Latest / College Hockey Mouth / Episode 34: Santino Chancio | Florida Tech Hockey

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Episode 34: Santino Chancio | Florida Tech Hockey · College Hockey Mouth

• Devin Serra: Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of College Hockey Mouth, a College Hockey South podcast, episode thirty-four. NHL season is back. Congrats to all of you celebrating your main teams being back if you are a fan of any NHL programs. Aver Gugliata, Jordan Manning, alongside Devin Sarah. fun week, guys. It seemed like all around hockey world. Aver, I know you had a fun series out with USF and Jordo, I know things are always busy at FGCU, so we'll start with you gooks. How was your weekend? Avery Gugliotta: It was a good weekend. first games of the season for us at Tampa. you know, I had a lot of fun. I was yelling a lot for my team, if you can't tell by the by the voice. But yeah, getting the team together. We have a lot of new faces on the team, so definitely a fun learning weekend for us. Devin Serra: Yeah, and listen, we ragged on you about the bit of doing the national anthem last week, you gotta figure out voice control 'cause it's what is it, week three, week four, like you're already losing your voice. I mean you gotta get ready for prime season action, so Avery Gugliotta: I know. I gotta keep the vocal cords prepped and not strain too much for the rest of the season. Devin Serra: I've been there though. lost my voice for three days at Nationals two years ago and almost didn't call the last game 'cause of it. So hopefully get your vocal cords figured out. Jordan Manning, how you doing, my friend? Jordan Manning: Yeah, it's going. just so you know it's not hot outs or it's not cold outside. It's scorching hot right now. I'm wearing this jacket purely because I am terribly sick with the cold. I'm afraid I've caught it from one of my roommates. So it's just going around. it's gonna you know, what goes around comes around and I finally got the cold. So I wish I could say I was doing better, but I've mainly staying in fighting this off. Devin Serra: Yeah, that's brutal. it sounds like we're all fighting uphill trying to get healthy. I've been lucky since I've been out of school just not to get sick for like the first time in the month of September. Knock on wood, probably the next week or two. I'm gonna get a cold, knowing my luck. And I haven't experienced fall 'cause I've been down in Florida for the last three years. So I'm not gonna, cross my fingers, but that's probably where I'm headed. So I feel bad for you guys and I'll probably be right in the same boat pretty soon, but Good weekend for me, called a race a snowmobile drag race out in west Michigan, which is really odd to explain to somebody that hasn't seen that before. But we raced in the drag strip and it was a new experience. I used to race these machines when I was a young kid and my dad and I grew up doing it, which he got to be part of the race. That was awesome. I was kind of doing announcing slash public address. A lot of that like calling drivers' names and organizing the event, super unique and super fun. So very grateful for the experience, but glad to be back talking hockey. And we're gonna be talking to one of the main guys, one of the head guys at Florida Tech's hockey team. He's a senior from Wolcott, Connecticut. We're proud to welcome Santino Chancio to the podcast. Santino, how you doing? Santino Chancio: I'm good. Thanks for having me. Devin Serra: Yeah, we're happy to have you on. big shout out to our intern, Dakota Velegas, throwing out the idea to to get you on here. fortunately we couldn't get Keegan Groom, who was your goaltender, to join us, but we're still happy to talk to you. You know, aviation student, Florida Institute of Technology, your team's the Panthers. We've covered your program extensively on the the pod as an ACDC program. But, you know, tell us a bit about yourself growing up in hockey, how you got your start and ultimately where you are now. Santino Chancio: Yeah, for sure. So I'm from Wolkott, Connecticut, and I played AAA most of my life growing up up there. And then I played at the Notre Dame West Haven High School, which was one of the top Division I high schools in the state of Connecticut. And when it came time to go to college, I had, the opportunity, do I wanna go the juniors route or the college route right away. And I knew I wanted to be a pilot my whole life. So I applied to some schools down here in Florida and I loved Florida Tech. And after finding out that they had a hockey team, I thought, hey, I wanna give this a shot. And the guys embraced me with open arms. It was an amazing experience as a freshman. I got to start my first game and it really took off from there. And since then, the love that I got from the fellows right away, I wanted to reciprocate, which is why I am so heavily involved now is you know, the president as a senior. I was also the president as a junior and then the team secretary as a sophomore. And this is my third year in a row as one of the captains of the team, which is a huge honor. Okay. Devin Serra: So cool to hear about what we learned from Dakota was how involved you are with that program and the behind the scenes. what is sort of your role as president and what you've done on that e board? Because a lot of club programs and I'm sure we could all tell you, our stories about trying to fund and, figure out scheduling and just getting gear. So what are a lot of things that you do behind the scenes for your program? Santino Chancio: Yeah, sure. So I am very fortunate of having a lot of the people at the school, including like our advisor, be very supportive of our program, helping out with funding and things like that, and giving us the resources to succeed. And when I got here as a freshman, the goal was already to, you know, make playoffs. And when I became president, I had two goals. I wanted to win a playoff game and then hopefully this year win the playoffs. And I feel that is a definitely an obtainable goal. And by doing a lot of recruiting over the past two years to really find a lot of guys and show them what Florida Tech and Florida Tech hockey has to offer has been very beneficial. As well as that I know that it takes a lot more than just, you know, guys on the ice. It takes, help off the ice. So, as you guys know, you've met Dakota and we have a lot of other members off the ice who have been willing and able to help us out, whether that be keeping score, videotaping our games, helping with film, and really filling out all the pieces of the puzzle. Devin Serra: Super fun to get into the the weeds of it. when I saw you guys play at Battle at the Beach, I got accustomed to understanding, how much you guys can score. And I think we're gonna talk a lot about guys like Derek Morgia, Chase Stasiowski coming up, but as far as you as a player, what is one of the things that maybe when you got the Florida Tech you weren't expected coming from a traditional hockey place, hockey market and You talked about enjoying right from the jump. What were some of those starting points and maybe some of the growing pains of playing in Florida with Florida Tech? Santino Chancio: Definitely. I feel one of the adjustments I had to make was definitely, the fact of going from being, 14 to 17 years old, playing, you know, with 18 up to even like 24 year olds at times. That was definitely an adjustment. However, I think that a lot of the guys are able to succeed now because, going into this program, we have the right mentorship, which has been super helpful. And then yeah, Battle on the Beach going off of that, we're really excited going into this year. We fell up a little short last year. However, we know that moving forward that this is something that we can obtain and we have a lot of guys and the guys to do it. Jordan Manning: Yeah. So you mentioned you wanted to be a pilot and you being an i aviation management major. What is like your favorite plane to like fly and like how many like flight hours have you had and what's like your favorite like memory with that? Santino Chancio: Definitely. I've only flown the pipers down here and I have 300 hours and funny enough today I actually passed my commercial check ride, which was a huge accomplishment for me. Something I've been working for for quite some time. And as for my favorite memory with flight thus far, I had a solo cross country up to Savannah Hilton Head Airport and as I was coming in to land, air traffic control said prior to your arrival there's gonna be two F-35s taking off. And I was like, all right, here I am, going like a hundred knots and these things are just flying around, like that's awesome. So that was a really cool experience for me. Avery Gugliotta: congrats on the commercial license first. That's that's awesome. Your first flight. stuff but one thing about club hockey in the South that a lot of people I think forget about is that a lot of our teams are student led. you said yourself like your team's president, you've been a captain for your team. So how do you balance, being a student, getting your hours for becoming a pilot, and balancing actually playing on the team and managing your team from a behind the scenes standpoint. Santino Chancio: I get this question a lot when I, talk to, students who are interested in coming to Florida Tech is does it ever become too much? And I think that, College Hockey South and, Florida Tech especially has done an excellent job at making sure that, you know, everybody understands that academics come first and everybody has a different amount that they can handle. And I found, as a freshman when I was, testing out the waters of what I can and cannot handle, there were definitely times where I was like, I don't know if I can handle all of this. But as you know, I progressed through college, I found a lot of really good time management skills. and I am able to now apply myself, you know, specific hours in the day. This goes towards hockey, meeting with kids, doing any forms. So for example, when I meet with, hopeful future students, I usually have a call with them at about eight PM when, you know, my day is done, but I was able to have time for homework. It's not like a two PM type thing. So that's just an example there. But at the end of the day Sometimes when I do get overloaded, the coaching staff has also been very flexible with understanding, Hey coach, I just can't make practice today. I have a big flight tomorrow or a big exam and they've been very understanding of that. Devin Serra: Super cool thing I learned about your school is I think about Embery Riddle as another flight school, but you guys are kind of like UCF in that you're so close to the space stations in Orlando and a lot of things that go on there with with NASA. Like I saw you release these space jerseys a season ago. Talk to me about what was the inspiration behind that. were you part of that creative process and what goes into, you know, overall making your apparel, your your equipment and stuff. Santino Chancio: Yeah, I was part of that group making those jerseys and when I got feedback from the group, we all know that we are on the Space Coast. If you drive through Melbourne at any point, you're gonna see Billboard's Welcome to the Space Coast. That's something that we take a lot of pride in over here. And a lot of my friends and people I've met through alumni here, you know, they wanna say, I wanna be an astronaut or I wanna work for NASA. For example, our head coach Rob McIntosh, he actually does work for NASA. So It's something that is very exciting and something like I mentioned that we take a lot of pride in. So when we had the opportunity to work with Viburo and make these jerseys, we wanted to make sure that we dedicated some ideas of our Space Coast theme to the jerseys. And they obviously were a huge hit. And I will also let you guys know that we have A new design coming this year that I think is even better and more proud of the space coast that'll be really exciting to release in the coming weeks. Avery Gugliotta: Yeah, so you talked all about you guys obviously take a lot of pride in, you know, being from the Space Coast and and the way you're recruiting kids, like really encouraging. Your coaches are very encouraging of like everything you guys have going on on your team, whether it's school, jobs, academics, everything. What do you think is like a part of your team culture that stands out specifically, that makes you guys stand out just compared to other programs in Florida, 'cause there are so many Florida schools, but you know, what really makes you guys different? Santino Chancio: I've actually thought about this a lot, funny enough. ways that we can separate ourselves from everybody else. And I found that what really helps separate us from everybody else is the fact that every single one of our guys on the team can agree that we're here 'cause we want to be, not cause we have to be. And coming to the rink wanting to be with one another and not having to feel the constant, competitive edge of like the guy next to you has been a super great advantage of being a part of our team. And with that, we're also all so bought in to the goal of that things take time. You know, we understand that we're not, an NCAA D one team. we're not even yet to the point of ACHA D three. And we understand that that's okay. We'll get there someday, but right now our goal is to take care of what we what we can in the ACDC division. And I feel that has brought great success to our team thus far. Jordan Manning: Yeah, so with you being a forward and you're playing hockey for a hot minute, who would you say you model your game most off of in the NHL? Santino Chancio: Growing up, my whole family is all New York Ranger fans, being from Connecticut and I was usually pretty difficult wanting to, do the opposite of what I was told. So in two thousand eleven, when I was six years old, the Bruins won the Stanley Cup and I said, Dad, I'm a Boston Bruins fan and that, as you can imagine, only went so well, but eventually he's like, All right, I'll just give in to it and I'm sure it's just a phase. It wasn't. I'm still a Bruins fan. And but to answer your question, I loved Patrice Bergeron. I thought he was just a fascinating player, not the guy that scores three goals a game, but you know, also the defensive guy, and he puts up his assists as well as goals. And so growing up, I always wanted to be like him. And, even coming to Florida Tech, my freshman year, I think my assists and my goals were split fifty fifty. And same thing with my sophomore year. I'm not quite sure about last year. Unfortunately last year I only played the second half of the year due to the an injury I sustained in the first game of the season. But to build off of that as well, I've always found that I'm not just a goalscorer. I'm not just, a guy that puts up assists. I like, doing a little bit of everything. Devin Serra: I love the rebelness against your family. I wish Danny was here for a second because he's always got some bit whenever he meets a Bruins fan, so which he's a weird one. He's a Bruins and a Blackhawks fan. We kind of had this running joke with it all year, but you can do with that information what you will. gotta say it's super cool to hear about the the campus life and and how you go about it. But what is it like in Melbourne and your campus? Do are you guys recognized? Do you get a lot of spectators? How do you guys fundraise and get people out to your games and stuff? Santino Chancio: So we have a relatively small campus of about forty five hundred students, I believe, but Like I mentioned earlier, we have great support from our school of the higher ups. And because of that, we are also a very loud and proud presence on campus. our advisor, I remember, came up to me this just a couple of weeks ago during orientation week and when he mentioned that we had a hockey team on campus, he did not fail to hear the fifteen freshmen that were, recruited in the crowd screaming at the top of their lungs. And I think that That plays a huge role in life here on campus because when you wear that Florida Tech hockey shirt or that hockey sweatshirt when it, gets below seventy degrees in Florida, everybody knows what you're a part of and people love going to the games. we have a couple pretty late games every year and that doesn't stop, you know, our students from coming out, I'm pretty sure. just our over the weekend we had about three hundred students come to our game, which was super exciting, especially for the new guys, 'cause that's something that they were really excited for. And as for a presence outside of the campus, the alumni They still have a great presence in the team with, you know, helping us fundraise and everything. And then also downtown Melbourne, our biggest sponsor, Chumlee's Depot, they'll allow us to do cornhole tournaments, chili cook-offs, and really any ideas that we come up with, if we run it by them in any way, shape or form, they will try to help us, which is super awesome getting, you know, the whole city of Melbourne involved. And everybody is always happy to buy in and help us out. Jordan Manning: So yeah, it seems like the team's scoring like nine or ten goals every single night. What's like the locker room culture like, with like all those goals being scored? like how does it feel? Santino Chancio: Of course it feels amazing. I know that it's easy for us in this start of the year so far is that we didn't play a game until over this past weekend and there were some groups that already have, you know, four, five, even six games under their belt. And it's easy to start to overthink, wow, like these teams are really beaten up on this team, or how are we gonna face next to this team? And being able to go out in our first weekend and put up numbers the way we did brought great energy to the locker room it gives us every ounce of energy, excitement and passion moving forward, knowing that we can achieve the goal that we want this year. Devin Serra: Well this is the part of the podcast where we're we're running out of round table questions that we had right off the bat. So, you know, no script relayed, by the way. But Santino, I can tell that you're a good spoken representative of your team, and I can tell through your voice that you've done this before. So big props to you. But as far as something that's a little more like and you don't have to share if you don't want to, but A C H A and club hockey ish. You know, what's something that if you had to have like a welcome to club hockey, welcome to CHS moment, you know, do you have a game or a moment that comes to mind? Santino Chancio: Definitely. just to not directly put the spotlight on me, but I feel that, you know, getting injured in the first game of the year after doing as much preparation as I did, this past summer, just to go out that quickly in such a quick moment was very difficult for me to handle. I had to stop flight training for a semester and basically everything that I applied myself for, months leading up to that season just to kind of get put on pause was very difficult. And then to be able to make it to playoffs with our group and score the winning goal in overtime against USF was one of the greatest moments in my hockey career for sure. Knowing that, staying positive and staying with your tight-knit group of guys gets you through pretty much anything. So to answer your question, you know, welcome to ACHA or you know that brotherhood and, even for the girls teams, the sisterhood of being with, your teammates can really get you through anything, no matter how difficult, hurdles maybe that get thrown at you throughout college. Devin Serra: I think that's one of the most wholesome answers we've heard. I was I totally expecting you to say something like, Yeah, I I got stuck on like a twelve hour bus ride going to a trip to FAU or something random, but it sounds like you guys are pretty tight knit and you've got a you run a good ship over there. if we had to ask you if you have any advice for incoming players to Florida Tech or if it's just club hockey in general, do you have any advice for them and if so, what would you say? Santino Chancio: Yeah, I definitely had other ideas that I definitely could have said other than you know the wholesome moment, but I figured it was best to keep it PG. but as for, you advice with anybody, coming into, you know, ACHA or club hockey as a whole, really embrace, every moment. I'm sure that's said often, but it's easy, especially for the young guys. A lot of us have friends who do play juniors and do play NCAA and just because, it's quote unquote club hockey doesn't make it any less competitive. And being able to enjoy every moment, I don't think that in 20 years from now anyone's gonna say, it was just club, because the way that club hockey is trending it, the skill is growing every year. And it's definitely something to be proud to be a part of. Avery Gugliotta: Kind of like bouncing off Devin's question here. you have like a really good mindset about like everything that you're saying that, you know, even when hardships happen, you still keep a really positive mindset. What's your like recommendation for like players and teams just like, when those difficult moments come, like how do you encourage like yourself and your team to just continue keeping a good mindset throughout everything? Santino Chancio: Definitely. So every season is a relatively long season and it's important that at no point, you can't be saying in February, well, if we won that game in December. Or, at the end of a shift, if I just took that shot instead of passing it, or the other way around, if I passed it instead of shot it, you have to, learn from your mistakes, of course, but also embrace the good more than like the negatives that happen. Because at the end of the season, if the team is filled with more negatives and positives when push comes to shove in, playoffs, the more positive and gritty team I feel like will come out on top. And that's something that I think should go for everybody coming in here through club hockey. Jordan Manning: So yeah, it feels like you can't go like one hour of driving without coming across a rival team. What is like one series that you and the team have kind of pinpointed as, this is a game that we must win this season? Santino Chancio: definitely as well, a lot of options. I think we get excited about a lot of games. But of course I would say definitely Embry Riddle for us because our schools are so similar. I think that on the ice we have a great rivalry that everybody knows of. at the end of the day I could talk to almost anyone on their team and they're either a pilot or an engineer. And that's the same thing goes for our team. And I think what makes our rivalry so great is that on the ice, you're gonna get a lot of goals. You're gonna get, a lot of tussles and fights. But when it comes time to shake hands at the end of the at the end of the game, we have the respect to do that, which I think makes our rivalry so great. Devin Serra: Super cool that you and your team had a twenty to five combined goal differential against Ember Riddle. So congrats there. we know you're gonna be playing UCF at you know Space Coast Iceplex, so you get that Space Coast rivalry going there. you know, Sentino, we just appreciate your time coming in here. and good luck to you. the you're one of the more fun teams to watch, especially in AC DC and keep scoring ten goals a a game. I think good things are gonna keep happening for your team. Thanks again for your time, Santino. Santino Chancio: Awesome, absolutely. We'll do our best to keep those golds coming. And Jordan, Devin, and Avery, thank guys for speaking with me today. I really appreciate it. Devin Serra: Absolutely. And stay healthy. Appreciate your time. Santino Chancio: Thanks, bye. Devin Serra: Thanks so much to Santino for joining us on the pod. Really put together senior at Florida Tech. You can tell that he's been through the ringer of speaking to young players and representing the team and all the respect to him. Florida Tech is on fire. We're gonna get to them and their team because what he just mentioned about Emory Riddle basically they whooped their behind, without getting too vulgar. it's fun to hear from guys that are leaders on their team and certainly one of those and speaking of of leadership, right? He's gonna be busy getting them ready for battle at the beach coming up, Panthers Iced in October twenty fourth and twenty fifth. We have a tournament before then, however, in Columbus Classic, which is next weekend. So by the time you hear this episode, it'll be our next weekend, and we'll do a whole preview for it of the eight teams that are traveling there, including Avery's Tampa Spartans. But Auburn, Florida State, Georgia, South Carolina. South Florida, Tampa, Tennessee, and Wesleyan University who just opened their inaugural games as a program. We'll get to the slate and more in our next edition. Jumping right into game recaps, guys. Busy week. Our game of the week, Tampa, M2, and Florida Atlantic kick things off. I always feel like this rivalry, I expect something to go wrong. And it's fun to talk about okay, who fought who and what happened, shenanigans went on. For the most part, this was just Tampa dominating. Seven to three win on Friday and five to one on Saturday. They did debuted the Pirate Jerseys on Saturday. They're in the running for me of Jersey of the Year across the whole league. And they're super cool. Alex Moller, this guy is insane. Fifteen points he's at, I believe, by now. three goals, two apples overall. Nick Zahlen was huge. They outshot Florida Atlantic a hundred and twenty to sixty across those games. Just it I feel like Tampa's really put the mark on who they're gonna be this year. And, you know, Avery, watching from afar, I don't know how close you are exactly with that two team, but impressed how they did out at fall face off and impressed how they dominated here. what do you see out of this group and do they look like one of the best teams in ACHA to you? Avery Gugliotta: I think absolutely, like, I may sound a little biased 'cause I'm from Tampa, but look at their scores from the past couple of weeks, like fall face off, their games against FAU. they're just showing that like they're gonna be a force this season. fall face off didn't exactly end the way they wanted to, but I think that tournament went so good for them. that last game, it was a like still lost, but they had an extremely tough game and they played their hearts out for the entire time. and we had games right after one of their FAU games and I saw the jerseys in action. They look sick. they're definitely making their mark on the ice with Sty and just in the way they're playing. and like just the way they're playing as a team. Like they all work so well together. and just like their discipline is just like insane. I think they're gonna continue to be a force for This entire season. Devin Serra: Yeah, and in my mind, Alex Muller is on the verge of he was good last year, twenty-eight points, but he he's on the verge of to me entering player of the year conversation because of how good he is. Triple A guy from the Northeast, right? Boyertown, Pennsylvania. He did a lot of great things in EHL and was a leader in scoring there. But I feel like with the pace he's at right now, he's gonna double But for sure if he stays healthy this mark. But they're gonna be perhaps relying on him to score more of this. And you see how they get Zahelen involved, who's always great for them. Chase Carkner had five assists. So that was to me a big note. Their new players are doing well. And even though they lost to Lindenwood, and I don't know if we really got to it in depth, they kept up in that game. They didn't just look like they were there to have fun. it felt like it could go either way. And if they can get in the other team's head and play chippy, they can play both ways, grind them down or match their skill. super impressed. And Florida Atlantic, look, guys, I I'm wearing the the the Floyd Atlantic AAU championship shirt. I am in no way biased. I don't call games for FAU anymore. But I'll say this. I really feel bad for Rocco Bruno, who's our our friend of the pod, because he lost a lot of talent this year. Some guys left FAU. The coaches left their staff. They're trying to figure it out with some guys that moved up from three. And this is a real kick in the teeth. I don't know how good they're gonna be this year. I certainly hope they're gonna contend for a regional spot, but I think it's far and away to say Tampa is the best team right now among the two. So congrats to them on that. And then the three team, continuing on the the Tampa conversation. They went to Miami, had a sweep of the hurricanes, but again Miami made it close. Eight to six win in game number one. Was tied four four after two periods. They Tampa pouted on in the third. They outshot a lot in this game. 64 shots. Jack Patron was great. Eric Lairhaup had a goal and two apples to his name. late power play goal gets him over. And Miami fights back on Saturday. Overtime loss, which last year went Miami's way. So I guess this is a a good revenge sweep for Tampa. Jannero Popano. Two goals there. Brady Barber himself, though, had two goals and a short hander. Now, we talked about Miami still not being able to take the next step. How well they competed in this game tells me they can stay in with any team they want. It just comes down to late moments like this, and Tampa's a clutch team. They have the experience still. So the M3 team gets a sweep there. Continuing our M3 dialogue, Embry Riddle. Got the sweep over Lynn University, five to one on Friday, and then four to two visiting Lynn on Sunday. Vanderbilt, Kennesaw State. Vandy won five to two on Friday. All five of their goals were on the power play. Doesn't mean a whole lot right now, but it's food for thought if Vandy's power play is gonna be that good, and then the Owls got the series split with a five four win on Saturday, four goals The second period was was pretty nuts to put in the stat sheet here. Alabama versus South Carolina, I want to touch on for just a second. Don't know what you guys saw, but eleven to five. Alabama win on Friday was pretty ridiculous to open I love Joey Broshew's team. I think we've said it a lot, but holy cow, I don't think any of us really expected Alabama to be this good. just Five goal first period really set it up. South Carolina kinda clawed back. They made it six three, but then you know, Alabama just took him out to lunch the rest of the way. Really strange game. Like, without even looking at kind of the details, guys, like as a player, Avery and Jordan from afar, like, what does eleven to five say to you about a game we weren't expecting to be this way? Jordan Manning: Yeah, I mean it was definitely a shock for me. I remember watching a bit of that and then just seeing goal after goal after goal occur. I was not expecting that at all. And then to go from a big eleven of five game straight to a four to two game on, Sunday. It was definitely a shock for me just seeing like you know the the big switch up like that. Avery Gugliotta: Yeah, I think it looks like to me, sometimes just like the mentality and, preparedness going into games like that, 'cause clearly, Sunday they it's four to two game. Like they stayed in it better than they did on Saturday. But eleven to five just shows like gosh, they were not ready for the tide, like whatsoever. So I mean it's good that they kinda answered back, but that's a definitely a tough loss for them and that's gonna be hard to, you know, bounce it back the rest of the season, especially as Other teams look at that, seeing, how are they gonna really look this year because that's not the best showing of them, like for anyone. Devin Serra: No discredit to Alabama either. they really have in my mind turned things around over there from what was a terrible start last year. Alex Fussaro had a goal and four assists. Jack Tickle, eight point game. just ridiculous stuff. it sounds like they had a lot of penalty minutes, right? and maybe that's had a lot to do with this because that what tells me off the bat is just the power plays. But Drew Durodoff and net is a very good goaltender for South Carolina. And I feel like this is just a kind of wow, you don't expect that. If this stat she's correct and he did play, I I'm just going off numbers here. I didn't watch the games. bizarre. Bizarre to say the least. But South Carolina got the series split. They won four to two on Sunday. This goes to show you like you can read a ridiculous score and then it'll swing back the other way to rest the series. Sam Ettinger had two goals and an apple in that Gamecock win. We talked about Middle Tennessee a couple weeks ago dropping their opening series against Arkansas. Well, they split this one, four to one loss to McKendry on Friday, and the Blue Raiders won five to two on Saturday, four goals in the second period. Tommy Chunchikov had two goals. We talked in the, I believe a few episodes ago about him needing to step up. And replace a lot of the production they lost with their older guys. Good split, but I don't know. Middle Tennessee State may not be the dominant team we saw a season ago. We'll have to see, I guess is the word to say here about what they're gonna be. But McKendry, shout out to them for taking down Middle Tennessee there on Friday. And then our final three game talk about UCF won six to two over three Florida, Thomas Solar at a hat trick, Colin Jackson had Two goals in the Knights win. Woman's side, South Florida and Tampa. And Googs, you asked me before. Let's let's not go into it. Ask you about what happened. So you know, feel free to add your commentary to this. But hey, monumental split for USF, gotta say. five four win for them on Sunday. Your team, Tampa, won six to five on Saturday. Molly Braga had two goals, including the power plood goal, late in the third. Chloe Valente is back, our MVP from a season ago. Clearly, she showed up in Sunday's game and was a big important factor. huge first win, by the way, for Coach Ambert Delano for the Bulls. And before I go into talking about USF, full disclosure to to Avery and Tampa, tons of respect to you. National champions from a season ago. You got some hardware, I believe, coming. Well, that's going to be showing off pretty soon, but we'll keep it on reps for now. This is to me about USF because a team that was pretty okay last year gets in an upset, against your team. If you had to say anything though, it is very cool for them to get this split with what they had. And of course we had a great article come out on the CHS website about honoring goaltender McKenna Brown. Annual McKenna Way celebration of life game happened back in August. And our great friend from the pod, Christina Pinogen, wrote up this great piece. So make sure to go to Instagram and then the CHS website, CollegeHockey South dot com, to read that story. Now, with that mouthful out of the way, Avery, do you have any, commentary on on on this weekend? Avery Gugliotta: just for Tampa, it's like we definitely have a lot of new faces on our team this year. We're just, getting getting our feet under us for the season and we'd rather we'd rather not have any losses at all. But, we're just glad that it's, in at the start of the season and all you can do is learn from it and we're gonna keep going. And it's also like, you know, all the teams in Gall Jockey South the Women Division have gotten better like significantly. Like every team is growing a lot. So yeah, I think that's just something that's like good like we just know that about every team now and gonna keep learning and moving forward and not you know disappointing us for the rest of the season. We have a long season ahead, so we're just you know, ready to keep going. Devin Serra: You're a great sport. I didn't want to put you on the spot, but you answered that beautifully and you're right. A lot of teams have the chance to compete. I just think it's super cool to have that and I wish I would have thought of this. Christina, if you're listening to this, you have full disclosure to to write me a mean text for not inviting you on this episode. Because I think it would have been really fun for you and Googs to go back and forth about this. but hey, yeah, congrats to you guys and yeah, I mean you your team won by a lot to a little in a lot of games. So it is something to talk about. But early season, doesn't mean too much to my mind, the grand scheme of things. Just awesome that two teams battled it out like this. And of course on the McKenna Brown note, if you want to learn more and make a donation to that movement, visit www dot the McKennaway dot com to join the movement and create a more compassionate and supportive world for everybody. So awesome that this happens every year. And we never want to forget the memory of McKenna Brown and the kindness that she represents in in CHS and all around the world of hockey. And also on a really positive story, what Wesleyan College, they had this awesome rollout. We talked about the media campus celebrities coming out, them debuting these sweet looking purple jerseys. And they showed out in their debut a twelve nothing win over Georgia Southern. the shot total was insane. Sixty-eight to two. They scored seven goals in the first period. Clearly, Wesleyan had a mission and they had a great crowd there at the the Macon Coliseum. A tailgate before the game, big crowd. University president Megan Blight dropped the ceremonial puck. from you guys, what is the reaction to you, see I don't know if you saw the photos or the rollout, but this is a school that we mentioned treats their team with respect. And I wish more programs did this. More schools cared about their hockey teams like this. what was your instant reaction to just hearing about this kind of news? Jordan Manning: Yeah, I mean, I love the culture. what a great way to start the season and start their program history honestly. love to see it, twelve to nothing, but just like the ceremony in general, president dropping the puck. great way to start. I love the culture there. you can definitely tell that they're gonna be a strong team, tightly knitted. just really excited to see what comes out of it. Avery Gugliotta: I absolutely love this. Like I think that's so awesome that they have the support of their entire school behind them in their debut and they came that's a huge win for them. And, that's just that's just awesome. That's how like it really should be for all teams joining in the South. Like every school should be supporting their teams like this. And I think, the league is developing and as more programs develop. I think it'll continue to be like this for more teams, so I love that they're just getting the recognition they deserve and you know, kudos to them starting a new team and big congrats for that win this weekend. Devin Serra: And on players that showed out for them in in this twelve nothing, I'm gonna be respectful and call it a massive win. Keely Bott, four goals, two assists to her name. Tara Hearn, one goal and and three assists. Skylar Penfold also had two goals, just some of the notable players I feel like we're gonna be following a lot as they go on with their season. And respected Georgia Southern for making the trip out there. It it's not easy to see one of our teams lose like that. But Westley's been a great story, so happy for that program to start their their tenure in a on the right note. And they did announce on their social media that their upcoming schedule, they'll play three games this weekend. All of them are free to attend at the Macon Coliseum. Super job by everybody involved with this rollout. Awesome and looking forward to seeing more content from them. A C D C side of things, South Florida took on A C D C Rollins. Great to see Rollins College get involved with play. It's been Kind of an up and down. We don't really know where they've been with their program, but they are playing games. Bulls got the sweep, however, 12 to 6, 13 to 2 wins over both games. Logan Slezak had six goals and two assists over the series. And Kevin Tompakov, four goals and three apples to his name. Florida Southern took on UCF, one of the two newer ACDC programs. Florida Southern dropped down from M3. UCF has a brand new ACDC program. The Moccusins sweep this one. Six to one and ten nothing victories. Two shorties on Friday. Hunter Rice with two goals and three assists. And Cole Wyden with three goals. Wyden one of the returners for the Moccazzins. And Florida Tech. We just talked to a great interview with Santino Chancio. The 9 2 and 11 3 sweeps of ACDC Embry Riddle. Right now, in my mind, this is one of the favorites to win ACDC. Florida State got it done last year in a great final. Jacksonville is a solid team as well, but I feel like Derek Morgia is a level above where he plays. Six goals, four assists, ten points over the weekend. Chase Dosialski had ten points as well. no one fairer, two assists, four assists, excuse me. This is a really complete team if they stay healthy. They've had a lot of injury problems. Sentino was out that first half of the semester. They lost Derek Morgia. Early on. They're probably gonna do very well in Battle at the Beach. So they'll be in our preview when that comes up in a few weeks. Very, very solid performance. And credit to the Panthers. And hopefully we'll see those jerseys sooner than later rolling out. Our three stars of the week, Derek Mangia from Florida Tech, six goals, four assists for ten points. Chloe Valente, nine points with five goals and four assists in their split with Tampa. And Jack Tickle, the nine points aforementioned in that split with. South Florida. And but before we continue on further, guys, you know, any any honorable mentions in your guys' mind for the week? Jordan Manning: Yeah, I mean if we're just talking about like Florida Tech had a very dominant weekend. There were two players, obviously Derek Morgia, number one, but one that I kinda saw was his partner Chase Dalskowski. I pretty sure I butchered that last name. But it always seemed like they were, you know, dueling points, like one would score a goal and the other would assist on it, and then the other would score the goal and then the other would assist on that one. It was just cool to see them out out in the ice helping the Panthers get those big wins. I really like seeing, you know, duos out there and I really hope it's here to stay. Devin Serra: Yeah, very cool. I gotta give credit to Wesleyan University's Killy bot, the four goals, two assists. I know it's a big win, twelve nothing, but when you when you open your program and you have this kind of performance, a hattie and then one to add to it, makes a statement for sure to the rest of the women's league there. But our three stars complete. Time to look forward to our weekend. It's a lot of different interesting ones and Especially to me on the women's side, but we'll start with ACDC. unbeaten teams going at it. USF travels to Jacksonville. Saturday at 9 45 p.m. Eastern and Sunday at 11 a.m. from community first Igloo should be really entertaining. Jacksonville pulled a huge crowd for their season opener sweep last weekend. So hopefully see a repeat of crowds there when they take on USF. M3 FGCU Travels to Embury Riddle. FGCU. You're hoping they can kind of fix what was a rough start for them in their in their season opening series with with Miami. they need to find goal scoring, and that's gonna be the biggest question I find watching this series. three FAU travels to Lynn. We got a rematch of the Battle of Boca Friday at eight P. and Saturday at seven PM. Lynn got the overtime winner over FAU in game number one and then took the series two weeks ago. And on the women's side, Georgia at Wesleyan, Friday, 8 p.m. Let's see how good Wesleyan really is against a quality Georgia team that's been really high on our minds. For the rest of our matchups in men's two, St. Thomas travels to Florida Atlantic Friday at Boca Ice Center, 7:30 p.m. And then FAU plays St. Thomas from Baptist Health Ice Flex, practice facility of the Florida Panthers, at 6:15 p.m. In men's division three. Vanderboat travels to Georgia for two games. USF visits Tampa. So we get the what do they call it over there, Avery? The Battle of the Bay or I four or both. Wait, I four is UCF now. Avery Gugliotta: I don't know highways. I don't know. I guess it's just Battle of the Bay. I feel like everyone just says mostly goes by Battle of the Bay. Devin Serra: Okay. Good to know. Good to know. I was looking for you to dig me to be honest. you definitely could have because we've talked about this series on men's and women's side already. And I didn't even mention that you can call the men's and or the the woman series you just had the Battle of the Bay, but I'll digress. You feel free to jump in and you know, call me out on my Schlack while I rip through these at any point. USF, there's a good one. Has that series, home and home, should be entertaining there, one of ours to watch. Middle Tennessee travels to Alabama. Real big test for Middle Tennessee. If Alabama comes in and whoops on them, I think they're already legit, but this would really solidify in my mind that Alabama is going to be one of the better teams in M3 the rest of the year. Miami visits UCF and then Florida Gulf Coast. We mentioned the series of Denver Riddle out of Daytona Ice Arena. For a woman's series, Auburn at Tennessee from Knoxville Civic Coliseum, Friday, Nun. at ten PM and then Saturday at ten AM. Avery, have you have you had games where you have to play we have one coming up here, the night before and then an early morning the next day? Like why does that happen? What like whose idea is this to schedule that? Avery Gugliotta: Honestly, as hard as it is to like say, like a lot of times for like women's games, we kinda get like the bad end scheduling, with like ice times and stuff. it even happens at like tournaments, where we've played late at night and then you're playing early the next morning before anyone's even there after everyone leaves. So that's honestly just like it happens just in like scheduling, rinks can be busy, but I'll say that happens far too often for the women's side of the games. We always we don't get the best ice times, which is unfortunate. But, those girls they'll play their hearts out. Late night game, early morning, Warriors right there. Devin Serra: Let me ask you this question, guys. What is crazier? Having to play until damn near one in the morning and then a ten a the next day? Or playing back to backs like we saw out of teams like Tennessee and Miami last year? Avery Gugliotta: Honestly, I think the ten PM and like the ten AM is far worse. 'Cause back to back, like you're tired, but it's also like the adrenaline's still kinda there. Like you're still kinda ready. It's one day and you're done. Versus like when it's Auburn versus Tennessee, it's like, those girls are probably leaving from campus late, like after classes and stuff. Going to the game, going to bed at like one AM and then getting up probably by eight, the like latest, so that way they can get to the rank and warm up. So Yeah, I think that's a lot harder 'cause you're just you're just tired the whole time. Jordan Manning: Yeah. I mean I gotta agree. I mean you gotta think about transportation. I mean those players as as soon as the game's over, they gotta get back on the bus and go back to the hotel or their homes, wherever they're staying at, and then at the butt crack of dawn, they gotta get up again and unpack and pack again and go back to the arena and get ready for the morning game. Devin Serra: That's a great perspective you both put on it. I almost felt bad for the back to back just for the simple fact if you lost a game really badly before, I feel like having to play right after would be bad in the sense of like, man, we still have to play another game. Maybe it's good because then you don't have to waste another couple hours and be like, All right, like we just got dumped on, let's go back into the saddle. interesting. But yeah, we need to we need to push for more games to not be scheduled like this. but it's the ACHA, right? So, some teams have to play at midnight. That's just how it is. credit to both of them. So we'll see that between the the Tigers and the Volunteers. But Miami travels to your Tampa Spartans, Avery, Clearwater Race Arena Saturday at six thirty PM Eastern, and then Sunday, eleven forty five AM. Alabama, we mentioned, plays Wesleyan Saturday and Sunday at the Bacon Coliseum. Game in between against Georgia for the newest Colentucky South team. And then our final games to preview, ACDC side. It's AAU North Florida at Florida Southern Moccasins. St. Leo visits Embury Riddle for a home and home for those kinds of series. USF, at Jacksonville. We mentioned the the Dolphins there. And then trocf travels to Florida Tech for that Rivalry game for the Space Ghost teams. Florida at Florida Southern in the A C D C ACDC, on it's Sunday, twelve PM. Holy smokes, I'm getting worse at these guys. You'd think after like thirty something odd episodes, I'd be not just a talking radio head, but here we are. we're at the end of our rundown. You know, I do gotta ask a question that was pretty unscripted, but it was one of the things they thought about just previewing this episode, if you are trying to get people to come out to these games and let's say it's like eleven thirty at night, how do you rally the troops? you what are you saying to like the student group or your own friends to get them to come out for a game? Jordan Manning: I mean when it comes to getting fans out, I think one way to get the fans out is doing like events during the game. like some shenanigans like handing out stuff, like merch or stuff like that. But if you're just trying to convince your friends to go out, I mean you have nothing else to do at twelve PM. I mean most college students they're staying up until like three, four in the morning for some reason. So it just gives you something to do. I mean, especially with like these a lot of these Florida teams and a lot of these southern teams, they're all have like these late games and part of that southern culture is you know, staying up late watching those teams, supporting your local teams. So I feel like a lot of that is just rallying the troops out there, trying to convince them like, Hey, we still have this last stance to go come out. if you're a real fan, come out. Avery Gugliotta: Yeah, it it's hard. I feel like a lot of times you can get like friends to go pretty easy, They just wanna come support you. Like my roommates have come to games before 'cause they're like, you're gonna be home later. As well like go hang out, watch the game for a little bit. But our like the D twe team here before has had like buses from campus and they'll shuttle students to and from the rink 'cause we're about like thirty minutes away. So, they'll get those kids on their shuttles and then afterwards kids gonna do Whatever they want to do after, but it's easy way to just hang out with a bunch of people and watch a game, do something. it's a little bit different than just, you know, your typical Friday, Saturday night in Tampa. So Devin Serra: I like both those ideas. A giveaway always works. I've seen Weeper State do that. I've also seen, the roommates or like a fraternity sorority come out. But here's my thought, and I found that this out at the race track. I promise it relates to hockey in some way this last weekend. After the race on Saturday night, it's a two day event. We have a race on Saturday. All day. Sunday, we race until four PM, but it's a later start. Because The night before Sunday, we have a band, and the band comes out and plays basically boomer music, but you know, cool, like Allison Chains or like Led Zeppelin and stuff. So I don't even see anybody do this. Why don't we have like a band? Like why can't we have like an intermission show at one of the hockey games? I feel like in the South look, Florida, I guess, whatever. You guys love live music. Tampa. Ebor City, everything is live music twenty four seven. Jordo, I I know it's not too much different for you at Fort Golf Coast. Like, come on, let's get the band out there, let's get something going. I mean, hell, if you have any cool alumni, tell their artists about the game and get a show for free. I'm sure they'd be glad to come out. That's just my two cents. this could be the dumbest take ever and people could tell me to shut up. that's valid. But I feel like getting like like, you know, I don't know. It Where did Ludacris go to school? Did he go to Florida Golf Coast? Did he go to Tampa? That'd be a cool act. Avery Gugliotta: Think that that's definitely something some Jordan Manning: Yeah. Avery Gugliotta: we could get done. Either a tip or like I could see some other Florida schools definitely get that going. I think that would be super fun. Honestly Florida Tech, you know, they have that was like three in a person crowd the other night. I bet they could get even more people, have that going. They wouldn't that place would be roof off. That would be super fun. Jordan Manning: Yeah, I mean a big part of that Florida culture is the music. I mean in Tampa obviously that's a big part of their culture out there. But l like you mentioned down here in the south we don't really have that much going. And with like hockey in general, it's kinda hard to get like that intermission music going because with football you have a distinct halftime. But with hockey you got like two to three, twenty minute period to do something. So it'd be kinda hard to fit something in there. But if we had like some form of like second or or a first or second intermission, show, get like the local artists out. I know here at FGCU there's a lot of like smaller artists. not just like spreading the game, but also spreading, like that local culture, the regional artists and the music and stuff like that. Devin Serra: Wow, you guys really ran with music. I thought you guys were gonna disagree. Like that's stupid. Like how would we even do that? thanks, I guess. let's maybe get Florida out to a game. I had to do it. That's first thing I thought of. I don't even know if Flow Rider still performs live. I hope he does. if he can't get a band, what my the my second idea is? Get like those giant balls that you can like climb into and just like have students run at each other and hope somebody doesn't get a concussion. Like that'd be cool. I'm sure like Some of the basketball team has that laying Jordan Manning: Like sumo wrestling. Devin Serra: around. Avery Gugliotta: We do that at Tampa during Greek Week and I was in one of the bubbles and got tossed, like fully like on my head, like upside down in the little bubble thing. I think that would be pretty fun. Get people out, run around do but like do it on the ice or whatever and just like falling. But you like you're protected, you're in the bubble, you'll be good. Devin Serra: I'd volunteer you, Gooks. I would love to see you just go full speed at somebody in half time and then play a period afterwards. Avery Gugliotta: It was so fun 'cause we were like against like other like sororities. So I was just like running up and decking people. And my sorority, the girls like volunteered me, they're like, Avery you have to do it, you play hockey, like you have to I was like, All right, I will and I had a blast. I was like, This is a fun Tuesday afternoon for me. Devin Serra: Wha Wha so this so you've already done this? Avery Gugliotta: Yeah, like my school, like I not in my sorority anymore, but what I was we do like Greek week, and so they have like a bunch of events on campus, and it's like all the frat sororities like go against each other. And they one of the events is bubble soccer. So that you put they put you in the big bubbles and like you're playing soccer, and it's so hard because you they can't even see the ball. But I literally was just running up to people and just smacking them. I like hit like a frat into like a crowd like I got I don't worry like I got dead too like it was really fun but I got flipped upside down at one point so I was my head was like looking at the ground my feet are up in the air like it's really fun so good idea right there. I think more teams need to get on that. Devin Serra: Yeah, screw the band idea. Let's just let's just play ball soccer. My God. Avery, you impress me every every episode. hell yeah. That's so sick. we'll be sure to put you up against Danny Baum whenever he returns and get this in the works for playoffs. this is a fun episode, guys. we got a mouthful with Santino and the the current games, but hey, I love it. Great segment and and thanks for coming out again, Avery and Jordan. episode thirty four of College Jockey Mouth. Collinsaki South Podcast, sitting down with Santino Chancio from Florida Tech. We'll see you all next week. Have a great rest of your weekend and all of your games going on.