Corbin Chapman didn’t particularly care which Minnesota college it was—he just wanted to play Division I hockey.

Chapman grew up like most youth players in the State of Hockey, with dreams of continuing to play at the collegiate level. After playing three years at Burnsville High School, Chapman decided to play junior hockey for one season in hopes of getting picked up by a Division I powerhouse.

But no Division I schools came knocking. Instead, a different door opened up with a new opportunity: Division III.

It wasn’t exactly what Chapman had in mind.

“I think everyone who goes to juniors has a plan to play Division I,” said Chapman who enters his senior season at Division III Augsburg College as the team’s captain. “For some it works out, other times you have to look in the mirror and figure out what you want to do after hockey. In my case, I wanted to go to school and found a good fit in Augsburg when I visited. The rest is history.”

The reality can be a hard to pill to swallow. There are more than 47,000 youth hockey players from ages six and up in Minnesota—more than 2,000 ages 17 to 18. There are 1,646 roster spots on 60 Division I men’s teams across the nation. There are 846 spots on 36 Division I women’s teams. Do the math and the odds of being named to one of those slots is slim. Even if you do happen to earn your way on to an NCAA Division I squad via scholarship or as a walk-on, you’re not always guaranteed the ice time you might desire.

Meanwhile, there are 79 Division III teams and 2,314 roster spots available. Seven of those teams are located here in Minnesota as members of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

“In the MIAC you’ve got motivated, competitive, student-athletes that you’re working with on a daily basis,” said Augsburg men’s head coach Chris Brown. “You throw in the quality of play in our league and I think that we’re probably the most unrecognized league with a lot of high-quality players that go unnoticed.”

Brown credits the high-end development in Minnesota with the reason the talent pools runs so deep. There were 207 Division I players from Minnesota last season—the most compared to other states by a landslide.

“Kids in Minnesota are training harder, they’re learning to play hockey at younger ages and their development is fostered in one of the best states for hockey,” said Brown, who coached three seasons at Division I Alaska-Anchorage from 1997-2000. “The majority of them have dreams of playing Division I and pro hockey. Their goal in doing all of this is not to say, ‘I want to play Division III hockey.’ I think the quality of play in our state is so impressive that the biggest thing that gets overlooked is how good players are because the talent pool is so much larger than it was five or 10 years ago.

“That’s why the MIAC is able to compete at an equally high level—we have players that are just as good and just as competitive as some of those on the Division I roster.”

Surprise: Fast, Physical Hockey

Players generally aren’t too familiar with the MIAC when they enter their first season. Those who grew up around the Twin Cities can list off the names of conference teams but know little about the competition level beyond that.

They learn quickly once they step out on the ice.

“I remember sitting on the bench during my first game and was just like ‘wow, these guys are fast,’” said Lucas Dietsch, now in his sophomore season with the Aggies. “This is not junior hockey anymore, this is college hockey and it as fast.”

Natalie Darwitz played Division I hockey at the University of Minnesota. She is the school’s all-time leading scorer and has showcased her scoring prowess and speed on the international stage as well. She enters her second season as head coach of Hamline University’s women’s team. Even she was impressed at the level of play she was now in charge of.

“The pace is much quicker than high school and a lot more physical. There’s a good jump from high school to Division III,” said Darwitz. “You gotta think, why are these kids not playing Division I? Usually they’re just missing a little bit [from their game] but they’re still really high end or middle-of-the-pack good high school hockey players.

“It’s a very serious level. Every game and every weekend is taken very seriously with a lot of competition.”

Student-Athletes

Just like NCAA Division I student-athletes, MIAC athletes are expected to balance academics and athletics equally. Practice is at a set time Monday through Thursday with weekend series. Academic counselors are available along with other educational resources to make sure classwork and hockey don’t send players into overload.

“We don’t want them to feel like they’re sacrificing an ounce of education,” said Brown. “Our team GPA last season was a 3.72. It’s impressive what they do. We had 21 of our 26 players last year on the deans list which is a GPA of 3.5 or higher.

“We just built this environment of very competitive kids who don’t just want to be hockey players. They’re getting an opportunity to get a great education, too.”           

Four More Years of Hockey

Darwitz wants players to look at Division III in a new light. In the last couple of years she thinks they have.

“Instead of high school players saying, well I cant go play DI so I’m not good enough, I’m done, I’m just going to go to school, they’re now saying, ‘no, I want to continue to play hockey. I put in the last 15 years of my life playing hockey, why would I stop? Division III is an option for me to not only get a great education but continue to play the game I love for four more years.

“I think kids out of high school are taking a serious look at that now.”

Players like Chapman and Dietsch certainly are. Neither has regrets about their decision. After all, the longer you can continue to play, the longer the fun on the ice and in the locker room can continue, too.

“I’m happy I’m playing Division III hockey,” said Dietsch. “I never thought I’d be playing college hockey when I was in high school. But whether it’s DI, DIII, club hockey, you’re still playing the game that you love for another four years.

”That’s why I play. You never know when you’ll have to stop playing. I want to keep it going as long as I can.”

“Club Hockey.”

It’s a title that most club hockey coaches and players don’t like to use. It gives off the idea that the hockey quality is less, as is the competition level.

“Why would you want to play ‘club’ hockey?”

Pete Majkozak asks: Why wouldn’t you?

"It’s great hockey,” said Majkozak, a White Bear Lake native who played four years of club hockey at Iowa State University in the American Collegiate Hockey Association. “I think people are surprised at how great it really is. The games are intense, the energy is there every night. It’s a lot more than people think it is sometimes.”

Majkozak made two state tournament appearances with the Bears while in high school. His dad played Division I at Boston University and he’s been good friends with Justin Braun since Mites; a Division I school was definitely on his hockey agenda.

“I went to juniors and struggled a little bit after high school,” said Majkozak, who played one season in the North American Hockey League. “I realized that while the Division I option was closed, I loved hockey. I knew it was always going to be a part of my life so I wanted to keep playing.”

Majkozak visited several MIAC schools but after coming from a high school with a graduating class of more than 800, he wanted to keep that same big-school feel.

He had heard about the ACHA through a family friend and from his teammates in the NAHL. Once he visited campus and learned more about the Iowa State and ACHA program, he was sold.

“I saw the locker rooms, I saw the video and all of the marketing materials and I was just really impressed with how well-run the organization was and the amount of games, the trips, all of it,” said Majkozak who played in two All-Star games and amassed 177 points in his four-year collegiate career. “It’s all run just like you’re a college-athlete at a Division I, II or III school. You practice four times per week at 3:30. You meet with your coach and academic counselor and you have games on the weekends.

"You’re treated like a normal NCAA athlete from every standpoint.”

One major difference between the ACHA and an NCAA Division I, II or III is financially. Scholarships are not awarded to players but the cost to play is not all theirs to bear. Many schools offer fundraising, selling and marketing options to help alleviate some of the financial cost for a player to join the team.

Majkozak was afforded other opportunities through the ACHA as well. He was selected to wear the USA crest in the World University Games in 2009. There he was noticed on an international stage and continued to play hockey professionally in Germany for a season after graduating with his bachelor’s degree in accounting.

All of it made possible with “club hockey.”

“I had some of the best experiences of my life and in my hockey career,” said Majkozak. “I’m really proud to be an alum of the ACHA.”