From The Creightonian
By Julia Finn
The Creighton club hockey team qualified for nationals this season for the first time in history, but due to logistics and the cost to travel to Boston, the trip was almost impossible.
After being ranked No. 20 throughout this season, at the last minute, the team moved into the top 16 in rankings out of a total of 97 teams and qualified for nationals. The unexpected higher ranking meant a potential trip to Boston to compete with the best club teams.
It was exciting news for the team.
“Everyone was obviously happy and proud. We were just like that’s really awesome,” said Luke Kubicek, club president and senior in the Heider College of Business.
Although having success in previous seasons, this year it all came together. “Last year we had a really good team, but this year we added some good freshmen and rounded out the team,” Kubicek said. The team compiled a 13-2-3 record.
Because the team had never reached nationals before, the Creighton Students Union club funding for each season had never been a problem. After CSU proposes and finalizes a budget for club sports, funds are allocated to the team in order to offset some of the expenses.
“It is very exciting that the club hockey team qualified for nationals, and it is a definite representation of their constant hard work and commitment to the sport, however, due to what our CSU bylaws and constitution states, we were unable to provide funding because we had already allocated our 7.5% of the budget to the competitive sports clubs as a whole,” CSU Vice President for Finance Emily Meister said.
Struggling to come up with money for the trip, the team started a GoFundMe and shared the link via social media to gain support from friends, family and Creighton hockey fans. Despite an outpouring of donations reaching $13,000 out of the team’s $22,000 goal, the trip was ultimately too costly, and the team had to conclude it was not feasible this year.
The future looks bright for the team as many donors told the team to keep their donation for future years. With nationals being in St. Louis next year, the potential trip would be much more affordable.
“It’s a bummer that it didn’t work out this season but having to reschedule tests would’ve been a struggle, and we are already looking forward to next year thanks to the generosity of the donors,” said, Sam Hingsberger, player and sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. Although their hard work this season did not equate to a trip to nationals, the team was just happy to spend another year playing the sport they love.
(Originally published at https://www.creightonian.com/scene/article_42eb6b24-cf51-11ed-9593-d79efd27c355.html)
