Telegraph Sports Reporter Tom KIng.

What was the biggest local sports news of the week, you ask?

It had to be the Rivier University announcement that they will, if things get back to some semblance of normal, add men’s and women’s hockey to its athletic program for the 2021-22 academic year.

The Raiders will go the club team route for the first season and then likely by 2022-23 become full fledged NCAA Division III varsity for both genders.

They’ll spend the next few weeks interviewing coaching candidates, which will be the most important moves they make with regard to this launch. To be competitive in Division III hockey, both men’s and women’s, the Raiders will not only need a nationwide coaching search, but nationwide recruiting. Follow the lead of the school’s longtime successful men’s and women’s volleyball coach Craig Kolek, who has had a number of players in both programs from as far away as California – surely a volleyball state. Made sense, right?

Now, it’s not like the area hasn’t had college hockey before. Daniel Webster had a longtime hockey program, non-varsity but highly competitive in the Northeast Collegiate Hockey Association (NECHA), a branch of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) which Riv is planning on competing in next year.

Here’s the cautious thought we impart:

Don’t take the ice until you have the numbers. If it takes an extra year to get the numbers to a suitable level, then so be it.

DWC had plenty of numbers when it made the upgrade to NCAA Divsion III varsity for its men’s program back in 2014. Bishop Guertin alum Eric McCambly had good success recruiting from all areas of the country. Numbers were good; the team slowly but surely was becoming competitive and then, well, the whole school was shut down for good.

Former Salvae Regina assistant D.J. Fimiani didn’t quite have the recruiting success. He did bring in some players from outside the region, but anyone connected with the Eagles athletic program back then will tell you that getting women student athletes onto that campus was a chore. Fimiani’s numbers weren’t what was needed, he’d get some field hockey players to help, but in these eyes, it just wasn’t working quite as well as needed.

Rivier can’t make that mistake. The school’s announcement says the two teams could bring as many as a combined 50 additional student athletes onto campus.

You know what we say? Think higher. Go up to 75. Hockey, with its arduous pace, requires fresh legs as often as possible.

Don’t go into a college game with 20 players. Recruit, recruit, recruit.

Longtime Rivier athletic director Joanne Merrill knows this. She’s not about doing something halfway. That’s why she’s talked with former Webster officials still in the area (think former assistant AD and NCAA compliance head Ken Belbin, for one) and certainly has been given the ideas needed for a blueprint.

And there’s Rivier Board of Trustees Chairman Brad Kreick, the former Nashua and Brown University standout who certainly knows what it takes to build a good program. He’s never short of numbers with that Bishop Guertin High School girls basketball team, now is he?

The worst thing the Raiders, who haven’t added anything in a while except for exceptional facilities – the Linda Robinson Pavilion and the rennovated Muldoon Center – can do is rush into this.

If it turns out the numbers aren’t there, then wait a year. Its best for safety as well as results. Too often we’ve seen teams at both Riv and DWC over the years have a shortage of players.

Riv is making big strides here. Supposedly the impetus for this move comes from a new administrator, VP for Enrollment Management Paul Brower. They want more students on campus, and have greatly enhanced academics as a way of doing that, as well as bringing in more student athletes. You can bet every coach in the athletic program is getting the message to recruit, recruit, recruit.

And why shouldn’t Riv be an attractive spot? Look at what they’ve done up on the hill with facilities for softball, lacrosse, field hockey, soccer. Although there’s not a baseball diamond on campus, head coach Anthony Perry can show recruits Holman Stadium, as well as Harvey Woods Field over at DWC that Riv has been using and maintaining.

Hockey is looking at and likely will use Conway Arena, as DWC did. In fact, Conway was always the site for the NECHA post season tourney every year, usually in mid to late February.

So having college hockey in the area won’t be new.

Now, let’s read the tea leaves. They’ll get started with hockey. Can you see where this could be leading?

Think tackles and touchdowns. Let’s just call it an educated guess for sometime down the road.

But first, the Raiders will look to drop the puck. It beats doing what a lot of colleges have done in the last few months, which is drop programs.

Tom King may be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

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