Three games into its inaugural season, club ice hockey has finally taken off.
The club team was started in the fall as a solution to the glut of strong players in the intramural leagues who showed little interest in playing at varsity level. A club team would allow team coordinator Chris Talbot '06 and others to play at a higher level than intramurals without having to put in the time commitment for varsity.
"Intramurals were fun, but there was a large disparity in skill level. We felt like it would be better to have the intermediate level between varsity and intramurals," Talbot said.
The road to forming a club team was not an easy one, as Brown has put club teams in limbo while trying to put a permanent arrangement for such teams in place.
"It was difficult to push things through in the beginning because they weren't really sure how they wanted to deal with club teams," Talbot said.
"(Talbot) tried to get (a team) going last year and it just didn't happen. There was that period when they didn't want to fund new clubs and activities," said team-member John Chernin '06.
For starters, the team needed ice time to show the administration that having a team could work.
"We got organized late so we didn't get good ice time. Sometimes we have practice at 8 (p.m.) and that works really great for us, but other times we try to grab a half an hour on Thursday mornings when a lot of people have class. Hopefully for next year we will be able to reserve ice time in the spring so we can get better times," Talbot said.
Talbot and others dealt with the times and began their first full season this semester. The team is currently composed of 18 students, all of whom play at a high level.
"Everyone who wanted to get involved had played for a long time. They already had all of the equipment. So we ended up having a group of guys who were at the right skill level," Talbot said.
The new club may be muscling in on the territory of the Nads, the Rhode Island School of Design's club hockey team. Last year, when recruiting for club hockey at Brown fell short, several players from Brown joined the Nads. Now, fewer skaters are looking to play for the Nads, and conflicting game schedules forced players who were on both teams to choose at the beginning of the season.
"I think Brown having a club team has hurt them a little bit. Sometimes both teams have games on the same night and you can't skate for both teams. RISD has lost some of the good skaters to Brown," said James Feldman '07, who played for the Nads last year.
The team is currently 2-1 on the season, with wins against Babson and Tufts and a loss to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. This weekend features two rematches, as Brown tangles with Tufts on Friday and faces off against Babson on Saturday. Match-ups with both Rhode Island College and Connecticut College are in the not-too-distant future before the Ivy League Club Ice Hockey tournament at the end of spring break at Yale.
"We are hoping to get out there, have a good game and hoping to get some fans out there," Talbot said.
