BY NOAH GRIFFITH
FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN —
Auburn Hockey is moving up to the Amateur Athletics Union Division 1 level for the 2023-24 season, and it is prolonging its fiercest rivalries in the process.
Auburn will join Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and the University of Tampa in making the jump to D1 in the same year, and they will form the South division. While being a D1 program will help put Auburn hockey on a bigger stage, it will allow it to keep up with opponents that it has faced since the program was formed in the 2012-13 season. It played Alabama and Georgia that season and has played them every year since.
“Some of the teams we battle against and we hang with decided to make the jump as well, so with our club growing as fast as it is, we wanted to make sure we’re doing everything we can to compete with those other clubs down here,” said AU Hockey Club President Cam Denk. “If everyone was deciding to make the jump to D1, I think we were more than ready to do it as well.”
As with all Auburn sports, the club’s deepest rivalry might be with the Crimson Tide. Auburn is 6-6-1 against Alabama’s D2 team dating back to 2019. This past season, Auburn split a pair of one-score games in Tuscaloosa in November, split a pair of contests with them in Auburn in January and tied in a neutral-site match in Huntsville in the middle.
“We split with them last year and then we [were] next-door neighbors with our locker rooms at Nationals, so they never really go away and they’re always kind of a pain in the side, but playing against them is always so much fun because it’s so competitive,” Denk said. “It’s something that we’re looking forward to this year for sure.”
In addition to staying competitive with its rivals, Auburn hopes to grow in D1 due to the exposure northern teams will have playing against Auburn and playing hockey in the South. Rather than teams being clumped in the North, there is now a reason for those teams to travel and help grow the game elsewhere.
“With us moving to D1, there’s still going to be a regional — or South — tournament, and that looks like it will potentially be in Pelham. Then there will be a national tournament, but instead of it being in Philadelphia, it will be hosted down South,” Denk said. “There’s no location set for that yet, but that was a big appeal for us moving to D1 as well as bringing some northern teams down here to compete against them.”
Denk said he and the team are looking to improve the fan experience going forward, and one way they hope to do that is to move their home rink to the Auburn area. They currently call the Civic Center in Columbus, Georgia, home, but a 45-minute drive multiple times a week to practices and games is neither ideal for fans or team members.
To help the fans be able to watch games without traveling, Auburn Hockey Club recently signed a streaming deal with Black Dog Hockey, where it will stream all home games and most of its away games, according to Denk. It’s $5 to watch a single game, or you can get a monthly subscription.
“We’ve been talking to President [Chris] Roberts and the rec at Auburn and doing what we can to [bring a rink to Auburn],” Denk explained. “We’ve proposed the idea of bringing a rink into [Beard-Eaves] Coliseum; it’s just something that we need to iron out. With the smart group of guys we’ve got, it’s becoming more and more of a possibility for sure.”
But the growth of the club means more than just hockey. Going forward, the Auburn Hockey Club hopes to provide a new way to engage the community and bring something new to The Plains.
“We’re also working to increase the fan experience this year,” he said. “We’re going to make sure we have some sort of event or Aubie or a public figure coming out to our games. It’s more than just hockey, we’re working on making this an enjoyable experience for everyone.”