For the Boys: Men's Hockey on the Palouse

      The University of Idaho Men’s Ice Hockey team has been a long-standing sports team that has always given students a chance to see a high performing, fast paced sporting event where an Idaho team is competitive. While it is considered a club team, we do participate in regulation American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division II games regularly. The last decade alone has seen numerous rivalry games between UI and BSU, WSU, and EWU. The most notorious being the annual Black and Blue Rivalry game played at CenturyLink Arena in Boise generating thousands of dollars for the local Meals on Wheels service. However, events like those seem to be a thing of the past considering our current situation. 

         Over the last few years our numbers have dwindled due to a lack of awareness and funding for a team that, for those students who are fortunate enough to come to games, opens up an entirely new world of competitive Vandal sports. Most students who attend have never seen a professional hockey game, let alone a college one, and to them, it’s magic. For us, it’s just as incredible of an experience – the crowd roaring, whether its cheers or boos, traveling 400+ miles to play games around the northwest, playing at a Division II level – it is simply surreal. Many of our boys have never experienced anything like that, and most never will again.

         Since Kasey Peach became Captain his sophomore year in 2016, he, along with other alumni – Nick Grover, Kyle Watne, Dustin Pierce, Thomas Behre and countless others – have done whatever they can to help support us in our endeavors, and now we're asking you, our Vandal Family, to help us be the Vandal Hockey Program the University of Idaho deserves.