Club ice hockey reflects on its season

Over the last 20 years, the University of Richmond Men’s Club Ice Hockey team has grown into an organization that gives players the opportunity to hone their skills on the rink and make lasting memories. 

The club team has been a part of campus since 2001. The club was started by Chris Benard, class of 2004, and 14 other players who missed playing their childhood sport. The club now competes in the American Collegiate Hockey Association division II,  part of the Atlantic Coast Collegiate Hockey League. 

The team currently has a roster of 32 players, with 21 dressing for each game: Two goalies, seven defensemen and 12 forwards. 

“It creates a pretty competitive atmosphere,” junior defenseman and alternate captain Rafael Santomenna said.

Santomenna grew up outside of Boston. He learned how to skate and ski at age 3, and his baseball coach, who also coached hockey, introduced him to the sport around age 8. He quickly fell in love with hockey, and has been playing ever since. 

“I didn’t even know we had a club hockey team,” Santonmenna said, recalling his first-year at UR. A friend saw him in class wearing a hockey sweatshirt and encouraged him to look into the team, Santonmenna said. He took his friend up on the offer, and he’s been a member ever since.

Ethan Gail, senior winger and team captain, enrolled at UR with the intention of joining the club ice hockey team. He said he considered several schools before he realized that UR would be the place for him to reach both his academic and athletic goals. This year, Gail was voted captain by his teammates and approved by his coach.

“Everyone actively loves him,” Santomenna said. “Every day, no matter what, he’s gonna give it his all.” 

This praise likely stems from Gail’s approach to captaincy. 

“I think my leadership style is direct,” said Gail. “We have an open line of communication and I kind of serve as a buffer between the coaches and the players.”

Because UR does not have an on-campus ice rink, the team uses the local Richmond Ice Zone. 

The team practices up to twice a week, but usually just once.

“Personally, I like it a lot because it’s like, your night’s over and you’re just going to go play hockey now,” Santomenna said. 

Head Coach Jason Block, who is in charge of scheduling games and practices with the league and rink, recognizes the timing isn’t ideal. “Middle of the week late at night is not optimal but, you know, you can’t give the slot to a group of ten-year-olds,” he says. 

Block has been the head coach of the Spiders ice hockey team since 2016. 

“I graduated from college in 2008 and I took a normal job but I knew I wanted to jump right into coaching,” Block said. “I started at a high school level and did that for about seven years, but I wanted to take the jump to the next level, and that desire coincided with an opening here,” he says.

The Spiders’ season started with team practices in August and ended in mid-February with the playoffs that took place Feb. 14-16. During the season, the team usually plays one to two games per weekend. 

Block explained that the team’s recruitment for the year starts the season before and relies on potential players reaching out to them once they’re accepted into the University. 

“They identify to us that this is in their realm and that’s when we put the pressure on,” he said. 

First-year center Will McGee confirmed this. 

“It was pretty easy to find out about,” McGee said. “I sent coach Block an email and we talked after that, so I already had an idea of the practice schedule and things like that going into in the fall.”

This year, UR began gameplay in September, alternating between wins and losses. They lost their first game to George Washington University 2-4, then a week later went on to beat the University of Virginia 5-2, a team who Santomenna says the Spiders had never beaten before.

The Spiders soon established a stable groove throughout the season, reaching triumphs and creating proud memories to look back on. One that stood out for Gail was their recent senior night matchup against Duke University on Friday Feb. 7.

“It was a ton of fun, and we had over 100 fans here. It’s been a while since we had that many fans, so that was really meaningful,” he said.

The Spiders finished their regular season with a 7-4-2-1 record with 7 wins, 4 losses, 2 overtime wins and 1 overtime loss. “We’ve been playing good hockey, beating some teams we should beat, and a couple losses we don’t want in there, but we have a lot of depth,” Santomenna said. “If one guy gets hurt…next guy up, take a spot, keep going.” 

After a close game, the Spiders ended their season with a 2-3 loss at the ACCHL playoffs in Winston-Salem against Wake Forest University on Friday, Feb. 14.   

Contact sports writer Erica Rogers at erica.rogers@richmond.edu