The Kennesaw State ice hockey team played their home opener against Middle Tennesee State University on Sept. 23 and 24 at the Atlanta Ice House, dropping the first game 7-4 and winning the second game 3-2.
The team opened their season on the road against the University of Alabamaon Sept. 9 and 10 and then played the University of Alabama-Huntsville on Sept. 16 and 17. Both of these series ended in losses for the Owls, but they remained optimistic heading into their first homestand of the year.
“There’s been a lot of work that has gone into starting the season and putting on events and having a larger staff than we’ve ever had for our team,” President Michael Cooprider said, “Hopefully, it will be extremely fun and everyone will enjoy it.”
The Owls put up a total of eight goals over their first four games and were looking for their first win against MTSU, a team who also went winless over their first two weeks of playing. The Owls say that preparing for this game is no different than how they approach any other.
“I mean every game you gotta play like it’s the best you’re ever going to play.” Forward Chris Scott said, “You just gotta go hard every time, that’s always the mentality.”
The home opener also doubled as Greek night for KSU Ice Hockey. They advertised a contest on their Instagram page offering a $300 donation to the fraternity or sorority that had the most members in attendance.
“Tonight is an investment into marketing,” Cooprider said, “Realistically, this is what $300 tonight is going into, I just felt like the amount of budget we have we can spare some more money to try and encourage people to come.”
Encouraging people to come to games is one of the biggest hurdles for the team. In the state of Georgia, the highest level of hockey you’ll find is the ECHL, a mid-level “AA” league with teams in Duluth and Savannah.
“A lot of people down in the south here just don’t know what hockey is like and it’s very hard to describe how a game is,” Forward Luka Ivutin said, “It’s just getting them out to a first game.”
Growing slightly in popularity has been Georgia’s three college teams, the University of Georgia Ice Dawgs, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Kennesaw State Owls. Through marketing and increasing its presence on campus, KSU hopes to build its reputation on campus as the season rolls on.
“I really wish we could have a lot of student support, a lot of people have never seen a hockey game,” Director of Interns Ali Griffith said, “I’ve taken a lot of my friends to their first ever hockey game and they just immediately fell in love with it and I’m hoping that if we get a better outreach here that’s gonna happen and hopefully hockey will be a bigger thing at Kennesaw.”
The Owls aren’t only focusing on external outreach and fan support, but the internal structure of the team remains an incredibly important component to success as well.
“Like I told my players, I’m building this thing as a business and I’m approaching it from that point of view, but I want everyone to enjoy it and really love hockey,” Cooprider said, “Because we’re all here trying to put the effort in, for the love of the sport. And we’re running this thing with no pay because we love it. So realistically, if you love it you have to dedicate yourself to it, and that’s really all there is to it.”
The Owls will head back on the road for a few weeks before returning home against the University of Georgia on Nov. 4. The full schedule is available on their website.
