Gift To Ice Hockey Club Team Allows For Locker Room Makeover
A little more than a year after moving into their sparkling downtown Springfield home, the Tiger ice hockey club team has a locker room to call its own.
Wittenberg ice hockey club team members have plenty of space to prepare for games and practices and store their equipment at the Chiller.
Photo by Erin Pence
Springfield, Ohio – Since the opening of the National Trail Parks and Recreation Department (NTPRD) Chiller in October 2013, Wittenberg University’s ice hockey club team has enjoyed great success on the ice. Since the middle of the 2014-15 season, the Tigers have also had a locker room space in the facility befitting a championship caliber team.
An anonymous Wittenberg alumnus worked with a local non-profit organization to secure a grant in 2014 to fund construction of the new locker room, located just steps from the Chiller’s popular ice rink. As a result, Wittenberg’s ice hockey club team members have a space to call their own as they practice and host games in the National Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA).
“It’s nice to give the hometown team a permanent place to call home and take pride in,” said Assistant General Manager of OhioHealth Chiller Ice Rinks Jeremy Rogers. “We hope this is a step that allows the program to grow and flourish.”
The club has flourished in two seasons in the Chiller, located just blocks from campus in downtown Springfield. The Tigers won the Buckeye Conference a year ago to advance to the 2014 Collegiate Ice Hockey Association (CIHA) Championship Tournament, and this year Wittenberg recorded a high finish in the NCHA while competing with the likes of Xavier, Denison, Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, Marshall and Otterbein. The Tigers earned a second straight berth in the CIHA Championship Tournament but declined the bid due to schedule conflicts for several key players.
Previously, the Tigers played and practiced in the Dayton suburb of Kettering, which required long drives and limited home crowds. The team now regularly attracts hundreds of fans to home games.
“The past two seasons at the rink have been the best the team has seen,” said club president Alex Beebe, class of 2015. “It has been great seeing people come to our games and seeing the student body supporting us. Also it has made marketing the team easier by giving the team a place to call home.”
Beebe said the addition of the locker room, which was completed in December 2014, has made team members feel even better about their home facility.
“It gives us a clean, dry place to keep our gear, and it has made getting ready for games and practices much more comfortable,” he said.
From the viewpoint of NTPRD, Rogers said he hopes this is just the beginning of a great partnership.
“We want to help them grow the program any way we can,” he said. “We think it could be an attractive piece of Wittenberg’s Department of Athletics.
“We also see the team and players helping us inspire young local players to take up the game of hockey. The players have been great helping with coaching clinics, classes and teams for us, so it has been a great relationship so far.”
Beebe agrees that after two seasons in the Chiller, Wittenberg’s ice hockey club team is headed in the right direction.
“The future of the team is looking bright,” Beebe concluded. “The relationship between the Chiller and the team benefits everyone, and I think both have promising futures.”
Written By: Ryan Maurer