:: Bradley University ::

9/2/08

Tryout and preseason Information:

9/03 - 9:45 - 11:15 @ Owens

9/04 - 9:45 - 11:15 @ Owens

9/07 - 11:00a.m. - 12:30 @ Owens

9/08 - 8:45 - 10:15 @ Owens

9/10 - 9:45 - 10:15 @ Owens

8/26/08

Illinois State Rebirds added to the schedule.

Bradley has just added the Illinois State Universtiy Redbirds to our schedule. We will be battling ISU on Tuesday, October 21st at 8:15 p.m. at the 6,600 seat U.S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington.

8/12/08

BU to host Eastern Kentucky in October.

Due to a cancellation in our schedule we have now added Eastern Kentucky University to our schedule. We will be hosting them on parents weekend, Oct. 24th and 25th at Owens Center. EKU is the former home of Bradley President Joanne K. Glasser. EKU head coach Mike Sosnowski stated "at EKU she was a huge hockey supporter." We are looking forward to the first ever meeting between BU and EKU. Not only will there be two exciting games for the parents, families and fans but there will also be some other opportunities for the parents to interact with the players and coaches.

8/6/08

2008-2009 Bradley Hockey informational meeting and tryouts.....

We will be having an informational meeting and registratin on Tues. Aug. 26th at 6:00 p.m. at the student center. Any player interested in trying out this season must either attend this meeting or contract Coach Fry prior to this meeting. If you are interested in trying out and have not already recieved an email please contact the coach at tfry@bradley.edu and let him know you would like the tryout information.

8/6/08

ALUMNI UPDATE

If you are not on the Alumni e-newsletter list and would like to be included. Please send an email to tfry@bradley.edu and let us know you would like to be included. Please include your name and the years you played hockey for BU.

8/5/08

Alumni game has been finalized...

We have set our alumni game for Sat. September 27 at 2:30 p.m. at Owens cetner in Peoria. For the second year this will be an alumni vs. alumni game. If anyone is interested in playing and has not recieved an email notification please contact Kevin Schmaltz at Schmal@acehardware.com. More information will soon follow this announcement.

8/4/08

Tryout information to be posted this week. Check back for updates....

8/4/08

Bradley Hockey featured in Illinois Ice Magazine.

Our team was featured in a spring edition of Illinois ice magazine. We have included a reprint of the article below for your reading pleasure...

We sat down with Bradley University’s Hockey Head Coach, Tony Fry, and asked him a few questions about his plans to develop and improve Bradley’s hockey program.

Since it's your first year, what are some changes you are making to improve your team? We have taken a few steps both on and off the ice. A big step off the ice was acquiring our own locker room at Owens Center in Peoria. There is not much extra space at the rink and I truly feel that this was made possible because of our presence at Owens since it was built over 20 years ago and our respect for the rink and the management. Our last coach, Bob Hughes and I both have always stated that win or lose we will show class in what we do. On the ice we are really trying to fine tune some of the systems that were introduced over the last few years while I was an assistant coach. We want to have fun but not at the expense of losing games.

What has been the strategy to develop your program? Keep it simple. Hockey is a great game and can be quite simple as long as you don't make things too complicated. I feel if our players can perfect a few concepts in our system we can evolve and adapt when needed. I am also trying to keep the alumni updated and give them more opportunities to be active iin our program. Kevin Schmaltz, our alumni director, has done a fantastic job handling our alumni game. He is located in Chicago and is not around the day to day operations of our program. To help with this I am now sending out an alumni. newletter every week to two weeks during the season. I have been truly amazed at the positive feedback from our alumni and how happy they are for the updates.
What is the experience of the Bradley University Hockey Player, both athletically and academically?
We practice two times per week, Monday and Wednesday evenings. I understand that academically Bradley is a very demanding school. Because of this we leave our mandatory requirements during the week at two practices. The past two years our captains have implemented an off ice training program as well, which they police on their own. Academically Bradley can be challenging. I realize that school does come first and is the main reason these students attend Bradley, they need to do the best the can in school. But, our practices are still mandatory and if a player misses a practice, he will
miss some playing time. We did not have that rule three years ago when I was an asst. coach. We have discovered that by making this rule we went from 1 to 2 players gone every practice then to 4 total practices missed by players overall this season.

What leagues and/or geographic are yourecruiting from? Our players mainly come from High School,
midget and junior programs throughout the Midwest, mainly St. Louis, Chicago and here in
Peoria. We currently have three players with Junior A, CSHL experience and will possibly be picking up a few more next season. When someone chooses to attend Bradley we expect it to be for more than just hockey. Bradley has
become a highly recognized, upper level university in the Midwest.
You say after 41 years of existence people don't realize you have a team. Why do youthink that is and what are you doing to change that? I have found there to be a few reasons for this. First of all we are considered a club sport at Bradley. We have no affiliation with the Athletic Department and are considered a club just like any club on campus. Every year our players here from students "we never even knew there was a team." I am working on improving alumni involvement with the team. We typically have 20 - 30 back for our alumni game. I would like to see that number increase to 50 or more and also have a golf outing or other activities. This is also the first season we have an active, routinely updated website: www.bradley.edu/campusorg/buhockey. Just by having this students, family alumni and fans can keep up to date with our schedule, scores and current news. This has also been helpful in letting possible recruits know more about our team.

UPCOMING GAMES

HOME OPENER VS. ROBERT MORRIS COLLEGE @ SPRINGFIELD

NEWS: BU hockey is now hiring for the following volunteer positions.

-Scorekeeper

-Game clock operator

-DJ/game announcer (this includes playing music during warm-ups, in between periods

and in during game stoppages)

-Marketing intern

If you would like to apply for any of these volunteer positions, please email tfry@bradley.edu if you are interested.

To find out more about BU Hockey contact Head Coach Tony Fry .