Moon Township, Pa. -- Robert Morris University (RMU) has accepted an invitation to join the Atlantic Hockey Association (AHA) and will be admitted administratively for the 2009-10 season and will start competition in the league for the start of the 2010-11 season.
The announcement of the Colonials joining the ranks of Atlantic Hockey was made official at a press conference Wednesday at the Hat Trick Club at the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center. Atlantic Hockey Commissioner Bob DeGregorio along with RMU President Gregory Dell’Omo, Athletics Director Craig Coleman and head coach Derek Schooley, who is the Colonials first and only coach, spoke at the event.
“We are excited that Robert Morris has accepted admission to the Atlantic Hockey Association and that they bring a highly visible and competitive program into the league,” DeGregorio said. “We will now have a pair of institutions in Western Pennsylvania, and our hope is that this will provide fans of both Mercyhurst College and Robert Morris a chance to see Division I hockey and the start of a great rivalry between the two schools.”
“We are extremely excited about our acceptance into Atlantic Hockey. Atlantic Hockey is an established, high quality hockey conference that we will be very proud to be a part of,” said Coleman. “We have worked hard at RMU to develop our hockey program to a high level in only five years, and believe that our entry into Atlantic Hockey is the next big step in that development.”
DeGregorio and Bill Bellerose, associate athletic director at Holy Cross and chair of the Atlantic Hockey Executive Committee, visited RMU in October, taking in the Friday night contest between the Colonials and Alabama-Huntsville.
“Atlantic Hockey has proven to be a very competitive conference and we are very proud to be members of this conference,” said Schooley. “We are thankful to the members of Atlantic Hockey for allowing us membership in their conference. We are going to be competing against some very strong programs and we will be able to bring some new geographical rivals to Pittsburgh. This is very good news for Robert Morris University, the athletic department and our hockey program.”
For the 2010-11 season, the teams in the AHA will be split into geographical scheduling pods. Teams in each of the “regions” will play three games against teams in their own “region”, while playing two cross over games against the other “regions” squads. Each team will play a total of 27 conference games with the standings including all 12 members. Playoffs for the 2010-11 season will be determined prior to the start of that season.
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Joining College Hockey America (CHA) for the 2004-05 season, RMU replaced Findlay University, after the latter dropped its hockey program. The Colonials competed with current AHA member, Air Force during the 2004-05 season, before the Falcons made the move to the AHA. In RMU’s brief history as a Division I Ice Hockey program, the Colonials have defeated the likes of Boston University on their way to capturing the 2007 Nye Frontier Classic in Anchorage Alaska. RMU also has scheduled many AHA members in non-conference action since making the jump to Division I.
The Atlantic Hockey Association arose when nine institutions joined together on June 30, 2003, to found a new Division-I men’s ice hockey conference. The league currently consists of ten members: Air Force Academy, American International College, Army, Bentley College, Canisius College, the University of Connecticut, the College of the Holy Cross, Mercyhurst College, Rochester Institute of Technology and Sacred Heart University.
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