More than a game: Rider Ice Hockey builds on decades of history

By Emma Geremia-Hartigan

For most Rider students, the school’s sports are hard to miss. Basketball fills Canastra Hammer Arena, soccer takes over Ben Cohen Field and baseball competes on the Sonny Pittaro Field.

Rider Ice Hockey is different.

The Broncs play their home games at Flemington Ice Arena in Flemington, New Jersey, but behind that distance is a program with decades of history and a legacy that continues long after players leave the ice.

Rider competes in Division II of the American Collegiate Hockey Association and has experienced several successful stretches throughout its history.

In 1999, the Broncs qualified for the ACHA National Championship in Salt Lake City, marking the program’s first trip to nationals. A year later, Rider won the 2000 Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Hockey Association championship after finishing atop the conference during the regular season.

It would take 23 years for the Broncs to lift the MACHA championship trophy again, but the years in between were far from empty. 

In 2003, Rider finished atop the MACH regular-season standings, and in 2017, the Broncs reached an international stage when senior Christopher Johnson was selected to represent the United States at the inaugural World Cup of College Hockey. Johnson, who recorded 138 points during his four years with the Broncs, was one of 22 players selected for the ACHA Select Team that earned a silver medal.

Five years later, the Broncs added another championship to their history when they defeated Stevenson and shut out Maryland in the championship game, securing its first MACHA title since 2000.

Former player, coach, general manager and team adviser Sean Levin, ’06, has experienced the program from several sides.

Coming from a competitive program at La Salle College High School in Pennsylvania, Levin initially planned to focus on academics. However, after learning about Rider’s upcoming hockey tryouts, he decided to give the sport another chance.

“I learned right away that hockey was part of my DNA,” Levin said.

Under Coach Rick Trimble, Levin quickly realized that college hockey came with higher expectations. “It shaped me, and it probably sparked my passion for the game even more,” Levin said.

Now 42 years old, Levin has spent more than half his life connected to Rider and its hockey program.“When we won championships, I would love to tell you it was me and the coaches, but no, it was the players doing their job and demanding more from each other,” Levin said. That mentality became part of the team’s culture, which Levin described through the phrase “We before me.”

For Levin, one of the most memorable moments in Rider hockey history came during a cancer awareness game honoring Zach Stewart, the younger brother of former team manager Samantha Stewart.

Zach, who was battling cancer at the time, attended the game with his sister. Rider’s players gathered around him near the stands in a show of support, creating a moment Levin has never forgotten.

“He was part of the team,” Levin said.

The gesture represented what Levin had spent years trying to build, a program where players supported others beyond the rink. His biggest goal has always been to leave Rider hockey in a better position than when he first arrived. 

For the team’s current captain, senior finance major Ryan Kenna, representing a program with that much history means more than just wearing the captain’s letter.

“I think it’s a big honor, really,” Kenna said. “The coaches that we have now wore the letters, really, really good players. I just think it’s a big honor.” Kenna said being captain also means representing his teammates and becoming someone they can rely on.

“The chance to represent all the guys, to get to be that unifying voice for everyone and then also being a voice that everyone kind of looks to, it’s a massive honor,” Kenna said.

While players and leadership have changed throughout the years, the current Broncs continue to build on a culture central to the program: the “Brotherhood.”

The word is more than a nickname. It is written on the back of Rider’s jerseys and describes the relationship players share.

“Every time we talk as a team, we break it down with that,” Kenna said. “It says it on the back of our jerseys. It’s something we try to live by.”

Co-captain Alex Blaszak, a graduate student finance and accounting major, said those relationships extend beyond practices and games.

“I think we’re really close,” Blaszak said. “Kind of like Kenna was saying, we’re like a brotherhood, so everyone’s a family.” Blaszak compared the dynamic to a “healthy sibling relationship,” where disagreements can happen without changing the bond between teammates. Veteran players also make an effort to welcome newcomers by inviting them to spend time together outside the rink. 

Sophomore Matt Tavares, a business administration major, started playing hockey when he was 10 years old while growing up in a family that loved the sport. Tavares said Head Coach Larry Walker helped persuade him to attend Rider after conversations and opportunities to practice with the team. Since then, hockey has become more than another activity on his college schedule.

“You’re given 20 guaranteed friends and brothers for life,” Tavares said. Those relationships also motivate him when balancing hockey and academics becomes difficult.

“You would do anything for them and they would do anything for you, and they got your back, you got theirs,” Tavares said.

For junior exercise science major Brayden Turner, the team has become something bigger than another opportunity to compete.

“Rider Ice Hockey gives you a purpose. It can help you find your self purpose as well,” Turner said. For a program that has existed through generations of players, coaches and championships, that culture has become one way Rider hockey’s past continues into its present. The names on the roster will change, captains will graduate and new players will rep the cranberry and white. Eventually, the current Broncs will become another part of the program’s history. But, Kenna hopes what they built together stays.

“It’s something that we want to see in the program for years to come after we’re all gone,” Kenna said.

The Broncs return home Oct. 16 to face Rowan University at 8 p.m. at Flemington Ice Arena.