Northwestern Naturals Will Play ACHA Hockey in the Fall
Posted on Aug. 19, 2009
Thanks to the support of the Northwestern College of Chiropractic (NWCC) Alumni Association, Northwestern Health Sciences University will field an intercollegiate men’s club ice hockey team this fall.
The University’s club hockey team, The Naturals, will play in the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA). Northwestern will play a 20-25 game schedule against teams from throughout the Upper Midwest. ACHA hockey is full-contact hockey and follows most of the rules and regulations of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) hockey. The main difference is that schools cannot provide scholarships to players.
The NWCC Alumni Association provided $10,000 in funding to the team for their 2009-2010 season. According to Dave Neubauer, DC, president of the NWCC Alumni Association, “This is a great way for Northwestern to build its brand nationally, for our University to promote the chiropractic profession, and to provide our students, employees and alumni with an athletic focal point that will strengthen the sense of community among our key stakeholders. Sports are a wonderful way to create ‘spirit’ in an institution.”
The team will carry up to 20 players on its roster this season. Currently, all of the players are enrolled in the chiropractic program. Players’ previous experience ranges from playing on ACHA teams as undergraduates, to playing Junior hockey in Canada.
“We plan on three or four road trips this fall and winter to play opponents in Iowa, Wisconsin, and South Dakota,” says John Healy, hockey club advisor and the University’s director of communications. “We hope that alumni from those states will attend our away games and provide us with a ‘home-ice’ advantage on the road.” Among the teams that Northwestern expects to play are the University of Minnesota, Mankato State University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Wisconsin. Home games will be at the Bloomington Ice Garden or Richfield Ice Arena.
The team will unveil a website later this summer that will include player profiles and the season’s schedule.