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KING’S COLLEGE ADDING MEN’S AND WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY AS VARSITY SPORTS; TEAMS TO DEBUT IN 2017-18 YEAR

11144WILKES-BARRE — King’s College Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreation Cheryl Ish has announced the college will add men’s and women’s ice hockey to its list of NCAA Division III varsity sports. King’s ice hockey teams will debut in the 2017-18 academic year, following approval by the College’s Board of Directors at its February meeting.

The addition of the two ice hockey programs, along with the current first-year men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field teams, will bring the number of intercollegiate athletic offerings at King’s to 25 varsity sports, second only to Stevenson University’s 27-sport program, in the 17-member Middle Athletic Conference (MAC), according to Ish.

Another MAC member, Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, currently offers both men’s and women’s ice hockey programs. Stevenson, located in Owings Mills, Maryland, offers women’s ice hockey and will begin a men’s program next year. Lebanon Valley College in Annville will begin men’s and women’s ice hockey next year.

“For a number of reasons, the addition of men’s and women’s ice hockey is extremely exciting,” according to Ish, “We will have the opportunity to add approximately 55 student-athletes to the already strong student-athlete total at King’s, where approximately 30-percent of our students participate in an intercollegiate sport. Combined with the rollout of the new athletic logos last year, the recent improvements made to athletic facilities, and the addition of men’s and women’s track and field this academic year, it is a time of tremendous growth for King’s athletics.”

According to the NCAA, during the 2015-16 season a total of 76 men’s varsity programs competed in Division III while 58 women’s varsity programs also took to the ice.

When the sports begin, King’s will field one of only three NCAA Division III men’s programs in the entire state of Pennsylvania. King’s will join Neumann University, located in Aston in the Philadelphia area, and Lebanon Valley College. King’s will also have one of four women’s programs, joining Neumann, Lebanon Valley, and Chatham University of Pittsburgh. Chatham does not field a men’s team.

“Based on conversations with other athletic directors at colleges that offer the sport, we also expect that the ice hockey student-athletes will come not only from our traditional regional recruiting areas, but also from across the country and internationally,” said Janet Mercincavage, vice president for student affairs. “The potential to add a very popular and exciting sport while also increasing the diversity of our student population is an opportunity on which we want to capitalize. The process will begin this spring when King’s starts a national search for head coaches and will continue with a year of recruitment for our first teams.”

At this time King’s has not officially joined a conference due to the recent approval of the sports by the Board of Directors. Games are most often played on Friday and Saturday against the same opponent at one site. Division III teams typically play a 24-25 game schedule. King’s will not begin the scheduling process until men’s and women’s head coaches are on board.

King’s recently completed negotiations regarding a home for both the men’s and women’s programs. Revolution Ice Centre in nearby Pittston will serve as the primary practice and play venue for both teams.

With the birth of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 1999 and the growth of high school and youth programs in the area, the popularity of the sport continues to expand throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania.

“Given the growth of ice hockey at the high school level and the scarcity of Division III programs nationally, we feel that this is a very exciting opportunity for students who want to continue to play after high school while attending a college with a strong liberal arts curriculum, personalized attention, and professional preparation,” said Corry Unis, vice president for enrollment management at King’s.

The lack of Division III ice hockey programs is clear when one considers Lebanon Valley College is the program geographically the closest to King’s with a distance of 91 miles southeast of Wilkes-Barre. Neumann is 117 miles southeast while Manhattanville is 151 miles Northeast. Stevenson is located 176 miles south of King’s, approximately 30 miles north of Baltimore. Chatham is nearly 275 miles west of Wilkes-Barre. The majority of Division III programs are located in the Upstate New York and New England areas as well as in the Great Lakes Region.

“With the growing popularity of ice hockey we are excited about starting up the sport at King’s and being able to help meet the growing demand of those interested in continuing both their education and hockey careers,” Ish added. “For a lot of young men and women, the opportunity to play beyond high school or the junior leagues is limited and King’s College will become one more option available to them.”