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This season, the Icepack hopes to claim a fifth straight ACC crown and compete in nationals, a trip it\u2019s made two out of the last four years, says senior Victor Hugo, an aerospace engineering major from Arlington, Va., and the club\u2019s president. \u201cRaleigh\u2019s turned into a hockey town with the \u2019Canes, and people are picking up that hockey is a pretty cool sport and they\u2019re realizing that their college actually has a hockey team.\u201d (There\u2019s even an NC State women\u2019s club ice hockey team, formed in 2019. The club won the 2022 women\u2019s ACC title.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a club team, the Icepack doesn\u2019t receive the same financial support as a varsity sport. The budget can get as high as $125,000 if the team heads to nationals, says Icepack coach Tim Healy, who earns a small stipend. Players, who vied for spots in competitive tryouts in August, pay $1,500 to participate, and the team covers the rest with ticket revenue, corporate sponsorships, donations and apparel sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe can\u2019t use the university branding, so we\u2019ve gone and really had to work hard at creating our own brand, which means that licensing fees and sales from places like the Red and White Shop comes back to us,\u201d Healy says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The team has developed a strong fan base among youth hockey players, offering free admission to youth players at its Friday games, a tactic that packs the stands. \u201cA lot of the parents are NC State alums, so they have that pride point of bringing their kids,\u201d Healy says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And, as the team travels for games across the country, it\u2019s actively reaching out to alumni, connecting with them in places like North Dakota and Texas. In 2019, the team held a Founder\u2019s Day with some of the original members coming on the ice. The team\u2019s founder and first president, Richard Jordan \u201979 of Minnetonka, Minn., dropped the puck. Of the Icepack\u2019s progress, Jordan says, \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n When NC State\u2019s club ice hockey team launched in fall 1976, Raleigh was hardly a hockey town. The closest rink was in Hillsborough, N.C. The best way to get fans to games might have been with a keg, a successful gimmick once in the early years. And, about half of the team, first dubbed the Wolfpuck, were from northern states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/trophy_Oliver_byKaydeeGawlik_rgb-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nBy Sarah Lindenfeld Hall<\/h4>\n\n\n\n