By: Drew Hyatt
SPRINGDALE, Ark. (UATV) — At the beginning of the 2024-2025 season, The University of Arkansas Hockey Club will be advancing from the Mid-American Collegiate Conference (MACHA) Silver to the MACHA Gold conference.
The Razorbacks have found success at the Division III level by qualifying for eight National Tournaments, appearing in the 2021 and 2022 Frozen Four, and winning the 2022 MACHA conference championship. Recent success and moving up helps make the future of the program more for younger players and recruits looking to join a program.
“Yeah, there were a few other options, but they had a really good program and were on the up and up and next year we are going DII actually, so that was kind of an inspiration for me. This is a good program. We have a lot of good stuff going for us,” said sophomore defenseman Ethan Rogers.
From it’s origin in 2009 to December 14, 2023, the club had compiled 370 wins.
“It’s a winning culture. Winning is everything, and if we do anything short of that it is viewed as a negative, said senior forward Trevor Borlace.
The Central Region that the Hogs are placed in will feature teams from the Midwest region of the United States such as Bradley, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Illinois State, and SIUE. As a matter of fact, Arkansas will be hosting Division II opponent Drury at the Jones Center in Springdale on Friday night at 7:30 and Saturday afternoon at 2:00.
Recruiting and developing young talent for depth in their lines will be essential if the Hogs want to compete with teams in a more prestigious conference.
“We don’t want to go up and not be competitive, so myself and Coach Falls have gone out and tried to recruit juniors and higher levels of U18s. It’s nice with our program with the level of success that we’ve had to build off that and guys want to come here and play here. The word is out that this is a fun place to play and a great school. We have great crowds and great fan support, so it’s an easy sell. The campus is beautiful. The University of Arkansas is awesome. Top business school. We have a lot of engineers as well. It’s just going out and finding kids that are competitive and can make us a better team with the move up and want to be a hog,” said Head Coach Keller Sims.
Regardless of the level of the competition, an established culture within the program leads the players to become successful in all areas in which life places them.