The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Hockey Club has an 8-2 record this season and is currently ranked 12th with its next home game on Nov. 6, 2015 where they are going up against St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. Junior team captain Owen Ahlström, said the UWO Hockey Club is an “on the rise” team and hopes to compete in the Northern Collegiate Hockey League Tournament in February. “My freshman year the team was nothing but freshmen, and we had never played together,” Ahlström said. “Now we have a solid team of juniors and seniors along with a solid group of freshmen. We’re now at a point where we want to succeed. Our hard work is paying off. [We are working on] winning our conference games so we can get to the [NCHL].” Head coach Chris Huebel said, to gain potential players the coaches go out to senior showcases at the end of the school year to spectate. They look for future team members who show character and are serious about their education. “A main thing I look for is character,” Huebel said. “[They have to be] good kids on and off the ice. They also have to be serious about their education and be passionate about hockey.” As far as the hockey team being a club sport rather than a part of UWO athletics, Ahlström said the guys really enjoy what they do and they love helping out at its home facility, the YMCA. “Even though we’re a club and not a part of the athletics at UWO, we help out the YMCA,” Ahlström said. “Local kids [starting out] look up to us as inspiration to get better.” The team gives its all at every game it plays. They think there is a huge fan base for hockey on campus, but they are always looking to promote the club. In order to raise awareness for the Hockey Club, the team sets up a table at Reeve Memorial Union twice a week from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. when there is a game. Ahlström said a main thing they do to get people to come out to games is tell as many people as possible about the club. “We get the word out about the team by word of mouth, mainly,” Ahlström said. “We tell our friends and try to get them to tell other friends. We also have tables in Reeve and we give out flyers.” Junior goal tender Tony Francois said that club hockey gets over looked even though the team has a table and hands out flyers. Freshman Adam Stanton said the team is always hanging out together and creating great friendships. This was part of the transition from high school to college hockey that he had to get used to. “It seems like we are a lot closer,” Stanton said. “All the guys hang out a lot more [than in high school]. In high school they had cliques within the team that people would hang out with. Here they don’t have that. There is also size difference; there are more guys on this team.” OSA is sponsoring a free bus on Friday, Nov. 6, which will leave Reeve at 6:30 p.m. for the YMCA and come back after the game around 10 p.m.
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Hockey wins first six of seven games
November 5, 2015
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