TRAVIS LEFEVRE
Lampoon Editor
Last year, the Men’s Club Hockey team made it to the regional championship and outscored its opponents by a margin of +48 during the team’s 17 games. Despite this, the team is continuously underfunded.
“It’s honestly been amazing. We’re one of the last student run organizations in our league . . . . Everything is pretty much left in the students’ hands,” said Mike Walker, a three-year veteran of Men’s Club Hockey.
Players on the Men’s Club Hockey team have to pay dues in order to play. New players pay $1,000 while returning players pay $900. The $100 difference is so new players can get their blue jerseys that they get to keep.
“We pay so much compared to other clubs. We pay a lot of money out of pocket, and it stinks that we only get $8,000 from the school,” said Tommy Corrao, the treasurer for Men’s Club Hockey.
The players pay dues to make ends meet due to the low amount of funding they receive. The team received $8,000 in funding from the Student Association this year. For the Men’s Club Hockey team to be able to operate for the academic year, it will need at least $25,000.
The Student Association of Fredonia stated a number of reasons for Club Hockey’s low budget.
“ . . . many groups are having to deal with a smaller budget because of the past few semesters of low enrollment. The money in group’s budgets comes from the Student Activity Fee, which every Fredonia student pays. Since there was low enrollment, the sum of money to go around was smaller,” said Josh Ranney, president of Student Association, in a statement. “During this past budget week, the Budget and Appropriations committee, made up of students, had to make cuts to nearly every budget in order to keep the Student Activity Fee as low as possible. Budgets that did not see decreases included lines to pay for positions in their group that are paid minimum wage, and those figures could not be changed.
“Furthermore, of the various club sports here at Fredonia, Club Hockey holds the largest budget for a single team. They also received one of the smallest reduction to their overall budget during the budget process,” Ranney continued.
“Hockey in general is just a really expensive sport. We have to pay for the ice, we have league fees between the ACHA, College Hockey East and we have to pay the referees,” said Steve Staversky, president of Men’s Club Hockey.
The cost to pay their coaches is $7,000. Other expenses, such as payments to the American Collegiate Hockey Association, cost the team another $1,350. These two payments alone exceed the funding they receive. They are also required to have an EMT-certified trainer present at every home game.
The team’s funds also go back into the school by having to pay to use the hockey rink in Steele Hall to host their practices and home games.
Practices start at 10 p.m. and end at 11:30 p.m. Before their late practice comes a men’s league that is unaffiliated with the school and a free skate for the public.
Compared to other schools in their division, such as Robert Morris University, Men’s Club Hockey doesn’t receive much support from the university.
“It’s not like every team in this club division is underfunded. We go to other teams and they have paid trainers, paid coaches and they have huge warehouses inside their rink,” Walker said. “They’ll have huge warehouses where they can keep their jerseys. They have people who will clean them after every practice and they have places to keep their equipment. I keep my equipment in my car.”
Despite their funding difficulties, the players are remaining optimistic due to their successful past.
“They have more funding. I’m not saying that that makes them better, but that just means that we have to work harder to compete. The fact that we’re still making it to regionals I think is a token to us,” Walker said.
Men’s Club Hockey’s first game is this Friday at the Steele Hall ice rink.