Over spring break, the hockey team was able to compete at the national tournament in Arizona.

While many people will be spending their spring breaks lying out on various beaches soaking up the sun, there are a few students who will be heading south to play on the ice. This year, the hockey team has been invited to go to nationals in Arizona. Sixteen teams from all over the nation are invited annually to participate in the tournament.

Unlike in many other sports, the invitation to nationals does not stem solely from a good win/loss record. There are a lot of factors that are looked at when deciding which teams will be chosen to participate.

Coach Marty Schipull says that deciding which teams will go to nationals is an “inexact science.”

“There are teams from all over, and a lot of the time we don’t get a chance to play the teams from California and vice versa,” Schipull says.

Player Mike Schaub agrees. “Sometimes it is harder for South Dakota to get an invitation because a lot of the teams don’t see what kind of players we have,” he says.

The trip is made especially difficult because of the fact that, as a club sport, the hockey team has to do its own fundraising.

Schuab says that “sometimes it is hard to get funding for the program.”

None of this diminishes the fact that the players are excited to go, though. They have high expectations going into the tournament.

Forward Andy Schuster says, “Last time we went we didn’t expect anything and we ended up placing second.”

Schaub agrees. ” Everyone is really excited to go and compete for the championship,” he says.

While the hockey players may not be coming back from spring break with a tan, hopefully they’ll bring back something a little more tangible: a trophy.

This weekend, the SDSU Jacks had their last home hockey games.

Friday was a disappointing showing, resulting in only one goal by center Ben Bofenkamp, and a 10-1 loss.

Saturday’s game was a bit more heartening. Seven minutes into the first period, Schnieder scored with an assist from Andy Schuster.

With 13 minutes remaining in the second period, Shaw scored with an assist from Schnieder.

After the second period, the team was down 3-2, with St. Cloud State down one player due to a two minute penalty.

Unfortunately the team was unable to rally themselves. The game ended with the final score 8-2.

Despite their losses, the team goes into their last games of the season with a 20-6 record.

The players are also excited about the fact that they’ve been invited to nationals this year.

“It’s something that we’ve worked for all year long,” Bofenkamp said. “It is our number one goal.”

The invitation was especially important this year, after many team members thought they’d been snubbed last year.

Bofencamp agrees that the invitation proved to be very welcome.

“We thought we deserved to go last year, so this year it was redemption for all of us,” he said.

When people think about a football team, usually the first image that comes to mind is a group of very large men battling it out on a very large green field. People rarely look at a team as something more. Yet with two of SDSU’s coaches leaving for Southwest Minnesota State, people have begun to wonder, “What now?”

Head coach John Stiegelmeier has an answer, “Start interviews.”

“The team is resilient,” he says. “Obviously we’re losing some people that are important to our team, but I see it as a way to improve.”

Although it will be a transition, Stiegelmeier remains hopeful.

“I know that this isn’t the way that people normally look at it, but this is the way we live,” Steigelmeier says. “We are always striving to be better. Now, we have the chance to better our team. We lost two good coaches, but I am confident that we will be able to find the right people for our program.”

It is also a possibility that the change could affect the teams morale. However, defensive lineman Chris Bos, who played under Steinbach, says, “The coaches will be difficult to replace, but I am confident in SDSU’s football program.”

Bos continues by talking about some of the effects Steinbach has had on the team.

“He’s the only coach many of us have ever known. He was hired the same year I started, so we’ve been able to grow together,” Bos says. “He’s shared the birth of his two kids with us. We’ve all changed.”

Steinbach agrees that everyone has changed over the four years that he’d worked for SDSU.

He says, “The hardest things to leave behind will be the people.”

“I’m not just talking about the coaches, but also the players and campus staff,” Steinbach says. “They’ve all treated us well.”

When the coaches broke the news to the team, Bos says, “They were both in tears, but they realized that it was a step up.”

“The ultimate goal of coaching is to move up in the system and someday be able to have your own team,” Bos says. “Eidsness is able to do that by making the move to Minnesota.”

While both coaches think that the move is a step up, they say that the transition to Division I has nothing to do with the fact that they are leaving.

“In fact, I was looking forward to the move to Division I,” Eidsness says. “That made my decision even harder. I was excited to be a part of the new program; I’m a competitive person, and I was looking forward to the challenge.”

With all of these incentives to stay, both coaches agree that SDSU will be hard to leave behind. In the end, Eidsness says that “it came down to the fact that it was a good opportunity for both of us.”

Yet, both of them cannot ignore the fact that they’re leaving behind more than just a bunch of big men who play a game on a field, they’re leaving behind, as Bos calls it, “a family.”