Latest / College Hockey Mouth / Episode 3: Building the Future of Women's Hockey with Savannah Prefontaine

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Episode 3: Building the Future of Women's Hockey with Savannah Prefontaine · College Hockey Mouth

• speaker-0: Welcome back to College Hockey Mouth, a College Hockey South podcast. Episode three, sitting down with Assistant Woman's Commissioner, Savannah Prefontaine. My name is Devin Serra, joined alongside Danny Bohm and Devin Coker, who you'll hear later in this podcast after the interview. Danny, I welcome you in. How was your week? We're at the midweek point, the time of recording. How was how were things for you? Well speaker-1: I mean it's fantastic right now because we have hockey this week. All all the build up and different announcements we've seen ⁓ and have been preparing. Now it's it's all in the rear view and now we just get to worry about the hockey, which is the fun part. That's why we're here. So really excited for the weekend and to see some college hockey south action for the first time and way, way too long. speaker-0: Did you get any sunshine, any final activities for the summer before ya get going with your season? speaker-1: that's not good. Sorry, Gavin. I'll try to get this answer back on track. Maybe I'll just put my phone away and then I'm getting distracted. No, c college football this past weekend, it feels like fall. You're in South Florida, so it still probably feels like, you know. Basically you're in a a sauna steam room down there. It's actually pretty like it feels like autumn up here in the Atlanta area where I am. So just sat back watching college football. speaker-0: It's like Groundhog Day. Every day is summer. And since I moved here just less than a year ago, I've envied you for having seasons. I personally love the fall. I love that cool air. And I grew up in the wintertime going out on frozen lakes and trail riding snowmobiles with my dad. So this is a a weird time where my brain doesn't really know what's going on. But we we're making it work and hockey brings me closer to that feeling again. I did get Pretty active this weekend. It was Labor Day weekend. I had some friends come down from Michigan to Miami. They were coming down to see the Notre Dame and Miami football game in person. ⁓ As Notre Dame fans. And they wanted to get the full experience of Miami. So I took them ⁓ they they were staying in South Beach and I took them to Club Space in Miami and we were there way longer than any of us expected. So I ended up ⁓ needing a recovery day or two. Not sure if you can hear my voice, I even came down with a little cold. So I guess you can say that was my send off to summer, but it's time to lock in as they say now. speaker-1: You think there are gonna be less recovery days in in the hockey season? I don't think so. I don't think so, buddy. I think there are more recovery days needed ahead. But ⁓ since my last visit on the podcast, by the way, first ever two time guest, so you know, not a big deal. I need a little mayakulpa here, okay? The first time I was on, I came on without exact stats, which is just completely unprofessional. I hope our audience can forgive me, Devon, you as well. Gavin, who has taken a has sworn a silence, ⁓ Gavin If you want to talk about your weekend eventually, speak up, buddy. But I mentioned Brandon Avazov of ⁓ Division III Columbia and how his stat line was absolutely ridiculous last season, but I didn't have the exact stats. So here we go. In the twenty four twenty five season, Brandon Abazov for Columbia University had fifty six goals, fifty-five assists, a hundred and eleven appoint A hundred and eleven points and twenty games played. Not bad. Five and a half points a game. Over five and a half points a game. And in that national semifinal against South Carolina, he only had a single point. It was a two to one win for Carolina. And also I said South Carolina twenty-five or twenty-six ⁓ and one when they were actually twenty-three ⁓ and one. So again, my apologies, Devin. I'll be more professional. speaker-0: Somebody put you on the hot seat and perhaps you just redeemed yourself, but I would say even dumbling down two episodes later is a tough look. I would have just rode with it whatever you said. That's what most people do in TV anyway, or radio in this case. Regardless speaker-1: a lot a lot of people don't have my integrity, Devin. ⁓ I don't know if you know this. People don't have the ⁓ the intangibles that the director of communications for College Hockey South has. You don't get to my position without having a a high quality character. speaker-0: Sure. We'll call we'll call it high quality. We'll call it whatever you want, but we'll see as ⁓ the season goes on. We have a great episode coming up. In this interview you'll just hear from me and Danny Bohm. However, Gavin Coker, our producer, will join us in the second half when we preview some of our week one games of the college hockey sal season. It's finally here We're back in the thick of it with ten games to open the season. What an exciting time for everybody involved in the league as it's a brand new start in the ACHA this year. But before then, we'll jump right into things with the assistant women's commissioner, Savannah Prefontaine. Savannah, we finally got you on the pod. Didn't take us too long, a little bumps in the road. Great to have you on. How are you doing? speaker-2: Pretty good. It just had a few meetings today, been a pretty long day, but I'm super excited to be on here and ⁓ talk about how much I love this conference. speaker-0: Yeah, and for those that don't know, according to our sources, you've been on the phone nonstop, week after week getting ready for this busy season. We know you didn't have much turnaround time. ⁓ you and Danny can both relate to that. First off, just tell us kind of about yourself and how you got involved in this giant conglomerate and now what it is one of the most quickly rising leagues in all of college hockey. speaker-2: Yeah, so I actually started off as a intern with CHS after working with our men's program here at Alabama. And it was a small group of us, it was probably about five interns and so kind of leaned on us a lot to kind of help him with a few things and kind of got to see how much this conference could grow and how much more help how much more people want to get involved and help. And so I during that time I worked with the founders of the women's hockey team here at Alabama, ⁓ and got them connected with Kyle to start up their program. And then from that I was able to be their general manager during their inaugural season, ⁓ when they won CHS playoffs. And then I decided to run for commissioner. I was honestly shocked that ⁓ teams voted for me being GM of Alabama, but ⁓ I guess people saw the passion that I had for growing the game and they wanted me to give back to other teams and that's kind of why I ran for it because I not only wanted to give back to Alabama but I also wanted to give back to the other women's teams who are also growing the game ⁓ throughout the southeast. speaker-1: You mentioned the other founding members of ⁓ the women's team. You wanna give them a a quick shout out? speaker-2: Yep. So Kira Duffy, Morgan Grisbowski and Tegan Matthew, ⁓ it was definitely a long and very rewarding ride with them. They worked so hard to get their program started and get the players there that were already on campus a part of that team and They honestly dominated right when they started and I was happy to be a part of that. Two of them are currently still on the team. ⁓ Kira graduated this past year and she's now going to PT school. So definitely a lot of smart girls within our conference ⁓ who want to get their higher education. So that's been awesome. But yeah, they they definitely started a program that took this conference for a for a long ride. ⁓ and I they helped girl hockey in the south, so it's been awesome to see. speaker-0: Right away, your program that you helped start had prominence in that people were buzzing about growing women's hockey specifically in the South, and not the other programs weren't around, but I think yours got a lot of national media attention. Can you tell us about how fast and unexpected things maybe felt going from a team that was wearing practice jerseys against Auburn and the Iron Cup and then all of a sudden now you're hoisting the trophy as conference champions? What was that Turnaround like I guess and bringing this program to what it is. speaker-2: Well yeah, whenever I first ⁓ helped Kira create the Instagram, like it was just a small little thing with our community here at Alabama and I was like, Okay, I know we're it's like the season hasn't started yet, like you guys aren't in till next season, but I think that we should have a game just to get y'all's name out there. So I contacted Auburn and I was like, Hey, do we all wanna come here just to help us get the name out there? And they were like, Yep. So we got in touch with our men's program and I like, Hey, let's give us some practice jerseys, let us use those during during this game. I remember the girls got there, I gave them the practice jerseys. they spent the whole time st stitching their numbers on the back or putting the tape in the numbers on their back. D honesty that was like probably one of my favorite moments 'cause you think like to where they got now, they were starting off with tape jerseys. ⁓ and then they went and beat them twenty eight to zero. And like right after that, like I can't even remember what NFL player like reposted it. It was just people talking about dominating Auburn. ⁓ I love Auburn now though, like his commissioner. But yeah, it was definitely ⁓ Definitely a moment that went down in history and it kind of set the tone for women's hockey down here. But I think starting off the next season and being able to help recruit their first ⁓ recruit class was one of my favorite parts 'cause some of those girls are now my best friends. ⁓ I was able to get Claire Carson, our MVP, down here from Ontario, Canada. She was getting recruited by D one schools and we were able to get her down here playing college hockey in the Souths. Being a part of that was just awesome and then Where I was as an intern with CHS and being a part of the team that won the playoffs was also very meaningful because I had that relationship established with the staff that was working the event and also the girls there and just seeing that Buzzworth time down ⁓ that game was just awesome and being around all of those girls and the coaches was probably one of my favorite memories. speaker-0: Danny, I wanna ask a quick follow up to that. You called Claire my little Canadian recruit turned lifelong friend. Now, those are two different relationships entirely and this thing evolved over the course of a year. Can you tell us about your relationship with Claire? speaker-2: Yeah, so whenever I recruited Claire, I kind of ⁓ told her my story of whenever I moved from Canada to the south. She was talking about how her parents were wanting to move from Tennessee. So we were able to talk about that and then her being able to just make her mark within the conference has just been amazing. And I was able to be her like role model outside of hockey as well, just because coming down here from a different country is kind of overwhelming, but she was able to push through with me by her side and sad me do that. speaker-1: Yeah, so you guys were a first year program and in club hockey that can it can be a a difficult ⁓ thing to pull off, but it became pretty clear early that ⁓ you guys weren't just any other first year team. At what point did you realize that you guys were something special? speaker-2: I think that during their first game I'm trying to remember who our first game was last season. But it was just like they had the dynamic and that energy this team has and the closeness they all have. I think that's one thing that helps them is that they're not just a hockey team. They're f they're a family. And that's like one thing I wanted to establish as GM within the team and also the coaches this past year was you guys don't just look at each other as teammates but look at each other as people that are going to be a part of your life for the rest of your life. And some of these girls found their best friends on their hockey team. I started off as an intern after I saw applications came out with it on their Instagram. I was working with the men's now ACHA D three team ⁓ within CHS and I was like, okay, let me get my in with the conference and I was able to do that. And then I Started working with Alabama and I started telling Kyle like hey I can come help out at these tournaments and so forth. And then I started getting more connected with other women's teams and I was like, Okay, I've established this relationship with them already. ⁓ why not try and work with Kyle and see if it's worth it to run for a commissioner. And actually, funny story, the day of elections I was running a twenty four hour pro bono event. So I had been up for twenty four hours already and elections were at nine AM. And so I was sitting on there and then it came to a tie vote and it was just like, ⁓ my gosh, what is happening? And then Kyle texts me, he's like, Hey, you got it and I was just like, That is crazy. ⁓ I was still with Alvin when it's natural. Low key. Low key. But yeah speaker-0: You're not the work doesn't stop. speaker-2: No, I I everybody talks about how busy my schedule is. I try to still give myself free time here and there just because I don't want to burn out. That's like one thing that I did start off doing ⁓ over the summer. I was going through a phase of burnout and so that's one my piece of advice is if you feel yourself ⁓ getting overwhelmed with what you're working on or getting drained with something you're passionate about, just take a step back for for a day or two, go do something clear mind because doing that helped me fall in love with it even more because I was like, dang, I miss hockey these two days but I'm not working on it. speaker-1: Yeah, that that's one thing I wanna add in here is ⁓ Savannah is is my ⁓ tag team partner for running the intern program with CHS. And ⁓ over the weekend I I I forget what I asked her about, but she basically said I'm giving myself a weekend off from hockey and I was like, Okay, I I gotta respect that, step back, don't ask anything else. So speaker-2: Yeah. This transition piece this summer was definitely a lot. None of us were expecting anything to happen, but I will say that it was for for the better, in my opinion. ⁓ I I definitely did make it for hot. speaker-0: So when you became going back some more, when you became GM or you first got involved with on the Alabama side of things, there's a lot of these club hockey isms that go on, whether it's the scheduling or showing up to a rank and you've gotta get on the ice quick or things aren't always perfect at those arenas. What's an unexpected reality of club hockey you found out while managing? ⁓ speaker-2: Well, one time I arrived at the rank right before a game and I found out that we had all this stuff planned f to ⁓ do like a leadership night to like present people on the ice and I found out that the rank had put us changed us from putting the youth hockey on the practice rank and put us on the practice rink instead of us on the main rank. So I had a little issue with that and I ended up getting that change because I was like, Hey, you sent us that we were on the main green theater this time. And so I got that change. It's sometimes just dealing with dealing with like rank stuff, I think that was like the main thing was especially with the rank being an hour away, that there's very limited resources with four teams playing out of that rank simply from just Al just Alabama plus all the other organizations they have there. So I think the rank thing was definitely one thing that we ran into with an issue. Overall working with the team, ⁓ probably my favorite part just because of the relationships I got out of it. Especially Claire, like she's one of my best friends now. ⁓ I I'm doing my master's program and Claire has been the one person that I go to about everything not related to hockey just because we established that relationship early on. speaker-1: So on the flip side of the club hockeyisms, the first time A Bama women's hockey came like came up on my radar for in in a big way, I obviously knew of ⁓ the debuting program was when you guys had Ryan Williams drop the puck. I forget for which which game, but for a little bit of contact, Ryan Williams, wide receiver for the Alabama ⁓ football team. This is when this was like right after they had their huge win against Georgia, he made that amazing ⁓ play to win the game in the final minute or maybe the final few minutes against Georgia. He was at the height of his fame and he dropped the puck at your game and I was like, wow, this is something different. How'd you guys pull that off? speaker-2: Uhhuh, so I'm not gonna air him out or anything, but we had just he had liked one of the pictures whenever we had won twenty to zero. He had f started following the account after we won twenty to zero. And so I used that to my advantage and I was like, Okay, this kid is at the height of his career right now, let's see if he'll come up to a football game. But we actually asked him before he was at the height of his career, which benefited us a lot more because I don't know if he would have said yes after that. But I got it organized with the men's program as well and ⁓ got him to come. out to the front of Bryant Denny and we did some TikToks with the women's team which ended up going viral. I'm not sure if you've seen all the Ryan Williams edits that TikTok in it. But ⁓ my gosh, it just went blew up everywhere. And we had he came out to the games and he like I've never been to a hockey game before. We actually had to hide him in a few locker rooms during that time 'cause people kept crowding around him. But it was such a great experience because It was just awesome to see like a football player that big like trying to give like other like club sports programs here at Alabama like the recognition they deserve. And I've kinda stayed in contact him with him here and there. I've been able to get him coordinated with other organizations across campus to kind of give him a platform. So it's been amazing. I love the sports here at Alabama. ⁓ 'cause I'm still doing my masters. So I'm not biased with anything women's related, but the sports here at Alabama is my favorite thing ever. speaker-0: We're having this trouble on the podcast in general. speaker-2: That's one thing with sport management. Like we brought up in one of my sport management courses yesterday morning. Whenever that stuff happens, we don't talk about it. We just let it go. Hope for the best for the next one. But I actually did watch the press release from yesterday and hopefully they make some changes this upcoming game because I do not want to lose T U L A on Home Turf for our first game. First home game. But you know, hopefully hopefully we'll bounce back, but that's all I'm hoping for. speaker-0: Danny? speaker-2: Yeah, so we actually just went through a transition with ⁓ some teams joining the ACHA this year. So we have ⁓ I think four teams playing in the AC D. C. Let me name them all if I could have that number wrong. Alabama, FSU, Clemson, Miami, and Georgia Southern. So we have five teams in the AC D. C. And then we have Georgia's playing AU this year simply because there is a role. They have a seventeen year old player, she cannot play in the ACHA, so they're taking a gap here this year. And it's honestly just a period of growth for our teams this year. So I'm gonna take this to kind of help them ⁓ provide recruiting like samples for each team and also just make sure that they are looking to get sponsors to lower dues in the future and so forth. But what I'm really excited for that I just had a meeting for at seven was is the comms classic. Danny's been working really hard on that with his comms team. ⁓ but it's my favorite event of the year. We have eight of our teams coming and it's honestly the epitome of the growth of hockey in the South for women's hockey just because we have the girls try hockey for free event. We have players that get to go out there and teach young girls that have never played the sport how to skate and it's just amazing to see because we started off with what six teams in two thousand twenty-three and now we are at fourteen. But you wanna be a part of this and be a part of the growth of women's hockey whenever I was younger, I didn't have these resources has meant a lot to me. speaker-1: Yeah, and this will be the last one for me. But we we talked about it very briefly, maybe a couple of weeks ago. You know, this stuff time i is hard to track recently. But your family has a background in the Columbus area. You wanna ⁓ talk about that? You know, not not just in Columbus, Georgia, but in ⁓ the Columbus hockey. speaker-2: Yeah, so my dad actually is the one that got me into hockey. So I'm actually originally from Alberta, Canada. We moved down here when I was eight years old because my dad started coaching a semi professional team in Columbus, ⁓ the Columbus Cotton Mouse, because he had previously played for them back in the nineties when they were a part of the CHL. And before that he played for the Bulls in Birmingham, which is why I'm kind of connected within the Alabama hockey community here. Just 'cause my dad played back in the day. He's very known for throwing punches, he had very large penalty minutes, so Yeah, a lot of people know my dad sort of because of the fighting and that's what southern people love is going to hockey to watch the fights. So he helped me fall in love with it more though because of my brother. I basically grew up in a hockey rink. My brother played junior hockey and just being that little sister that chases my brother around with all of his teammates and then getting to tag along my dad and see all the behind the scenes stuff whenever he was coaching was kind of what led me to fall in love with it. But ⁓ I think the Alabama hockey program made me fall in love with what I'm doing even more. speaker-1: Yeah, and and for context, Devon. Let me just put this in here. For context, when we started talking about her background in Columbus, the first thing she sent me was a video of of her dad fighting. I was like, ⁓ okay, I I get it now. But it it's gotta be cool, you know, having family ties to the region and now you're helping put on a tournament in the area. speaker-0: Being from the speaker-2: Yeah, it's been very helpful. I was 'cause he's used to be the hockey director for the Columbus Hockey Association and one of his former players is now the hockey director, so I've been u utilizing that to my advantage. speaker-0: No kidding. And that's awesome to hear your story and your family story just because I think a lot of people expected someone from Canada not to end up in Alabama. And I think that brings some great context as to your role within here and and where your ties come and why do you you love the game? I mean, it seems like you have the bug like us where you you're obsessed and you just love this product of like ACHA and club hockey now. Like where do you what is one thing that you love most about being involved with non incident college hockey and specifically women's hockey and what are you looking forward to most as you continue on here as assistant women's commissioner? speaker-2: I think the one thing I love about it is just seeing the growth of the game. Being from Canada, it's just you had all those resources up there, you had rinks ten minutes from each other and coming down here, you have to travel over an hour to a rink and you barely even get ice time. So I think that was my favorite thing is just seeing the startup of it and then seeing where it could go and being a part of that change, ⁓ especially for the women's division and helping these teams that are just now starting be able to find their path into becoming the standard of the university. ⁓ I think that was my one thing with Alabama Women's Hockey, I I wanna to make them the standard here, Alabama. So I think that's my one goal is to help every team become the standard. speaker-0: Love it. Danny, anything else for for Savannah or any comments? I know you guys will be working with each other a lot this year and trying to grow college hockey stuff. speaker-1: Thank you for everything that you do. I know that I'd be I'd be up to it. I'd be really up against it if if I didn't have you. So I I really appreciate all that you do. speaker-2: Yeah. Danny's my right hand man. He I can't take all the credit for everything, so speaker-1: And I speaker-0: He also told me earlier in this week that that he's at times can get off the rails and ⁓ start to have conflicts with other people and you're the one that kinda gets him back in the right direction and ⁓ Brunson saying something maybe he doesn't want to. speaker-2: Yeah, it's that crisis management in me. I'm taking a risk management course and we're actually learning about being on a nonprofit board and the stuff that goes right goes along with it. So utilizing that to my advantage when it comes to Danny being like that. speaker-0: Hey, he's gonna be on the air for the Columbus Classics, so he needs a crash course real quick because that tournament's coming up soon. You got this, Dan. Absolutely. And we're looking forward to watching you do great things this year. Good luck in your role with College Hockey South. We hope to see you with a lot of others at the Columbus Classic coming up here in two weeks' time. And hopefully we can have you on some part down the line as well. Thanks so much again for coming on College Hockey Mouth. speaker-2: That's very true. That is very true. Thank you guys so much. speaker-0: Big thank you to Savannah Prefontaine for coming on College Hockey Mouth. A great job this year she'll do as assistant commissioner for the women's division and excited for a lot more things to come running that internship program for College Hockey South. Looking at our news of the week, not too much to put on here before we get to our games to watch because hockey is officially back for College Hockey Sockey South. There is hockey this week. Bless the Messiah, we are back. First thing we get to though is Middle Tennessee had their media day, the reigning College Hockey South Division II tournament champions. There was a great short video made by Kara Short, who does a lot of social media content with interviews and photography as well as videos. She broke down how she created the media boards for their game day, in which she took these insulation sheets from Lowe's. I thought it was great how in the video she Talked about not being able to fit those in her car and she had to go get a U-Haul. First thing I thought in my mind though was that she was gonna try and toe strap the insulation boards to the top of her car and drive down the road with that. That would have been an interesting thing to look at, but she did an awesome job and it's cool to see a little bit of that behind the scenes work. speaker-1: You know what that is? That's taking a hit to make the play, Devin. Sometimes you gotta take a hit to make a play. And shout out to Kara for taking a hit there. He's also on staff with CHS, so shout out to Kara. speaker-0: And yeah, and the photos came out great too. I love the energy of the photos of them holding the trophy from last year. I mean, it was just it was super cool to see one, like you said, the behind the scenes, but then also the after effect of the players with the trophy. speaker-1: Yeah, and another little fun note about that that she mentioned today, she goes to Austin P and Austin P just upset middle Tennessee State in football this past weekend. So, hey, you know, there's a little bit of mixed emotions there, but ⁓ you guys watch any football this past weekend? Any college? speaker-0: I pretty much any game that I could find on YouTube, I was watching it, you know. But d hey, don't ⁓ don't come for me, don't come for me. But I was finding my games on YouTube until the streams got suspended. So I pretty much ⁓ watched every game. You and Seavers TCU l ⁓ last night and so barn burner. What a what a barn burner, you know. I was really hoping Belichick would ⁓ would do something, but like they looked really good for one drive. The first drive and then after that it was just Not ⁓ not even close. We talked about Florida State and Alabama last week and gave our Jersey matchup prediction. Now Florida State is back and I hope that players on that staff got to be part of the field surge because that looked pretty cool on T V upsetting a number eight team. We'll see what kind of squad Alabama is in football. But getting us back on rails, you're right. ⁓ speaker-1: Wha b before we get back on the rails, having having preseason rankings is ridiculous. You're basing them off nothing. Ranking should start in week two. Anyways, we can move we can move speaker-0: But I agree. I agree. Yeah, I I I'd have to agree here too. Now if we gave if we gave our our hockey comparisons to the football top twenty-five, I think it would be an interesting piece to kind of sort together those comparisons. Regardless though, we've got hockey on the slate this week to talk about. The ACHA is back and college hockey south is back. Ten games on the slate speaker-1: Two. Slover one. speaker-0: This weekend, including our College Hockey South game of the week. We've made it. Florida takes on Emory Riddle and another season opening series from Daytona Ice Arena. Friday at 7 PM Eastern Time. Boys, this one is about as good as we can get for an opening week. It's kind of like week one, I guess we'd say, in College Hockey South. And for these two teams, Very different stories on their sides. Florida obviously a men's division two team. Embry Riddle, men's division three this year. Florida had a okay season last year. They went to Nationals, upset the number four team in pool play in Tennessee. And in this series, last year they swept the Eagles with wins seven to three and six to three. Meanwhile, Embry Riddle is coming off a five, sixteen, and two season, but We mentioned last year those games seem like they played pretty close. Give us a little bit of your takes as we look to this rivalry game to open the college hockey South Slate. Yeah, I'm ⁓ I'm excited to see Florida they definitely have some adjusting to do. They obviously lost their captain with ⁓ Matthew Berkeley J Sick moving on, graduating. So he's gone. speaker-1: Pronunciation, getting the pronunciation correct because that name is like a bad draw. speaker-0: I ⁓ the reason I got right is because I got to talk to him last year at AAU Nationals. So shout out to shout out to Matt. But I mean, obviously they do have Liam Lickishwa, another really hard name to pronounce if you look at it. They've got some names to pronounce on that roster, but he was the leading scorer. He'll be back for his sophomore season. And he looked really good last year. I mean, especially at nationals. And I just have to say this about nationals. I did predict. that upset over number four Tennessee at Nationals. And Danny can attest to that. I did call that. But I am excited to see Florida and how they adjust like I said, with losing their captain. speaker-1: Yeah, it'll be interesting. But for the most part, Florida outside of losing their captain, they've got a lot of returning players. And what it looked like last season watching Florida who made the jump from Division Two AAU to Division One, it looked like they had all the talent necessary. They just weren't channeling it it in the right way, necessarily. And so they struggled in a CHS play, conference play. ⁓ but they they really pulled it together at at nationals. if you look at the the results it looks you know, they went one and two or one one and one I believe. ⁓ but they were they made the comeback against Tennessee and then played really well against a a really, really good Buffalo team surrendering a late lead and then just couldn't finish it off and they were in contention to move on on the last day against Quinnipiac. So Florida's a very intriguing team for sure. speaker-0: led by head coach Frank Pasquale, who's been very touted among the College Hockey South f faculty and staff. I think what's so interesting is what I think Gavin mentioned with the returning players. They did not lose many, as many as three as I could count this off season. And they've got some of the best wingers in college hockey south and Keegan Laminan, Michael Katz, Michael McCoy, who I believe are all back this year. So Florida's gonna be a team we have to follow closely. ⁓ Every Riddle's also got some Talent on the other side, the likes of Billy Callahan, Kai Ackerman, Jake McCaw. So don't sleep on the Eagles who are at home on that Friday game in a what's going to be probably a raucous environment. Thank you for the correction there. Yes, we have to put the pronunciation of the ice in there. I just go by the right. Don't want to mix it up with another team on the other side that goes by the Eagles now in Kalachaki South. I'm gonna serve two minutes in the box for that one, boys. Probably won't be the last time this year. I'll I'll rack up the penalty minutes for sure. But thank you. The Ice Eagles. Well look to make this one interesting. speaker-1: You do it again and it'll be a two and a ten. But yeah, it's it's the second straight year that this will be the game of the week for week one. ⁓ Florida took the one last year. We'll see if Ember Riddle can can get their lick back this year. speaker-0: Certainly. Sunday's game will be at Florida's home arena, which is of course all the way in Jacksonville at Community First Igaloo for an eight PM Eastern puck drop. Also some games to watch this week in the conference, starting with Friday night, South Carolina, men's division three taking on UNC Charlotte from the ACCHL, who's a men's division two team. The undefeated Gamecocks from their home arena in Flight Adventure Park. In Ermo, South Carolina. Of course, South Carolina, undefeated last year, rolled their way through nationals under second year head coach Joey Brochue. This will be a first good shakedown of ACHA competition for them. Especially guys like Captain Nick Esposito leading the way. It feels like UNC Charlotte, a team that kinda struggles an AC C H L play, will be a good tune up for them to kind of get ready for what's to come. speaker-1: ⁓ I think the biggest story here is that South Carolina finished the season undefeated last year, only one tie. The only opponent they didn't defeat last year, UNC Charlotte. And that's who they start the season against. They did the the exact same last year and tied and then won every single game since. So I'm sure South Carolina would be thrilled with a repeat performance, but I think they wanna, you know, get the W over here over UNC Charlotte. speaker-0: Honestly, it's and me and Danny were talking about this yesterday off the air. It was super exciting to see this matchup week one and see if South Carolina can keep that momentum going from last season and maybe go for two seasons undefeated. I don't know. Or if you and C Charlotte's gonna go ahead and ⁓ go ahead and sniff that in the bud right there at the beginning. It'll be a good matchup. I think both teams are looking forward to this one, especially like Danny said after last year's tie. Just trying to s decide who's really gonna get that upper hand in the last matchup. Interesting part about this is it's only gonna be one game they'll play, that is the Friday night. Be sure to be tuning in to social media pages for South Carolina to follow that one. Our women's division game to watch this week, Tennessee versus Clemson in their inaugural series. They begin this one with an odd schedule. It's a three game series and they'll play two of these in back to backs on Saturday morning at ten AM Eastern and two thirty Eastern time. And then close out this series with game three on Sunday at eleven AM Eastern. All games will be at the Cool Sports Ice Area in Fairgut, Tennessee. Boys. Cool stuff to see here. Clemson inaugural program. Tennessee looking to build in what will be a competitive women's division this year. It's speaker-1: It's gonna be exciting ⁓ series to see Clemson make their debut. ⁓ congratulations to them. A huge step for them bringing in women's hockey to that university. Tennessee was in their shoes last year. They're starting their second season and look to make a a big jump because, you know, they they s they struggled as you usually do in your inaugural season, and they get their opportunity to, you know, kind of ⁓ you know, make their mark on the women's division against a new team in Clemson. speaker-0: It's exciting to see obviously Clemson getting out there for the first time. And it's kind of weird. They f I feel like they have a baseball schedule, you know, a double header on a Saturday. That's a little weird for hockey, you know. I can't imagine getting off the ice and then realizing maybe within 30 minutes I've got to get back on and play the same team again. You know, I'm sure they're gonna be exhausted. I'm exhausted thinking about it, but it's gonna be exciting and like I said, more teams in the women's division, the competition will spread out and it's just exciting. to see women's hockey back as we're building up to Columbus. I was gonna ask before you said, are you guys a fan of the baseball like schedule? I mean we've got a conditioning stint really going on here, especially with that. I feel like this is a little much to ask for your opening week, but hey, it's a welcome to the league, I guess, for Clemson. speaker-1: ⁓ the goalies better have their electrolytes for sure. Also, like if you get a game misconduct in the first game or like you get a you get a a ten, you get thrown out of the first game, you just come back and play the second one, like nothing happened. I love that. Like like forty minutes later. speaker-0: We might see a couple penalties just just to get a break, you know? I c I can't imagine, like I said, someone wanting to skate around for four hours straight, basically. I mean, you even go take the pads off. You go take it the jersey off, you just go sit in the locker room, sweaty and then come back out once the Zamboni's done. I mean, it'll be interesting to see. I definitely think it's ⁓ it's a tough schedule, but we'll see how the teams adapt to it. And some other notable games going on to mention. Middle Tennessee will begin their season against UNC Wilmington, who is in men's division two, and Florida and Embry Riddles ACDC teams will take on each other on Friday and Sunday. So there you have it. Our first games to preview for the twenty five twenty six season should be an exciting one to watch. I'll be tuning in with you guys to Florida and Embry Riddle. Course on Friday from the Daytona Ice Arena, hopefully they get a raucous crowd in there because the Embry Riddle fans have been making that place hard to play in the last couple of years and no better way to start things off in ACHA than with a great opening series between two rivals in the interstate of Florida. So before we wrap things up with the show boys, let's look at the entire season, some games we are most looking forward to coming up in this year as well as even heading into next year. Danny, you wanna start us off? speaker-1: Sure, I'm I'm gonna cheat a little bit and go with two. I'll I'll pick one in the fall semester and in the spring. So in in the fall here, ⁓ this is gonna be week six. South Florida travels to ⁓ Florida Gulf Coast, and that'll be Florida Gulf Coast's first conference game as a member of College Hockey South. So that'll be interesting. In the spring semester, January twenty fourth, something we've seen on on the men's side, but now we get to see it on the women's. ⁓ South Carolina women's travels to Clemson and they'll play speaker-0: Those are some solid picks. I also am looking forward to that interstate rivalry. We know those two teams in football especially, well, I guess not football, but in sports in general, rival each other pretty well. My picks are a bit separate. speaker-1: Clarify that statement for a second. speaker-0: sitting in South Carolina, not in football. Well, but they're not in the same conference. speaker-1: We play each other every year and we've won two of the last three. Sorry, I said we. I'm supposed to be impartial. But anyways, Devin, go ahead. speaker-0: You know, I could really drag you through the mud right here because if I'm not mistaken, Clemson has been the better team in that rivalry, as of lately. Is that a misunderstanding from a midwesterner? speaker-1: Two of the last three games have been won by South Carolina. That's a fact. I personally like to deal in facts. I don't know about you. I know Clemson people like to deal in fiction a lot, thinking, you know, Dabbo Sweeney's a good coach. But that's their prerogative. They go to Clemson. speaker-0: I think I'm stuck in twenty eighteen still. You have a good point. Two of the last three is a good way. And I'm I'm a big fan of ⁓ who's South Carolina's quarterback? Is it Lenoris Sellers? Lenoris, yep. I he's a fun guy to watch. Clemson and Kate Klubnick are solid too, but let's get this thing back on the ice sheet. We've had enough football talk. We're gonna have more of it this year, but yeah, Gavin. Good luck with this one. I'm gonna go with the division two side of things. I know it's a limited pool of teams, but October third through the fifth, Florida Atlantic and Tampa are gonna have themselves a three-game series, and we'll get a decider in that one, barring they don't tie one of them. I think this series establishes early on who the prominent team of College Hockey South is overall. Tampa, reigning national champions in Division One, Florida Atlantic, reigning national champion in Division Two, both on the AAU side. This one is gonna feel like that. big time playoff game. And for two teams that are looking to prove something this year, I think you're gonna see a very physical style of hockey. Of course they both have some games ahead of the fact, but Florida Land is gonna host all these games and we know that they have the ability to bring a crowd. Expect those to be some big ones to look out for in about a month or so time. Yeah, and I'm excited for ⁓ two game series in November on the twenty first and twenty second, and that's ⁓ Florida Southern versus UCF. And both of these games last year were honestly like neck and neck. They both ended in a tie, same result, same score. Very, very much sense of deja vu. They're supposed to be back to backs last year, but the hurricane rolled through and split them up. So ended up being like one in November and then one in January. But both games ended up three three, went to overtime, neither team could find the goal. So they just both ended in ties. Like I said, I think the mashup was exciting. They were both physical. But like I said, the scoring wasn't as high. There were lots of shots, but both goaltenders played really good hockey and just made big saves and big moments. And so I'm excited to see which team really progressed in the off season and which one's gonna finally get a win in that series. Side note, I'm a huge fan of that Road to the Beach documentary that Luke Bidikoffer over at UCF produced. I think this would be a type of series worthy of a yet another one of those. So if UCF's got it in the plans, hopefully they covered this game to the fullest extent there in late November. But that documentary was so good and and it it's an it's an insane process and it came out so good. Like it was inspiring to see someone document a team the way that he was documenting that awesome to see. Good luck to all of those teams as they begin their seasons and we'll have more to c talk about in college hockey South Slate when we get nearly a full list of teams playing, beginning with the September twelfth weekend series. Before we wrap things up around the ACHA, we'll take a look at, we'll spend some time this year experimenting with some games to look out for across the league. We'd be remiss if we didn't mention that this week is the Iron Bowl on Ice, so the Iron Cup. It's Auburn, Men's Division II versus Alabama from Powham Civic Complex. Of course, this series has been going for, I believe, two decades now. So you got two different teams and two different divisions. Alabama seems to be the favorite in this one, but surely. You'll want to tune in and follow this one that's happening on Friday, September fifth. Also, ⁓ men's division two Georgia takes on North Carolina. The Tar Heels entering men's division one this year. A lot of talk this year about some moving up from d division two up to division one. Danny, I know earlier you made a comment to us about maybe Tampa deserves to get some consideration for men's division one one day. So we'll see how they fare in division two and maybe they'll earn that a call up someday. speaker-1: Yeah, ⁓ yeah, no n no notes. speaker-0: No crumbs. Finally, we've got Tennessee Men's Division Two taking on newly acquired men's division one, University of Kentucky. So a fun week of hockey boys. Let's get set. And for our final notes, boys, what are you predicting week one's gonna look like? You think we're gonna see a lot of ⁓ quote unquote upsets or or is this gonna be kind of the chalk of teams we think are really good? I think we're kinda gonna see what we ⁓ what we expect to see on paper. I think There's not going to be too many upsets. I think Florida, not to say that they just walk away in this one, but I definitely think they win that series. They take both games. And if I'm adding bulletin board material, then you can ⁓ you can find me on my Instagram and at me. And then I think South Carolina and UNC will kind of that one that one's a toss-up for me. I know Danny's gonna murder me for saying this, but I kind of wouldn't mind seeing UNC Charlotte take that game and ⁓ hand South Carolina their their first loss. I'm one for underdogs, I'm one for ⁓ upset stories. I don't like things that go the way that they're supposed to. So and then Tennessee and Clemson, like we said, Tennessee's just gonna bank on their experience from last year and obviously Clemson's still gonna be figuring out how to play and maybe Clemson takes that second one off of exhaustion. I mean we'll see. But I think like I said, the series are gonna go the way we expect them to and the way they look on paper. speaker-1: Well, it's been an off season of change, ⁓ radical change within the conference, and I think we could see things really turned on on their head. The balance of power could be entirely shifted with these new divisions. So I wouldn't be surprised with anything to be honest with you. You know, I I think there are perceived teams that ha have ⁓ an advantage or the the favorites in in the games this weekend, but you know, anything can happen, especially in club hockey. And one last thing ⁓ that's not hockey related, ⁓ now that we just took Over into September. It's suicide prevention, the National Suicide Prevention Month, ⁓ which is a something that's very near and dear to me. So to everyone listening that has struggled with it themselves or has people that have been affected by it, reach out to your people. Even if it's something you you don't struggle with and you you may not understand it, you can be a shoulder to lean on, you know, an ear that that will listen and just be there for your people because you never know, truly know, you know, what someone's going through. So ⁓ and we wanna remove that stigma from, you know, it just because you're mentally ill doesn't mean you're mentally weak. speaker-0: All said. Well, that'll just about do it for episode three of College Hockey Mouth, sitting down with Assistant Women's Commissioner Savannah Prefontaine. Boys, fun episode. Thanks for coming along, Danny and Gavin. We'll be back next week with more content from College Hockey Mouth, a College Hockey South podcast. Have a good one.