U-Miami (FL) Team Folds In Favor of Ice Hockey

[NUHockey72]

Anybody else find this embarrassing?


I know the Miami guys made an enormous stink last year about how they were almost snuffed out on a bid to DII nationals in Wisconsin last year, then basically rubbed the noses of everyone in the dirt after their successful showing taking home the trophy. As most of the people on this forum is either directly involved with or makes decisions for their NCRHA team of choice; have to avoid at all costs anything that is detrimental to the growth and the production of our sport. To fold up a successful organization that has been in existence since 99-00 with more than half of a roster returning, in favor of a probationary club ice team in a less than weak division is laughable. I suppose what I'm insinuating here is those of you who do run your respective teams, choose your successors wisely to enure to improvment your organizations and continue the longevity of what in my opinion is one of the best run leagues in the nation.

[MasonHockey]

There are a lot of factors with The U... I know most of the guys and they are good guys, but were never in love with the game of Roller hockey, they preferred the toughness and contact of ice. They always preferred ice which wasn't available to them.

That said, it's a different situation than most ECRHA teams, at 3:40 in the video they say "they all came from ice Hockey backgrounds." and switched to Roller Hockey and at 8:12 they admit the current players are from the North... This is no different than the University of Tampa teams that were good and included a lot of players from the Long Island area (Islandwide league). Having been in the SECRHL for three years I can tell you a lot of teams, like us (GMU) and Kennesaw, were surprised Miami wasn't forced to move up to D1 last year. If you look at their schedule last year they played a lot of D1 teams, and top D2 teams in Bethel and ECU, so their record was always decieving. The SECRHL had great D2 teams last year in ECU, Bethel and Miami, but the SECRHL didn't get a lot of respect from the north, hence, the Miami snub, after losing to Florida Gulf Coast at regionals. (Yes the same FGCU that is D1 this year and beat UCF).

Being Canadian and having grown up and played in Niagara Falls, NY I fully understand how northern teams believe they are all better than the SECRHL or southern teams. (if you look at the rankings discussion thread it is clear, nobody from the north even bothers to look at who beat each other in the SECRHL, as they rank Bethel because they heard they have scholarship players and heard that people dislike them. They don't take into account that Bethel lost to ECU and GMU and hasn't played UCF... By the way the GMU team is essentially the same team that beat Neumann, tied Rowan, and lost to West Chester and Penn State last year by 1 goal.

I think it's important you recruit Roller hockey guys, not Ice hockey converts. I also think you would be kidding yourself if you didn't take Miami's travel into account, in this decision. Their Roller Hockey travel was difficult (having to travel to Atlanta GA) twice a year... I know because we are in the same boat. I wish the boys at The U well, but I think the real lesson in this is that they were ice hockey guys who were able to find more ice hockey guys and create a small ice team that plays at a local rink in front of about 60 fans instead of traveling 10+ hours to Atlanta, GA to play in front of no fans. I anticipate they will have a hard time finding a lot of depth for their team in future years, and may go back to roller where 8 skaters and a goalie is a "full team". I wish them the best at whatever they decide.

I think it's also important that the "Northern teams" don't discount the talent from the southern teams, based on the school's geography. Many of the players at these schools came from the "north"..

[hockeykid12]

They don't take into account that Bethel lost to ECU and GMU and hasn't played UCF... By the way the GMU team is essentially the same team that beat Neumann, tied Rowan, and lost to West Chester and Penn State last year by 1 goal.
..

you live for that last sentence.

[NUHockey72]

I think it's also important that the "Northern teams" don't discount the talent from the southern teams, based on the school's geography. Many of the players at these schools came from the "north"..

Try not to confuse, the North with the Atlantic. Most people who neglect the SECRHL are the guys who are involved mostly with the Eastern Pennsylvania/South and Central New Jersey area franchises. If you think getting respect from the "north" is tough, you should try going to PA as a Northern team from beyond New York they think we're a joke despite our record. I think if we here in Boston can make the constant travel to the mid atlantic, with what I'm sure is filled with way more players who came from much more if not as serious ice hockey backgrounds as anyone in the NCRHA, Miami could have continued to thrive. I'm not disagreeing with you however, there is a swagger that the atlantic teams have here that i'm sure are discouraging to any other region but I also think this is an assumption that people feel regarding all of us who play in the ECRHA.

Back to the point I had an option to either start a second Men's club ice at Northeastern which undoubtably would have succeeded; or reinstate a then defunct roller hockey team that owed 5,000.00 dollars to the ECRHA. I'll never regret choosing the latter. I hope the SECRHL's better kept secrets ECU, GMU and CCU do well at Chantilly, VA because parity in the end is what is going to grow our sport in the outlying regions.

[BEEZERAL]

Anybody else find this embarrassing?


I know the Miami guys made an enormous stink last year about how they were almost snuffed out on a bid to DII nationals in Wisconsin last year, then basically rubbed the noses of everyone in the dirt after their successful showing taking home the trophy. As most of the people on this forum is either directly involved with or makes decisions for their NCRHA team of choice; have to avoid at all costs anything that is detrimental to the growth and the production of our sport. To fold up a successful organization that has been in existence since 99-00 with more than half of a roster returning, in favor of a probationary club ice team in a less than weak division is laughable. I suppose what I'm insinuating here is those of you who do run your respective teams, choose your successors wisely to enure to improvment your organizations and continue the longevity of what in my opinion is one of the best run leagues in the nation.

I know this response is 8 months too late, but I am going to reply anyway considering your thoughts have been echoed privately and publicly by many other people including myself to an extent.

First, concerning the stink I made about Miami originally being left out of Nationals. Everything that happend in April of 2011 proved me right. The DII teams in the SECRHL all had outstanding showings at Nationals. The SECRHL made up 3 out of the final 4, and four of the final 8. Our conference was extremely underated going into Nationals, especially by those in the ECRHA. But that is not the point of my post.

When the guys I passed the club on to approached me about shutting down the roller team, I was originally upset. I felt it was the right thing to play one more season and defend the title we all worked extremely hard to earn. But as they explained to me, the momentum was overwhelmingly in favor of the ice team being the only team at Miami. Since the day the club was started in 1999, the eventual goal was to turn the club into an ice hockey team. A large portion of UM's students are from the northeast and there was never a large number of roller hockey players on campus. For many years it was hard enough to find 10 guys that were willing to play roller hockey. We would set up a booth at freshman orientation every year, and every year we would get 5-10 freshman that would say they had a great Ice hockey resume but were unwilling to play roller and to call them when an Ice team got started. To say we were a successful roller organization is going only off the last two years of the roller program. Before that the team was a mess that struggled to field a competitive team on a yearly basis. I can say that when I took over the team after the 2008-2009 season, the first thing I did was see if we could make the switch to ice hockey. I was told by our advisor that the support/financing just wasn't there. Fast forward to last september and things started to quickly change.

For a school that prides itself on athletic acomplishments who had struggled at the NCAA level for almost a decade, a National Championship in anything even club roller hockey was something to celebrate. All of a sudden the club that had to beg and plead for funds of any kind was put to the front of the line and adminstrators went out of their way to get the hockey club the things it needed. The overwhelming thought process was that this is the perfect time to finally get an ice hockey team off the ground. The school finally approved and the flood gates opened.

There was a huge turnout at orientation with a ton of guys that wanted to play. Well known coaches in the area were calling in and volunteered their time. The original plan was to play one more year of roller to defend the title. The only issue was that when looking at both schedules, it was impossible for guys from the roller team to play both ice and roller. (Remember all but two of the roller guys got their start on ice) It basically came down to 3 options. Option 1 was to put the Ice program on hold for a year and make one last run in the NCRHA. Option 2 was to attempt to do both. Option 3 was to end the roller program and focus only on ice hockey.

Option one was quickly thrown out. To get into the ice hockey league, you are required to play a 16 game probationary season to prove to the league that your school is capable of running a team without causing issues such as not showing up to games and things of that nature. The guys returning last year were mostly juniors who wanted to get the probationary year out of the way so they could compete for real in their senior year.

Option 2 was the one I wanted them to choose, but in reality it wasn't a viable option. The schedules didnt mesh well and it would have created a similar situation that USF faced every year. The team would be extremely competitive at local events when the guys who also played Ice could attend. but then they would show up to other events with 5 skaters and struggle before finally deciding not to show up to regionals. The guys didnt want to have the same situation play out with the Miami team. They felt it was better to go out on top rather than struggle through one last season in the NCRHA.

Thats why Option 3 was decided on, and so far it has been the absolute right choice. The Ice team was undefeated last year, and is one of the favorites to win the National Championship this year. They had a ton of guys show up to tryouts, get great fan support from the students for home games, and the school has been extremely supportive. Going back and visiting them is an eye opening experience. The team is running smoothly and is even the Florida Panthers have been in contact with the club's leaders and looking to help out with things like allowing the team to play a game or 2 at the Bank Atlantic Center. Losing the roller team was tough. We went through a lot to get the program where it was, but I don't blame them for the decision they made, and have no doubt it was the right one.

I know this was extremely long winded and 8 months too late, but I hope this clears up any questions people had concerning Miami's decision to shut down the roller club.

[NCRHA]

Alex,

Thank you for really fleshing out how it all happened last year. I know that many teams/team representatives did not know the details. While the NCRHA does not want to lose teams (to ice or otherwise), we wish the Miami Ice Hockey Team the best of luck this season!

--
Brennan Edwards
Executive Director
National Collegiate Roller Hockey League

[BEEZERAL]

Brennan,

Thank you for understanding. It was not an easy decision for the club. We are very greatful for everything the NCRHA did for us in 2011. I hope the day will eventually come where hockey has enough support at miami to be like UCF where the school can have competitive teams in ice and roller.