COLD as ICE

Coming this Saturday, LSU students will need to put on their hoodies and zip up their jackets. For the first time in school history, the LSU club ice hockey team will debut against the Tulane University Green Wave. An 18-man roster showcasing mainly freshmen and sophomores will hit the ice Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m. at Leo's Iceland to compete in a game most have not played since their club teams in high school. The matches against Tulane will be the only two games of the season for the LSU club team. "We started [the club] last year, but we haven't really gotten much organized until this year," said the club's founder, sophomore psychology major Kyle Morgan. "Hopefully we will have a good match against Tulane. I know they have a lot of talent, but I think we do too. I think we can play with them." The majority of the players on the team are from Louisiana. Sophomore biology major Clark Alsfeld and sophomore biology major John Guate have been playing hockey since they were 5 years old. The two said they started playing roller hockey before ice hockey. The New Orleans natives have played on the same team since playing on the Crescent City Hockey Amateur Athletic Union team. The players won back-to-back silver medals in the AAU roller hockey championships junior division in Detroit, Mich. "We have been playing roller hockey since we were young," Guate said. "We just got into ice hockey when we got the [New Orleans] Brass." In 1997 the New Orleans Brass brought hockey to south Louisiana as part of the East Coast Hockey League, a minor league. The Brass shut down in 2002 after the New Orleans Hornets moved into the New Orleans Arena. Another ECHL team, the Baton Rouge Kingfish, came to Louisiana in 1996 and played their games in the Riverside Centroplex, now commonly known as the River Center. The team parted ways in 2003. The Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs currently are the only minor league team still playing in the state. Despite the Brass and Kingfish leaving the state, Alsfeld and others continued to play hockey because of the sport's versatility. "You can pretty much do everything. You can score goals; you can hit people," Alsfeld said. "It's not like football because if you are a defensive player you can only play defense, if you're an offensive player you can only play offense. Alsfeld said hockey players rotate positions. "You [may] primarily [be] a defensive player, but you can still score goals," Alsfeld said. Alsfeld's father Lenny Alsfeld will be coaching the club ice hockey team. The elder Alsfeld said he grew up playing hockey for Providence College in Rhode Island, where the team was consistently ranked in the top-20 in the nation. "I was asked [to be the coach] because I know most of the players on campus that play hockey," Lenny Alsfeld said. "I coached a junior world team for the USA in 2003. The competition between Tulane and LSU is too strong a draw to ignore since Hurricane Katrina." Besides Clark, Lenny Alsfeld has another son on the team in freshman undecided major Mac Alsfeld. Tulane coach Will Kulick said hockey in Louisiana is different from where he grew up in New York. "It's a lot more laid-back, pretty much like everything else is down here," Kulick said. "It's different when you drive an hour and a half to practice when in [New York] you can get on a pond five minutes away." Kulick said the team has been practicing at Leo's Iceland near the Mall of Cortana since the New Orleans Brass moved out. "We come out here three times a week and drive back to New Orleans the same night," Kulick said. After playing more than 20 teams since beginning their season in September, these will be Tulane's final two games of the season. "[I have] no idea [what to expect from LSU]." Kulick said. "I don't know the guys on the other team. We will just go and play our game." The fans are one of the team's considerations. The team hopes the club will generate enough interest to create a solid fan base. "I think there is no question about it," Lenny Alsfeld said. "People have euphoria for contact sports, and I think if you gave them a taste of ice hockey and have a little bit of success they would absolutely flock to it." Morgan said that currently everyone on the team is paying with their own money. Lenny Alsfeld said he is also helping out by paying for the team's jerseys. The team hopes to attract sponsors in the near future. The club is still in the building block stages as they have yet to select a team captain or have a full team practice. Clark Alsfeld said he does not know what to expect from the team this weekend. "I haven't seen much of our team," Clark Alsfeld said. "I don't know if our team is going to be good or not. Hopefully we can stay healthy, don't get injured, and hopefully we will win."

----- Contact Nicholas Vlahos at nvlahos@lsureveille.com