While collegiate sports tend to be at the forefront of Santa Rosa Junior College student’s minds, Santa Rosa Junior College’s club sports — namely the SRJC Polar Bears hockey club — provide the same action-packed local sports experience.
Ice hockey is both thrilling to watch and full of action, with very little downtime. Fast-paced plays, an exhilarating atmosphere, and all-out brawls are sure to keep audience members glued to their seats.
“It’s a fast sport, there’s so many similarities to soccer and basketball, and I do a lot of youth sports coaching, and I can see those similarities,” Polar Bears forward Adam Berry said.
Spectators also get to enjoy Santa Rosa’s home arena, Snoopy’s Home Ice, a beautiful venue showcasing astonishing decor from Charlez M. Schulz’s “Peanuts” comic strip. The arena is also the home of Warm Puppy Café, a small cafe with delectable food options and tasty hot cocoa that pairs well with the frigid air radiating from the rink.
As for the Polar Bears themselves, the team’s roster is much more diverse than the typical collegiate team’s. With it being a club, there are fewer restrictions on the roster.
Player’s ages exceed the average of collegiate sports as they are not bound by the standard two-year cap. As a result players like Kirill Konoplianko, who is from Kostroma, Russia, and Derek Baragiotta, coming from Montreal, are on the ice.
Avid SRJC sports fans have also previously had the pleasant surprise of hearing the beloved voice of SRJC athletics public address announcer Trey Dunia on play-by-play commentary.
“You got a fantastic team on the ice scoring lots of goals. You know, half the time the cheer team is here, so they bring the excitement level up,” Dunia said. “All of your players are having a good time, plus, it’s just fun to support local sports.”
The Polar Bears are no team to scoff at, as they recently defeated Fresno State in a two-game series. The series was a blowout for Santa Rosa with a roughly 10-point lead in both games, whereas in a typical hockey match, a team might only win by a point or two.
Another perk of the loose club-sport environment is that each game carries less weight than an official conference game. So players tend to have more fun, empowering riskier and rougher plays, as seen in the Polar Bears’ series against Fresno where altercations erupted frequently.
While the games may start late, at 9:15 p.m., they are a nice way to end the night; the match acts like a stimulant to keep the brain running until it’s time to hit the hay.
Even seasoned hockey fans will appreciate club game specific perks such as not being confined to a seat and being allowed to hug the boards and get a close view of the match. And with a $5 entry, how could anyone turn down over two hours of nonstop action?
Club sports play a pivotal role in athletics, acting as a medium for athletes who aren’t working their way into division one or division two sports. Attending these games shows support for those who play simply for the love of the game.
“You don’t have to be headed on a path towards a higher athletic education in order to support the school, and have fun doing it all,” Dunia said.
Though being a club frees the team from some restraint, it also comes with drawbacks.
“It’s challenging — a game like this takes so many people working together to pull it off and we have all kinds of opportunities we want to give students,” Berry said.
The Polar Bears currently struggle to fill all the positions needed to keep up with production, and are currently offering positions that allow volunteers to gain valuable experience. For further inquiry, the Polar Bears can be contacted from their website.
“We have positions all-round: media, photography, graphic design and social-media marketing. We have positions in production, and all that goes into it. The film production is for streaming the games and coordinating with the rink and other teams. And so, yeah, just a lot of moving pieces,” Berry said.
Filling in the necessary positions is difficult for club sports as production isn’t managed by SRJC and there is no monetary incentive for taking up those roles.
Ultimately, support for athletic clubs relies on the community, and while the club sports don’t receive the same accolades as their collegiate counterparts they work just as hard.
The Polar Bears look forward to seeing you in attendance at Snoopy’s Home Ice at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21, and at 9:15 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22, where SRJC will face the University of Nevada, Reno in a two-game series.
