The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 9/17/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Brandon Iwamoto

After multiple seasons full of steps into the national spotlight, the CSU Club Hockey team is looking to take an even bigger step into Division-I competition.

The Rams, who made it to the national club tournament the past two seasons, are currently circulating a petition and gathering support in an attempt for the University to grant them D-I status.

Bret Tatman, a former Ram hockey player, started the petition in July to get a feel of the support his cause had.

"The petition is the beast that got us started," Tatman said. "It was a gauge to see what the interest was."

To date, the petition has 1,133 signatures from community members, which gives Tatman hope his cause is within reach.

"If we can get the financing there and the money lined up it's highly likely that it will happen," he said. "It really depends on our movement."

Tatman plans to take his cause to the CSU campus in hopes of gathering more support.

New head coach Eric Sunness has a strong belief that the Rams deserve to be a D-I team.

"I'm strongly in favor of it," the first year coach said. "Northern Colorado could easily support a division one hockey club. With the popularity of teams like the Colorado Eagles and the Avalanche and the phenomenal growth of hockey in the area there is no doubt in my mind we could support a team."

CSU athletic director Paul Kowalczyk said that it isn't likely the hockey team will become a division one squad anytime soon, explaining that the school should spend an already tight budget on already existing programs.

"We don't fund current sports enough to add additional sports," he said. "We need to take the resources we do have and use them on the sports we already have. That means anything from women's tennis to football."

Jeff Collier, the athletic business manager for CSU, estimated that to add a new program would cost a minimum of one million dollars. The university currently has 16 varsity sports, ranging from men's and women's basketball to track and field.

Kowalczyk added that the Title IX rule also creates additional problems, mainly more funding. Under the rule, a university must add an equally funded women's program for every men's sport granted D-1 status. CSU most recently added the men's and women's water polo teams in 2005.

Continued...

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