Hockey sticks stacked against a house
(Photo: Darcy Herrfort | Twitter)

Ending a deep playoff run to finish as the league runner-up last season, Hillsdale’s club hockey team is skating for another shot at the league championship despite starting its season without a goalie.

The club was founded in 2019 and competes in the D Division Men’s League.

Almost halfway through the 24-game regular season, the team’s record stands at 3-4-4. The high number of tied games is unusual, senior and club president Brady Birmingham said, but that won’t stop the team from making the playoffs.

Birmingham said the team’s chemistry on the ice has improved rapidly in the last couple months.

“Everyone’s got a different playing style, and most of us haven’t played more than a season with each other, so we’ve been figuring out how each person plays,” Birmingham said. “As this season goes on, our chemistry and passing have gotten way better. Overall, our team has been playing a lot better, our trajectory keeps going up.”

According to Birmingham, the biggest challenge so far this season was when the team had to play without a goalie.

“At the beginning of the season, we had a two-game stretch where we didn’t have a goalie and just had to play with an empty net, which was a bummer,” Birmingham said. “Teams could score on us from half court. But I found two goaltenders that play for different teams that were willing to step in and help us out, and we haven’t had an issue with having a goalie for a while now.”

Austin Gergens, a graduate student at the Van Andel School of Statesmanship, said playing with the various non-student goalies has been interesting.

“We seem to have a different goalie every game,” Gergens said. “And so that’s an interesting challenge we’ve had to work with. Having to adjust our gameplay based on their skill level has just been a fun added challenge.”

Gergens said he was an inaugural member of the hockey club as an undergraduate in the fall semester of 2019.

“COVID kind of killed the end of our season, but we were doing decently well,” Gergens said. “It’s been fun to watch the club continue from my time as an undergraduate, and be able to play again for the team.”

Director of Club Sports Ryan Perkins ‘22 said he co-founded the hockey club with fellow classmate Zach Niebolt. 

“He and I — really it was mostly Zach — just found out that there was a lot of interest on campus from guys who had played hockey or wanted to learn how to play hockey,” Perkins said. “We had been skating at a local backyard rink for a while, and we’d get groups of 15 to 20 students out there playing pickup.”

The club currently practices at two outdoor rinks in Hillsdale. Derek Spiteri, the owner of local sandwich shop Handmade, owns one of the rinks — and also plays with the team.

“The team is pretty competitive this year,” Spiteri said. “We have kind of a good group of Hillsdale students, and then a recurring cast of characters that we’ve brought into the fold from the greater Chelsea area. So, the locker room just has a really good vibe to it.”

Sophomore Connor O’Donohue said the hockey club is a great way to stay active in the Michigan winter.

“It’s not super high-pressure,” O’Donohue said. “If you’re not incredible at hockey, that’s definitely okay. It’s a great way to hang out with people, to be active and to just enjoy a sport together.”

Senior Sean DaRos, the club’s vice president, said the biggest stumbling block to playing hockey is learning how to skate.

“You really have to skate in order to learn to skate,” DaRos said. “You can’t cut corners. You have to just get experience, it’s like that with a lot of things. We’ve found that people who want to skate and play hockey, even if they’re not super experienced, can figure it out pretty well.”

Spiteri said students should take advantage of the rare chance to play hockey for free.

“It’s such a fun, fast-paced sport,” Spiteri said. “You just get pulled into it — if you turn away, you’re going to miss something. So it really captures all of your attention. That’s why it’s, for me, one of the most fun things to do.”