{"id":11059,"date":"2015-03-25T18:26:58","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T23:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=11059"},"modified":"2015-09-23T10:56:29","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T15:56:29","slug":"illinois-growing-as-hockey-power-despite-lack-of-ncaa-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/illinois-growing-as-hockey-power-despite-lack-of-ncaa-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois growing as hockey power despite lack of NCAA programs"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ryan Lund<\/p>\n

Miami University freshman Louie Belpedio was still a few months shy of the delivery room the last time a Division I college hockey team represented the state of Illinois.<\/p>\n

A product of Skokie and youth hockey powerhouse Team Illinois<\/a>, Belpedio is one of 61 Illinois natives competing on Division I teams across the country, more than all but four other states in the U.S.<\/p>\n

However, while top talent producers Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts and New York all boast at least five NCAA Division I programs, college hockey at its highest level has been conspicuously absent in Illinois for nearly 20 years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that college hockey would draw a lot of Chicago kids to go to [an Illinois school], no different than Minnesota, where the majority of their kids are from that state,\u201d Belpedio said.<\/p>\n

Illinois has seen its youth hockey totals surge in recent years, jumping from just under 22,000 players in 2009, to nearly 28,000 players in 2013, according to enrollment statistics released by USA Hockey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The timeline parallels the Blackhawks\u2019 Stanley Cup revival, and the numbers are still growing.<\/p>\n

USA Hockey\u2019s enrollment records show that 29,977 players registered to play in Illinois last year, up 7.8 percent from the previous year.<\/p>\n

But despite a surplus of top players, Illinois remains a flyover state on college hockey\u2019s western landscape, a gaping hockey hole surrounded by programs like Notre Dame, Miami-Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota.<\/p>\n

College hockey across the country<\/h1>\n

[field name=”IllinoisHockeyMap”]<\/p>\n

Illinois is surrounded by college hockey programs, situated squarely in the middle of three Division I conferences. (Ryan Lund\/Medill)<\/div>\n

\u201cI think that Illinois produces some really good hockey players, and the success of the programs in Illinois is great at all the different age levels, not just one or two,\u201d Belpedio said.<\/p>\n

And the players aren\u2019t the only ones to have noticed Illinois’ rise.<\/p>\n

Detroit-native Larry Pedrie coached the most recent Illinois entry through its final seasons, leading the University of Illinois-Chicago from 1990 until the program\u2019s demise in 1996.<\/p>\n

Despite a four-year playing career at Michigan\u2019s Ferris State University and a lengthy college coaching resume, the Chicago resident isn\u2019t afraid to compare his adopted home to the city known as \u201cHockeytown.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at the players that have come out of Detroit and Chicago, and you compare them with the players that have come out of Minnesota, and then out east, I think that the players here are as good as the players anywhere,\u201d Pedrie said.<\/p>\n

Mike Snee, executive director of College Hockey Inc.<\/a>, a non-profit organization that promotes and markets the game to prospective recruits, said that Illinois is on his short list when it comes to hockey states that lack an NCAA program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIllinois and California are co-number ones in terms of the state,\u201d he said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t received any contact from any school in either state though.\u201d<\/p>\n

College Hockey Inc. also provides information to prospective hockey schools on how best to begin competing in the costly sport.<\/p>\n

It took $88 million \u2013 the single largest donation in Penn State history \u2013 to lift the Nittany Lions from so-called \u201cclub\u201d status to Division I back in 2012.<\/p>\n

More than 2,000 miles away, in sweltering Tempe, Arizona State will attempt to make the transition in 2017 with less than half of that amount, a comparatively paltry $36 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you start to think about all of the expenses involved, it isn\u2019t necessarily just travel,\u201d Snee said. \u201cIt\u2019s also the facilities, the scholarships, the opportunity costs and then, in addition, being Title IX compliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

While financial hurdles certainly played a role in UIC\u2019s decision to drop hockey 19 years ago, Pedrie said that the program\u2019s issues ran much deeper.<\/p>\n

Shuttered just 14 years after their inception, the Flames were unable to bring the nation\u2019s top talent to Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor kids that were looking for a traditional campus, who wanted things to do on the weekends, you just didn\u2019t have that at UIC,\u201d Pedrie said. \u201cIt was a commuter school, it\u2019s still a commuter school, and when we would bring kids in for visits I think that was visible.<\/p>\n

Today, recruiting would likely take a backseat to other problems inherent in starting a major hockey program.<\/p>\n

Tom Wendlandt, Director of Hockey Operations at Robert Morris University-Illinois<\/a>, said the school considered elevating its highly successful American Collegiate Hockey Association program to NCAA status several years ago, but that the logistics of the move were problematic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had such a great success in building our brand at Robert Morris via athletics that we took a very serious look at moving to the NCAA maybe seven or eight years ago,\u201d Wendlandt said.<\/p>\n

Wendlandt said he encountered tough standards at the conference level, where league officials told him RMU would need to spend more than a decade competing in the NCAA before it would be allowed to join its college hockey neighbors Minnesota and Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

Spending a large chunk of its schedule traveling beyond the Midwest by joining another conference just wasn\u2019t a viable option.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re either going to need to play independent, or you\u2019re going to have to play in a league with Mercyhurst and Niagara and your travel expenses are going to be outrageous,\u201d Wendlandt said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, RMU\u2019s American Collegiate Hockey Association<\/a> squad competes outside of the NCAA, in the same league that helped vault Penn State and ASU into the national spotlight, and where it has found substantial success.<\/p>\n

A 17-year veteran of the RMU hockey scene, Wendlandt is tired of seeing his teams misrepresented due to their lack of NCAA credentials.<\/p>\n

\u201cClub is a four-letter word as far as I\u2019m concerned,\u201d Wendlandt said. \u201cThe ACHA has spent a good deal of time working to build its own brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Established in 1991 as an alternative to the NCAA game, the organization included nearly 400 men\u2019s programs spread across three divisions in last season, as well as 36 women\u2019s programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have our own national governing body. We\u2019re affiliated with USA Hockey,\u201d he said. \u201cWe send an all-star team to the World University Games that wear the USA sweater.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the Illinois hockey scene continues to produce a large contingent of college hockey players, and NCAA schools like Miami, post-season bound at 13-13-1 with six Illinois players on the roster, continue to put them to good use.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t say a single bad thing about [Miami],\u201d Belpedio said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that I could have made a better choice.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Miami University freshman Louie Belpedio is one of six Illinois natives on the RedHawks roster. (Miami University Athletics)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ryan Lund Miami University freshman Louie Belpedio was still a few months shy of the delivery room the last time a Division I college hockey team represented the state of Illinois. A product of Skokie and youth hockey powerhouse Team Illinois, Belpedio is one of 61 Illinois natives competing on Division I teams across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":11111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-interest"],"yoast_head":"\nIllinois growing as hockey power despite lack of NCAA programs - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/illinois-growing-as-hockey-power-despite-lack-of-ncaa-programs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Illinois growing as hockey power despite lack of NCAA programs - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Ryan Lund Miami University freshman Louie Belpedio was still a few months shy of the delivery room the last time a Division I college hockey team represented the state of Illinois. 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