Univ. of Iowa men’s hockey club raising money to extend historic season

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - The University of Iowa Men’s Hockey Club recently qualified for nationals for the first time in its nearly 50-year history.

“It was pretty surreal it’s been fun we have a real special group of guys this year,” Kevin Brooks, the team’s head coach, said.

After beating Minnesota-Crookston at regionals on Feb. 26th, they will be playing in Boston at nationals but it comes with a catch. A couple of days after their win, the club released a statement informing supporters that the club - which is self-funded - needed to raise $20,000 towards their ultimate goal of just over $30,000 to cover everything from travel to paying for time on the ice.

“The turn around pretty quick, so for us to go to regional’s we had to raise over $12,000, we had to do that in a week and a half, for this we had just over 3 weeks,” Brooks said.

Over the past few weeks, the team has hosted various fundraisers such as at Bo-James and at various Applebee’s in the area, and accepted donations from alumni and former players to meet that goal.

Brooks said the support they’ve received is not only helping them out now, but it’s also helping grow the club for the future.

“You know, the support has been amazing. People that we haven’t spoken to, even though they didn’t know who are reaching out. So it’s been amazing, the response has been from, you know, little kids that are now coming, to our jerseys, to people that are now traveling three or four hours to come watch us play that are fans,” Brooks said.

Ryan Carlson, one of the team captains, said that while they aren’t used to being in the spotlight, it benefits not only them but the area as a whole.

“It’s been unreal, you know. The Iowa hockey team flies under the radar at school, with football, basketball, wrestling, and all stuff like that. So even just this little bit of publicity, it’s been so cool. I mean we’re not used to this, but it’s good for the school, good for us, just good for Iowa,” Carlson said.

Brooks said that they need the donations by Wednesday, March 15, and the team is currently roughly $3,000 short. But, he’s sure they can still meet their goal.

”Like I said, these kids pay to play as it is, and, you know, they’re paying to go to school and different things like that. So for them to earn this opportunity with us being this close I’m confident we’re going to pull it off, because every night people are still sending these donations,” Brooks said.

If you would like to donate click here.

The Hawkeyes will take on the Liberty Flames on Friday, March 17, at 7:15 p.m. and the Utah State Aggies at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday, March 18.

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