Mighty Devils

The chattering of sports announcers rattles around the empty, cement space of the Triangle Sportsplex. A large screen television glows in the dim light as the New York Jets take the field against the Miami Dolphins on ABC’s Monday Night Football. Across the room a tall, bony janitor begins to clean the counter of the snack bar. Dave Frankel, the rink’s grizzled zamboni driver, sits idly waiting to erase the marks that a dozen pairs of ice skates have carved into the frozen oasis in the middle of the southern piedmont.

Behind a wall of thick protective glass, a junior hockey team goes through skating drills, the prepubescent athletes appearing uncomfortable as they fly around the ice in their pads and helmets. On the walls surrounding the rink hang banners of local teams as well as NHL franchises. Prominently featured high above the glassy surface is another banner that reads: Duke Blue Devils, ACCHL Regular Season Champions.

Buried in the heart of tobacco country, a collegiate championship hockey banner seems incongruous, but in a land where basketball rules the winters, another band of dedicated students has decided to punish their bodies at odd hours for love of the game.

Located in Hillsborough, Triangle Sportsplex is the only ice rink within 10 miles of Duke. Thus, despite the 15 minute commute—an eternity when the rest of life is located within two square miles—the rink serves as the home ice for Blue Devil hockey.

Around 9 p.m., the Duke players begin to arrive. Having sat through a long day of lectures, the Blue Devils will spend the next half hour preparing to make the best of their hour of ice time. Some carry overstuffed duffle bags, others’ burdens are lighter. Each face is resolute, prepared for the demanding physicality of hockey practice.

Upon entering the locker room, players are greeted by the Duke shield. Simple wooden benches line the walls, each occupied by a body moving through the ritual of preparation. Long underwear, shin guards, stockings taped to the upper leg. Ice pants, pads, practice sweater. The air is jovial and light, accented by an old smell of sweat and grit. Finally, skates are laced up. Standing several inches taller and thicker, each player looks somehow mechanical—the straight lines of their rugged uniforms imposing.

Coach Brent Selman enters the room to get the team onto the ice. He’s the perfect fit for a program like Duke Club Hockey. Having played at the collegiate level in Canada and professionally in Europe, Selman worked for USA Hockey as a regional coaching instructor for the organization. He joined Duke Club Hockey in 2001.

“He’s not looking to make a name for himself with the club,” says Mike Forbes, director of intramural and club sports at Duke.

Sophomore Ryan Eick played competitively in high school before matriculating at Duke. “I knew about the team,” he says, “but didn’t realize how competitive it was.” During his freshman campaign Eick was named to the All-ACCHL Freshman Team. A talented defenseman, he could have played for a Division III program, but sees Duke as an ideal fit. “It couldn’t be better. It’s not a D-I program where you have a lot of time committed, but it’s competitive. And I love it.”

On the ice, Selman drives the team hard. During early give-and-go drills, push-ups are the punishment for a shot that sails wide of the net. In another drill, Selman enters to simulate a defender’s stick check. Although he is the only person on the ice without pads, he plays the Blue Devils tight.

Stick work is a focus. One-on-one full contact drills force players to maintain control with defenders riding their backs. Afterward, three men work the puck around as two skaters play monkey in the middle. A turnover means a new skater takes a defensive role. When a teammate has to leave early, Selman steps in to fill the empty spot.

Practice ends with sprints, brutal relay-race suicides in full pads. Selman points to the rafters: “We’re a team that’s going to rely on our speed... on our conditioning. That’s what is going to put two more banners up there.”

Founded in 1977, Duke Club Hockey experiences the ebbs and flows that affect all club sports teams. With an office in Wilson Recreation Center, Forbes oversees Duke Club Hockey as well as 35 other club sports. He explains that the driving force in club sports is the student body. “Clubs are all student run,” he says. “Everything from when and where they’re going to practice to how often the team will compete.”

The goal of club sports is to provide students with the opportunity to participate in athletic competition that they may otherwise not experience. Sometimes this can be because the athlete didn’t qualify for a varsity team, or often, as in the case of Club Hockey, because the school does not offer a varsity program. With student leadership in place, a coach’s role can many times be a difficult one. “The coach really has to do what the club wants to do,” Forbes explains.

The other major issue that every club sport faces is funding. In the spring of 1986 the Duke Club Hockey team won its second consecutive Southern Collegiate Hockey Association championship. Under the leadership of club president Kevin Gorter, then a senior, the Blue Devils battled through the region and earned their first ever bid to the United States National Club Hockey tournament. There was only one question: how would they pay for it?

With most of their expenses covered out of their own pockets, Gorter and the Blue Devils found themselves in a difficult position. And so they did what college students do—they called their parents. Determined not to let financial shortcomings deny them their most important achievement, the Duke players and their families were able to pool enough money to make the trip.

The team’s experience at the national tournament would take on a much different tone in later years. Just one year after the ’86 Blue Devil team achieved one of the highest honors for club sports programs, their former captain Gorter was tragically killed while traveling in Australia after graduation. To honor and remember their son, the Gorter family established the Kevin Gorter Memorial Endowment Fund. The hope was that the endowment would help other students enjoy the same success that Kevin had as a member of the team. Today the fund generates over $100,000 annually. The money covers many of the expenses of Club Hockey and also ensures that any Duke club sports team that qualifies for a regional or national tournament will be able to compete.

Nearly a decade later, Duke Club Hockey continues to benefit from the generosity and support of the Gorter family as the team sits poised to capture a second consecutive league championship. Selman is one of just six club coaches with a University salary—the funding comes from the club sports budget—and he has brought organization and discipline to the team. Early in his new position, Selman began to grow into a talented fundraiser and recruiter. Between renting ice time, covering travel expenses and purchasing safety equipment, Duke Club Hockey costs tens of thousands of dollars each year. Although the Gorter Endowment covers a large portion of the club’s expenses, Selman has also been able to bring on a Duke parent and National Hockey League owner as an independent sponsor. These funds, along with numerous parent contributions, allow the club hockey program to utilize many top-notch amenities.

“The goal is to take the burden off students,” Selman says. “They already have to deal with obscure practice and game times.”

Selman receives between 15 and 20 inquiries each month from potential players all around the world—even though it’s a club team. He credits this jump in interest in large part to the team’s website. “The academics are a draw. And unlike most hockey schools, Duke offers the chance to live in the South,” he says.

Second-year law student Clayton Jernigan, 2004’s All-ACCHL First Team goaltender, jumped at the chance to continue playing hockey. As an undergraduate, Jernigan had played in the goal for Williams College, a Division III program. Although he sees the differences between Williams’ varsity program and Duke Club Hockey, Jernigan doesn’t think of them as downsides. “This is less intense and less of a commitment. In some ways it’s a better fit for me,” he says.

He has also been able to watch the team really grow under Selman. “[In the past] we traveled with six or seven players to away games,” he says. Now as many as 20 players travel with the team. Selman has been pivotal in upping these numbers. “There is more of a commitment by the younger guys,” Jernigan says.

While the team battles through another season, Selman also looks toward the future. The team continues to establish itself as one of the best club hockey programs in the region, yet still faces problems because of its club status. Players point out that professors don’t always understand the time commitments. “Playing a club sport isn’t an official dean’s excuse,” junior goalie Marc Roitman says.

With only a few rinks in the area, ice time can also come at a premium. Often Duke Hockey practices and plays games at late hours, a reality that can hurt fan attendance as well as players’ social lives. But late practices don’t bother Wilson Kort, a graduate student in Public Policy. “I’d rather be here than hitting the books,” he says as he pulls his Blue Devil sweater over his head.

When Coach Selman looks down the road he sees a solution to all of these problems—make the jump to a varsity program. Although he admits it’s a monstrous step, he doesn’t see it as an impossibility, calling Duke “a perfect fit” for a varsity program. “We draw from the same pool as the major hockey schools,” Selman says, referring to Ivy League institutions such as Dartmouth, Cornell and Harvard. “Our location and academics make [Duke] a natural fit for the [Eastern College Athletic Conference].”

Athletic director Joseph Alleva isn’t optimistic about the prospect of varsity hockey coming to Duke. “We have no intention at this point of adding any varsity sports, our budget is very tight,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Adding sports would have title IX implications, and we are pleased with the sports we offer.” Man and the Devils must be content to battle it out for dominance in the ACCHL. With the win over UNC, they are well on their way. In February, the Blue Devils will host the ACCHL tourney at the Triangle Sportsplex, looking to repeat their championship victory—this time in front of a home crowd.

Fittingly, a team that has been supported so strongly by the memory of former teammate Kevin Gorter can now do what no group of Blue Devils has done since Gorter’s ’86 team—hang back-to-back championship banners high above the ice rink.