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The Red Hawks last game was a 5-2 playoff loss to Sacred Heart University on February 20th of 2020. After a three-year playoff hiatus, the team rallied in the last six games of the 2019-2020 season to secure the 5th seed and break the longest playoff drought in program history. About three weeks after the season ended, the world seemingly shut down due to the global outbreak of Covid-19. At the time, the team and the entire world would not foresee what the next calendar year would look like. Just after the university made the determination in late March to transition to remote learning and a campus-wide shutdown, on April 1st, the university assumed ownership of the arena located on campus. Montclair State University Ice Arena officially came into existence on April Fool’s Day and ironically could not open its doors to the public. The anticipation for a full year of university ownership, a new home for the men’s and women’s hockey programs, and a much-needed facelift were marred by a global pandemic. As the Spring 2020 semester ended, the obvious question that everyone had was “Will there be hockey in the Fall”?

In July, the Arena was finally able to open its doors to a limited audience with heavy restrictions in place. The signs were promising for both hockey programs that they would be able to christen their new barn in the fall. As August approached, the men’s program began to rapidly plan how they would conduct tryouts with number restrictions in place and a majority of the players commuting to campus due to a mostly remote class schedule for the semester. With weeks of planning and compliance checks, the team was able to successfully conduct tryouts as scheduled. The next step would be to plan a training camp that would not only be within the guidelines set by the university and state but be of significant value for the team. Each year the team travels to a destination via bus and plans a long weekend of bonding, education, and physically rigorous exercise. This season the team had planned to travel to Valley Forge, PA. However, with travel restrictions, the coaching staff planned to host camp at home on campus for the first time in over a decade.

“It was a big change, but necessary. We were supposed to head to Valley Forge but needed to comply with the rules. We chose the original destination as it fit our narrative to where we believe the team is at in terms of development. Valley Forge was perfect on so many levels as it depicted a “long and difficult winter” with years of missing the playoffs and the isolation of the pandemic for all of us. Valley Forge was the place where Washington kept the Continental Army for the winter before the Battles of Trenton and Princeton that were turning points of the Revolutionary War. Surviving the winter was the hardest part, the message for our players was that we survived the storm and now it’s time to turn the tide”, said head coach Rob Martinez.

The team planned a labor-intensive three-day camp complete with rigorous off-ice conditioning, classroom sessions, and strategic exercises. “Camp was hard to plan this year, but I feel it was widely successful on so many levels. As a collective group, we accomplished a lot. It had more meaning. We were together and grateful for that. It solidified the culture of fine young men that we have tried to cultivate over the last few seasons and this team is extremely close because of it”. With training camp in the rearview mirror, the new focus became on scheduling games.

With many universities prohibiting athletic team participation and contests, scheduling games became extremely difficult. Due to interstate travel restrictions, the SECHL decided that teams would schedule games for the second semester only, as it would be unlikely to have travel bans lifted before the new year. The team accepted that they would only practice from September through the Thanksgiving holiday and not schedule any games. While many players in any other program would be unsatisfied with these terms, the Red Hawks would be at nearly 100% attendance for all three practices per week throughout the first 13 weeks of the season. “These guys were self-motivated and worked incredibly hard on and off the ice. They held one another accountable, followed all the protocols and rules, and literally were present in mind and body every day. A lot of other programs were unable to get on the ice at all, our team recognized that fact and valued the opportunity”. With hopes of playing a 20-game schedule from January through April, the team headed into semester break optimistic and prepared.

As December saw a spike in Covid cases across the country, several SECHL teams decided to cancel their season. This left a large gap in scheduling and forced the league, as a whole, to suspend league play for the season. “I was devastated on that conference call for the players. All the hard work, following the rules when many of their peers couldn’t, and anticipation to just play a game. It was a hard conversation for me to have with them. My heart literally broke for these guys because I felt with no games, they’d simply just choose to stop for the season. I underestimated their commitment to one another and the program. When I asked what they wanted to do the answer was a resounding yes in favor of continuing to practice in hopes we would play games. They mentioned the seniors and wanting to play for one another and how far they have gotten to this point. I envied their dedication”.

In January, the team resumed practice, once again with nearly full attendance. Finally, in late January, the coaching staff from Montclair State and William Paterson University worked out a tentative schedule with a minimum of seven games between late February and mid-March. “It was a huge relief to get something on paper that said we were going to play games. Both programs share in the same excitement as we are able to do something that over 400 programs across the country will not be able to do this year, simply play a game”.

As the games kick off this weekend, the team will finally have the opportunity to play their first game on “home ice”. “When I first saw the Red Hawk logo at center ice in April, I’m not going to lie, I got emotional. As a player over 20 years ago here I dreamed of one day seeing the arena be an actual part of the university, to have a home for both programs. Seeing it come to fruition, there are simply no words that I have that can describe it. I know one thing, there is not a group that deserves to play the first home game on that ice more than our current team. They’ve done more than anyone could have asked and have all become closer in doing so. I cannot speak enough about each of these young men. No matter how these games play out, it doesn’t matter. I will be taking it all in and extremely proud of what we were able to accomplish together this year”.