College hockey in Florida
By BRETT SCHAFFER
Florida Hockey Life
College hockey in Florida can be a funny thing to toss into
a conversaon; you either nd a person in shock or pure
ecitementor both. While it isn’t an NAA ocially sanc-
oned sport, or like college football in Florida, there is college
hockey in the state of Florida. olleges like the “ig ” UF, FSU,
UF, USF, UM all have a lub Men’s ce Hockey team. n fact,
there are over ten teams represented by the state of Florida in
the American ollegiate Hockey AssociaonAHA. The most
successful college club team in the state is Florida ulf oast University
FU, which nished 2nd in the naon, losing in the D
Naonal hampionship ame in 201 to akland University. So
to answer those in shock and disbelief, simply tell them, “es,
there is college hockey in Florida, and some prey darn good
teams too.”
was fortunate enough to be a goaltender on one of these
club teams when was younger. Now, it has come full circle and
am now a oaltenderAssistant coach with Florida Atlanc University.
Thus, can take you through the schedule and life of a college
hockey team from Floridawhich begins early in the week,
but late at night. The players, most of whom are coming straight
from work or class shue in one by one to the Panthers ce Den
at around 84PM on a Tuesday night. Some of them are noceably
red and s from a long weekend of back-to-back games
played in a span of less than 18 hours. Pracce begins at 930
sharp, and usually runs a lile more than an hour.
The team is o on Wednesdays, but many of the players
workout and study together on this day to lighten their school
workload for the remainder of the week. t uickly turned
to Thursday, just one night before the home opener against
University of South Florida. should menon that FAU has a
uniue pracce schedule, one that will prove to be strategically
smart. FAU pracces at the Panthers ce Den on Tuesday nights
in oral Springs, and at Palm each ce WorksPW on Thursday
nights in downtown West Palm each. The reason is not to keep
gas staons in business, but for preparaon; All home games are
played at PW which is an lympic Sheet of ice. However, most
away games are played on regular sheets of ice, which are signi-
cantly smaller than lympic sied rinks. With this pracce setup,
players can get used to spacing out their formaon on both sies
of rinks.
Thursday is a low-contact, but moderately paced pracce to
prepare for Friday’s game. mportant things like passing, edgework
and breakouts are addressed. Aer a late skate, the players
begin leaving the rink as late as 1130PM for a 4-minute drive
home, only to be back at 6PM tomorrow. The coaching sta