, Jeffrey Hird, a long-time youth coach, they took on the task of forming their own club with the ultimate goal of making it a full-fledged member of the club-sport community at UNH.
Jeffrey Hird is the head coach of the N.H. Cats, one of three volunteers on the coaching staff. He said playing hockey with the N.H. Cats is fun and rewarding, but not glamorous.
“They have to travel on the weekends,” Hird said. “They have to be ready to go. They have a lot of weekend time taken away from them. But I think they do it because they want to do it, not because they have to. This isn’t their job. It’s an outlet. So they can continue to play a sport they learned and love.”
The N.H. Cats are unofficial because despite their roster consisting of only UNH students, the team has yet to be recognized by the university as a sanctioned club sport. Therefore, using “UNH” in the team’s name is off limits for now, as is access to the Whittemore Center ice and university-funded transportation.
“You have to have a lot of things in place,” Coach Hird said about attaining official club-sport status. “It’s a matter of timing. We meet all the requirements, and these girls meet all the academic requirements.”
Paige Hardtke, a senior chemical engineering major, played hockey at Holderness School before enrolling at UNH. She was thrilled to have the opportunity to play club hockey starting with her junior year.
“I knew coming to UNH I wouldn’t really have the opportunity (to play club hockey),” Hardtke said. “So when this came along, it was really exciting. It’s a great group of girls. It’s a lot more fun than what I’d expected it to be.”
Hardtke said the level the N.H. Cats play at is comparable to the high-level girls prep-school hockey she played at Holderness.
“We have a lot of prep-school girls on this team,” Hardtke said. “The leagues we’re in this year will be a lot different from what we played last year. I’m excited to see how we can play with them and see how it goes.”
The N.H. Cats are a member of two leagues — the Independent Women’s Club Hockey League (IWCHL) and the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA). The Cats are an ACHA Division II team, but has a few ACHA Division I teams on the schedule, such as UMass-Amherst, Rhode Island and Northeastern.
Last year’s team went 9-3-1 but did not belong to a league and therefore did not play in any postseason tournaments. In total, the Cats will play between 22 and 26 games this season and their farthest road trip will be to Westfield, Mass.
The team applied for club-sport status last year but were not selected. UNH accepts only one new club sport a year, according to Coach Hird. He said the team has applied again this year for status, working with the university to meet the criteria for acceptance.
Forty women tried out for 29 slots for this year’s club, and the team features five seniors, four juniors, 12 sophomores and eight freshmen. Plus, according to Jeffrey Hird, the team has already received inquiries from current high-school seniors looking to play club hockey when they enroll at UNH next fall.
The N.H. Cats’ complete schedule has yet to be finalized, but the team will play twice at UMass this weekend, once on Friday night and again on Saturday morning.
[url]http://nhcats.wix.com/nh-cats [/url]