In the NCAA, Division I schools like FGCU offer scholarships to athletes. In club hockey, athletes pay to play. At FGCU, the cost is $1,000 per semester plus equipment. Players also have to fundraise and promote their team. “They understand that nobody is going to care about the program unless they work for it,” said Matt Maida, a former FGCU player who is the program’s director of communication and Canadian operations manager. “They made the decision to come here. They play at a high level and have a vested interest in it.”
Based out of Toronto where he runs a sports entertainment and management company, Maida recruits players from Canada to play at FGCU.
FGCU started club hockey in 2002. Expenses are approximately $200,000 per year but the program supports itself through player fees, student government reimbursement for tickets sold, sponsorships, tryout fees and being host to the national tournaments. In the future, FGCU wants to build a lockerrom at Germain Arena.
The student government allocation for club hockey was $65,000 last year and will be $74,520 this season. The allocation is provided with the understanding that FGCU students get in free for the games by showing their student ID, according to university spokesperson Susan Evans.
Coach Bob Brinkworth, who has been at FGCU since its inception, works for free. After playing pro hockey for nine years, he used his engineering degree to work at Hewlett Packard, then got in the ground floor of a start-up company called Sllicon Graphics. “A lot of my better customers went to hockey games,” said Brinkworth, 68, recently named one of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s top 50 all-time hockey players. “I was fortunate to retire before I was 50. Hockey has been a big part of my life.” In 2009, Brinkworth was named ACHA Division II Coach of the Year and was also selected to serve as an assistant coach for the 2009-2010 ACHA Division II Selects, which traveled to Europe to compete. “Each year, the ACHA has gotten progressively stronger, talent-wise,” Brinkworth said. “After four years, we moved up a division and formed two teams.”
FGCU hasn’t won a national championship but its teams have been to the 32-team tournament nine times. Of the 60 players on the rosters, seven of the players are from Canada and 26 are from Florida. There are five local players — junior defenseman Kevin Mixon (Fort Myers) junior forwards Jesse Johnson and Mike Fowler (Naples), and sophomore forward Matt Casey and freshman defenseman Christian Casey (Cape Coral), who are brothers.
While he follows college hockey closely, FGCU athletic director Ken Kavanagh said he can’t envision the school having Division I hockey. The only Southern school in the country that has that sport is Alabama-Huntsville, which isn’t in a conference. “Hockey is a tremendous sport,” he said. “It’s just too difficult to think about. The ramifications with costs, outfitting a hockey team. ... It’s a very difficult scenario, even if you’re busing to games. There’s gender-equity issues. You can never say never and I love the sport but it’s hard to envision.” Kavanagh said FGCU club hockey people have talked about cross promotions, and said he’d be open if it makes sense from a mission statement for college athletics, but he also said a separation must be kept.
When attendance started slipping the past couple of years, the players decided to get more pro-active. “I wanted it to be as good as my freshman year,” said forward Mike Lendino, a senior forward. “We did pocket schedules and sold T-shirts for $5. At a Southwest Florida Boy Scout Convention, we set up a booth. Now we’ll have a Boy Scout weekend. On Jan. 14-16, our College Clash with Boston College, Michigan State and Colorado, we’re teaming with a local Christian group at Summit Church. And we have a Greek contest. We’re setting up a tracker on our website and whichever Greek Life group gives us the most support over three games, we’ll donate $500 to a philanthropy of their choice.”
From 10 AM until 2 PM on the Wednesdays and Thursdays before weekend games, players will talk up the team to passers-by around the school’s atrium. Others hand out flyers or schedules. “We get a kick out of it,” freshman Mike Sisera said. “We have a team full of characters. We use it as a bonding experience.” Players help raise money by getting corporate sponsors, having golf tournaments and poker tournaments.
The players’ work has paid off. Attendance on top nights ranges from 500 to 1,000 fans. “Some nights, the fans are three, four deep around the rink,” Brinkworth said. One of the criticisms of games at Germain Arena is that one of the only reasons students attend is so they can drink beer.
Brinkworth said there is security at the games and underage students are monitored closely by Germain officials. At one of the Eagles’ games this season, there were more students drinking water and soda. “I’ll come to the game in one car and leave in a different car with friends,” Eivesay said. “Hockey games are fun. We have 19 sports clubs on campus but definitely, hockey is the biggest one. “It’s what students respond to.” |
