The University of Idaho Ice Hockey Club is one of the longest running clubs at the university. It has a large fanbase and dedicated players who love what they do.
Despite the inclusion of “club” in their title, the team is a part of the American College Hockey Association. They play against other schools such as Eastern Washington, Gonzaga, Boise State and other colleges.
Every Tuesday night, the hockey players gather at the Palouse Ice Rink to practice for an hour, including Club President Wyatt Tatakis.
Recruitment has been hard for the team since hockey is a close contact sport, and people are nervous about COVID-19, Tatakis said. The group has 15 players, which is enough to field a team, but Tatakis said they need at least 23 for a practice squad. That way they would be able to scrimmage like they are playing another team.
“It’s been harder to keep the participation up,” Tim Barningham, one of the captains of the club, said. “I’ve just tried to show everyone just what it means to be a Vandal hockey player, and the kind of work and effort that we have to put in to keep the team together and keep things running.”
The UI Ice Hockey Club is still accepting recruits, and anyone who wants to play can go onto the UI website for club sports.
Another issue for the hockey club is being a contact sport during a pandemic, when social distancing is encouraged. It has impacted their season and how they are able to play significantly.
“We had a whole bunch (of games) scheduled, but as it was coming down to the school year, there’s nothing,” Tatakis said. “We haven’t been able to get on the ice much. The school is not even letting us travel around.”
While the team isn’t playing against other colleges right now, they are still able to get on the ice and play in another league. The Palouse Adult League, a local hockey team made up of community members, is still active and the team is still able to play a few games competing against them.
However, teams are limited because they are in a no-contact league, so all checks and slams normally in a game are not allowed.
“We’re still college students, we’re expecting to play contact hockey,” Tatakis said. “Everyone else who’s in this league, they all have real jobs, you know, with families. They’re not signing up to be potentially getting railed and be concussed because somebody decided to get a little angry.”
Playing in the local league allows them to get on the ice and do what they love. It keeps them in shape as well, getting them prepared for a potential fall 2021 season. Tatakis said he was disappointed because he thought this would be his last season, but he decided to come back for another semester and is happy to be able to play. Barningham said he was disappointed he wouldn’t be playing because this is his final season this semester.
“This is kind of my last year to playing in a more competitive kind of environment,” Barningham said. “It was disappointing for me in that aspect, but at the same time I know how hard this has been on everyone else and all the other things that have been either changed or cancelled.”
Barningham understands how a lot of other sports were impacted by COVID-19, but he said he is glad to be playing with the local league. He said it helped lessen the impact of how much COVID-19 has taken from his final season.
Tatakis said he is hopeful they will have a season of playing against other colleges in the fall, because their club events usually attract a lot of fans. He said they have hundreds of fans, who attends their games and support them. It provides motivation for them to get out on the rink and play hard.
Ryan Hill can be reached at [email protected]