With a fundraising deadline of 3 weeks, UAA’s hockey and at least 20 candidates for coaching are optimistic

Minute by minute, remaining days counter Save Seawolf Hockey the website moves closer to the deadline for rescuing the UAA hockey team.

Supporters have until August 31 to raise $ 3 million to maintain the program, and on Tuesday afternoon there was 21 days left to raise just under $ 400,000 to about $ 19,000 a day until the end of this month.

Save Seawolf Hockey Chair Kathie Bethard is confident the program will survive. And UAA sports director Greg Myford is so optimistic he’s not just is looking for a new hockey coach, he wants to hire one soon.

We’ll be returned, I’m sure, Bethard said Tuesday afternoon. Because we earn $ 3 million. We may be short on August 31, but we have a plan ahead as to where the next step will come from.

The University of Alaska Regents is scheduled to meet from 9-10. September, and the future of hockey is likely to be decided then.

With all the successful work that Save Seawolf Hockey has done, we are still very optimistic about the return, and the coaching search is progressing accordingly, Myford said in an email.

But for the sake of clarity, we want to find UAA Hockeys ’next coach right away so they can hit the ground after the program’s formal return. Waiting for the search to begin only after that would delay the recruitment, scheduling and overall planning that needs to get underway this fall.

Myfiord said at least 20 candidates from across the country, including Alaska, have applied for the position.

Nearly a year has passed since UAA Chancellor Cathy Sandeen said the school is cutting three sports programs in response to a deep cut in government funding across the university system.

As a result, hockey, an expensive program that had by far the largest fundraising mission, is the only program that continues to work to restore.

Small and large donations have come from more than 1,000 individuals and businesses, and fundraising events such as silent auctions and golf tournaments have also contributed to the decline. Alaska Airlines recently committed $ 250,000 over five years, which Bethard said will help the program achieve long-term sustainability.

Part of the path of hockey programs to recovery includes taking the 2021-22 season. Seawolves also didn’t play hockey last season, and although Curley stayed in school during the 2020-21 school year, he recently resigned from the U.S. Hockey Association.

Myford said there is no application period for potential coaches; the search continues until the place is filled, he said.

Hockey is one of 13 inter-NCAA sports in the UAA. A school must be at least 10 to qualify for NCAA Division II membership.

Membership also requires at least two team sports per gender, and without hockey, UAA will be left with one men’s team sport, basketball. (Skiing, Athletics and Cross-Country Skiing – Other Men’s Sports Opportunities at UAA – are considered individual sports).

So even if removing hockey would save $ 1.5 million a year, the UAA would probably add another men’s team sport, even though Myford said the school is asking for at least a temporary waiver of that requirement.

We don’t have to deal with it completely until we know we don’t meet (the two-man team sport requirement), he said. We plan to do so, if necessary, through a waiver request or by adding a new team immediately.

I’m convinced we don’t have to do either because we’re going to end up in hockey.

This story has been updated with comments from UAA Sports Director Greg Myford.