³ÉÈËAVÊÓƵ Hockey finishing off second season on the ice
While a sophomore at the ³ÉÈËAVÊÓƵ in 2022, Joey Eichler was looking to continue playing ice hockey, something he’d done since he was a child.
³ÉÈËAVÊÓƵ, however, hadn’t had a team since 2011.
Determined to bring hockey back to campus, Eichler teamed up with Matthew Leonard-Morgan, who served as the team’s vice president during its first year. Leonard-Morgan graduated in spring 2023, before the team ever played a collegiate game, but his contributions were significant in laying the groundwork. Together, the duo started small, entering a local adult recreational league in 2022 to gain experience, recruit players and raise the funds needed to compete at the collegiate level.
Leonard-Morgan’s efforts in fundraising helped secure several thousand dollars to offset costs, significantly reducing player dues and making the team’s first collegiate season possible. Now a professional working for Jet Evolution, a private jet broker in Ponte Vedra, he remains a key figure in the team’s origin story.
The ³ÉÈËAVÊÓƵ Club Ice Hockey team is now in its second collegiate season and competes in the highly competitive College Hockey South (CHS) conference, facing schools from across Florida and the Southeast.
Eichler, who is the team’s president and a ³ÉÈËAVÊÓƵ senior double majoring in transportation and logistics and business intelligence, has been passionate about hockey since he started playing at nearly six years old in Arizona.
“My family lived close to an ice rink, and at some point, my dad wanted to stop sitting in the heat,” Eichler said. “He taught himself how to skate and then he taught me.”
What Eichler and Leonard-Morgan helped launch in 2022 now has 18 players from ³ÉÈËAVÊÓƵ, Jacksonville University and Jacksonville River College, and practices at the Community First Igloo, the same facility where the Jacksonville Icemen train.
“The season is wrapping up, and while we don’t have as many players as other teams since we’re newer, we’ve improved a lot,” Eichler said.
“It takes a team to build a team,” said Owen Keyser, a sports management 2024 fall graduate who is finishing up the season as team captain. “As a smaller organization, everyone needed to help to make our season possible. We rely on everyone’s dedication, and it’s inspiring to see the level of effort and heart each player brings to the table.”
The team is led by head coach Mike Marcinkiewicz, a former professional hockey player who previously coached the University of Florida Club team for eight years before joining ³ÉÈËAVÊÓƵ in 2023. His experience has been instrumental in shaping the team’s development.
³ÉÈËAVÊÓƵ Ice Hockey offers students and the Jacksonville community an exciting opportunity to experience fast-paced, high-energy hockey.
invites the community to cheer them on during their final home game against USF on Friday, Jan. 17.