NASHUA – There are no competitive fall sports teams playing their usual seasons at Rivier University right now thanks to the pandemic, but that hasn’t stopped the college from adding two new teams/programs for the 2021-22 academic year.

Get ready for Raider men’s and women’s ice hockey.

Rivier officially announced plans for those additions on Tuesday, adding the school is planning on securing ice time at Conway Arena as its home rink. The move is being made as a way to attract more students to the campus, officials said, and is tied to the additon of several new majors as well as the completion of a 36,000 square-foot Science and Innovation Center supporting nursing, biology, and biotechnology majors.

Plus, last fall Rivier build the new Linda Robinson Pavillion at its turf field on the hill above campus, renamed Joanne Merrill Field, and also rennovated the nearby softball field.

“With the launch of men’s and women’s ice hockey programs, the University continues to demonstrate its deep commitment to college athletics and student success,” said Rivier President Sister Paula Marie Buley, IHM, in a released statement. “Recruitment of athletes for these teams will add to recent momentum generated through the expansion of our athletics and academic facilities, launch of in-demand academic majors, and addition of early admission incentives.”

According to Rivier athletic director Joanne Merrill, discussion about adding hockey began in late summer. “It’s kind of excting,” she said Tuesday. “It’s a way to boost our male student enrollment. Women too. More schools have added hockey the last couple of years, and we’re hopeful there’s a GNAC playoff we can right into.”

The hope, Merrill said, is to have club teams next year, as part of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA), and then be NCAA Division III for the 2022-23 season.

The national search for coaches for both teams is underway.

“We’re going to hire a coach (or coaches) within a month,” Merrill said. “We’ve got to, if we’re going to have them recruit for the fall of 2021.”

The move possibly originated with new Rivier VP of Enrollment Management, Paul Brower, and discussions got more serious in the last few weeks.

“He’s been a big advocate of it,because he’s seen it be successful in terms of adding to campus life,” Merrill said. “He was the driving force behind it because it means expanding other things for us.”

Including staff, Merrill said. Merrill has said she has also talked to former Daniel Webster College athletic department officials for planning information as the Eagles had men’s and women’s hockey before closing a few years ago. The men competed for years as a non-varsity team in the ACHA, then made the jump for a couple of years to NCAA Division III. Women’s hockey was added a couple of years before the closing but struggled with numbers and on the ice. But Conway Arena was annually the site of the Northeast Collegiate Hockey Association’s (NECHA) postseason tournament.

Hockey’s cause was also helped by the fact the chairman of the Rivier Board of Trustees is former Nashua High School hockey standout Brad Kreick, who played Division I hockey at Brown University in the mid to late 1980s. Ironically, Kreick is best known locally these days as the Bishop Guertin High School girls basketball coach.

“The addition of hockey is great news for local high school players who want to compete at the University level without leaving the state of New Hampshire,” Kreick said in the release. “Bringing college ice hockey to Nashua is a win for both the University and the city. We look forward to our inaugural teams taking the ice in 2021.”

Merrill said the Raiders would be part of a small GNAC conference that likely would include anywhere from four to six teams in a couple of years, and fill out the schedule with other teams.

“That was part of our driving force, too, that we could stay in the GNAC with some competition and hopefully playoffs,” she said.

Helping in the recruitment process is the fact the school has added new programs in health science, sport management, Homeland & International Security, cybersecurity management and criminal justice programs.

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