Aurora University adds women’s ice hockey, men’s volleyball in 2017-18 – Chicago Tribune
Athletic opportunities for students at Aurora University keep growing and growing and growing.
Jim Hamad, the school’s athletic director, announced this week his department will be adding two new sports — women’s ice hockey and men’s volleyball — within the next year. It brings the school’s offerings up to 24 sports.
“The nice thing about women’s ice hockey is it is off campus and doesn’t further strain our campus facilities,” Hamad said. “We’re not first school to add it, but we’re probably still in the early stages of the sport’s development when it comes to this area.
“We’re definitely getting in on time and it was a natural, given the growth of our men’s hockey program.”
AU added men’s hockey as a club sport in the 2012-13 school year and it has grown. Next school year the Spartans will field a team that competes at the NCAA Division III level, along with two levels of men’s club teams in the sport.
All the teams will play at the Fox Valley Ice Arena in Geneva.
“It’s certainly an investment,” Hamad said. “But it will bring in more students and more quality students.”
Men’s volleyball won’t stress facilities either, since it is played indoors in the spring when Thornton Gymnasium isn’t being used for games.
Hamad also pointed to a connection to the sport with AU’s George Williams College branch in Lake Geneva.
That site originally was an extension of George Williams College that started in Chicago and had a connection with the YMCA and moved to Downers Grove before closing in the mid-1980s. It fielded a successful men’s volleyball program that won NAIA national titles in 1974 and 1977.
“There are a number of George Williams College graduates still coaching men’s volleyball,” Hamad said.
The season runs from January through April and this school year featured 75 programs competing at the NCAA Division III level.
The additions continue a growth pattern at the school dating to 2003, when it offered 11 sports, said Brian Kipley, AU’s sports information director.
Noting that AU currently has close to 3,800 undergraduate students among its 5,000 students, Hamad said about one-third are participants in one of the program’s sports teams.
“It’s certainly a device to help with recruiting for your institution as a whole,” he said.
The school has started the process of hiring a coach for each new sport by posting the openings online. Hamad hopes to have coaches hired by May so they can begin recruiting players.
In 2003, AU added seven sports: women’s golf, men’s and women’s cross country as well as indoor and outdoor track and field for men and women. Men’s hockey came on board in 2010-11, men’s hockey and women’s lacrosse both in 2012-13, and women’s bowling this school year.
Men’s volleyball will begin in the 2017-18 school year and play as an independent its first season and then begin play in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, like 18 other AU sports.
Women’s hockey will join 58 programs competing at the D-III level and, along with Lake Forest, just the second in Illinois. The team will play in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association in 2017-18 and be eligible for the Slaats Cup Playoffs and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The NACC consists of 12 colleges and universities from the shared-border states of Illinois and Wisconsin. All of AU’s teams compete in the league with the exception of hockey, men and women’s lacrosse and women’s bowling.
Twitter @RickArmstrong28
About Us
Free Shipping
If your order is $35 or more, you may qualify for free shipping. With free shipping, your order will be delivered 5-8 business days.
