On Saturday, the Ole Miss hockey team defeated the Mississippi State Bulldogs 19-0 in what was dubbed the “Frozen Egg Bowl.”
3,584 people gathered in the Bancorp South Arena in Tupelo, Mississippi, to watch the game, a record for college hockey in the state of Mississippi.
The fans in attendance saw a dominant performance by the Rebels. What those 3,500 plus fans don’t see is the incredible amount of dedication and hard work that goes into building a hockey program from the ground up.
Since its inaugural season in 2009, the Ole Miss hockey team has continued to build a successful program, reaching regionals four out of the last five years and making it to nationals in three of the last four years. They are also on pace to make it back this season as a part of the ACHA. Although technically classified as a club team, head coach Dan Armstrong wants people to know that they are much more than that.
“We are not a group of guys that get together, drink during the week and sometimes play hockey,” Armstrong said. “We have $100,000 budget; we have a three-person coaching staff plus a general manager; we’re actively recruiting both in and out of state. This is not a glorified intramural sport. We practice twice a week; we play 25 games, and that’s before the postseason.”
With ice-time for practice costing an upward of $30,000 a season, that is just the tip of the iceberg for Armstrong and the Ole Miss hockey team. Receiving minimal assistance, the players and coaches are left to secure funds or, else, be left without a way to operate. Armstrong credits the dedication of his players and others for the ability to keep the program going.
“We take this very seriously. We have a six-figure budget, and we have to self-fund almost all of it,” Armstrong said. “If you want to talk about dedication, you can look at our players who have to pay tuition, housing, books and $2,000 worth of dues each season. We have to fundraise like crazy, and if it wasn’t for the parents and people around Oxford, we wouldn’t be here. Without guys like John Dessler [owner of The Library Sports Bar], we wouldn’t have a hockey team.”
With no ice-rink in Oxford, the team travels an hour each way at least twice a week to Olive Branch, both for practice and to play “home” games. Without a true home rink, the Rebels are left without a locker room to store equipment, leaving freshmen to find ways to store gear without smelling up their dorm rooms. Armstrong noted that on the first day after tryouts, teammates have to sit down and figure out a carpool schedule for practices, and guys try to find places to store their equipment. Armstrong talked about the “stigma” that floats around hockey in the South, and wants people to realize something that may bring a few more eyes to the program.
“It’s a labor of love and a struggle that a rink around here would absolutely help,” Armstrong said. “I want more people to look at hockey a little differently. It really is one of the most fast-paced, best fan environment sports that there is. There are two sports you’re legally allowed to put Ole Miss on your jersey, go out and put someone with Mississippi State on their jersey on their butt, and stand over them to celebrate the fact that you did that: one is football and the other is hockey.”
The level of success from the Ole Miss hockey team is only matched by teams that have the luxury of a home rink. Despite the success, Armstrong still gets a question that is all too familiar.
“This team has done so much in such little time that they deserve much more respect than they get,” Armstrong said. “With the amount of success we’ve had it’s crazy that you still get people asking, ‘Ole Miss has a hockey team?’ When you look at what we’ve done while self-funding most of it, it is remarkable; but a few years ago, three teams from the SEC made it to nationals: Arkansas, Alabama, and Ole Miss, and of the three, we are the only ones without a home rink or the facilities that the other schools have.”
Armstrong noted that an ice rink in Oxford would not only benefit the program but the city as well. He spoke about a hockey culture in Mississippi that is much more prevalent than most people may believe. The existence of a Mississippi High School Hockey
The existence of a Mississippi High School Hockey League and youth programs continuing to grow gives legitimacy to Armstrong’s hope to bring a home rink to the city of Oxford. Armstrong talked about the hope that it be a community center/rink that would allow for indoor soccer, batting cages for baseball on rainy days, and much more that he feels the community needs.
“You’re telling me that a place like Oxford on a Friday night, parents wouldn’t bring their kids to an ice-skating rink? And there’s not a sport that’s played in Oxford or Lafayette that isn’t taken incredibly seriously, and I don’t know why hockey should be any different,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong has a belief that if they continue to put in the type of effort they’ve shown over the years, the rest will fall into place. He knows that if 3,500 people will travel to Tupelo for a game, the audience for the hockey team is certainly there, and his goal is to help deliver a winning program to Ole Miss.
“This doesn’t happen without the hard work and dedication of everyone involved… the founders, all of the coaches, the players, the parents and our supporters. It’s been eight years of everyone who wants to make this into something more, doing everything they can to make it something more,” Armstrong said. “Myself and my assistants, Phil Jacquot and Justin Ragland, have a goal that is to one day be named on a small plaque in the back corner of a big coliseum in Oxford. We don’t need our name in lights, we just want to be a part of the beginning of something that we can look back on and be proud that we helped build it.”
To hear from head coach Dan Armstrong check out the video below.
Steven Gagliano is a writer for HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at steven.gagliano@hottytoddy.com.
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