Loyola's men's club hockey team took a step towards national recognition March 29 when the team was accepted into the Mid-American Collegiate Hockey Association (MACHA). After two-and-a-half hours of deliberation at the annual league meeting, the Ramblers got the call that they would be joining the ranks of Northwestern, Iowa and Bradley.
"I think they really respect how we're a major metropolitan city school and we have to try really hard to get funding," junior team president Mike Sofka said. "It looks like it's paying off finally, and it was obvious at the meeting when we had to give our speech."
Despite only discovering he was speaking in front of the group five minutes before hand, Sofka impressed enough people to convince the league to allow them to join.
"I was staring out at 45 people and I didn't know I had to speak, so I kind of said whatever came to my head," Sofka said.
Whatever he said worked, and the long process of entering the league finally consummated with acceptance. As a pre-application screening process, the Ramblers played three teams from the MACHA this year. After proving they would be able to compete with a win over Bradley and close losses to Iowa and Iowa State, the Ramblers were allowed to apply for entrance.
Their entrance into the MACHA leaves their former league, the Midwestern Collegiate Hockey League, behind. Although the Ramblers took the MCHL championship last year, Sofka sees the switch as a positive for the team's growth.
"We were really relieved because to expand it we had to face some stiffer competition," Sofka said. "We'll be a little more public, be able to get our name out and it'll be better competition overall."
Sofka hopes the greater exposure will get more talented players to come to Loyola to play hockey.
"Hopefully we'll be able to pick from better talent than we've been able to," Sofka said.
The team is also looking forward to some of the perks that come with the greater prestige of playing in a better league, such as taking more road trips.
"We're really excited that we get to travel a little more now and just [seeing] new teams that we've never seen before," Sofka said. "We're playing some JV teams, which tend to be better than club teams."
Sofka, now a part of Loyola hockey for three years, is happy with the direction the program is going.
"We're financially stable and have a much better base of players that are coming back every year now," Sofka said. "It's nice to have that trophy in front of Halas, and I get to leave that behind when I graduate next year, and for the three seniors graduating this year, it's really nice to leave behind a trophy with your graduating year on it."
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