Michigan Tech Huskies

Michigan Tech Huskies
University Michigan Technological University
Conference GLIAC, WCHA
NCAA Division II
Division I (ice hockey)
Athletic director Suzanne Sanregret
Location Houghton, Michigan
Varsity teams 14
Football stadium Sherman Field
Basketball arena Student Development Complex Gymnasium
Other arenas MacInnes Student Ice Arena
Mascot Blizzard T. Husky
Nickname Huskies
Fight song "Fight Tech Fight!"
Colors Black and Gold[1]
         
Website www.michigantechhuskies.com

Michigan Technological University's sports teams are called the Huskies. The Huskies participate in NCAA Division II as a member of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, a member of the Central Collegiate Ski Association for men's and women's nordic skiing, and NCAA Division I Western Collegiate Hockey Association for men's ice hockey.

Varsity sports

Men's ice hockey

The Men's ice hockey team is the only athletic program at MTU to compete in Division I athletics. The Huskies compete in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Michigan Tech has had a storied history from its inception in 1919, producing three national championships. The program has played in five different home arenas including the Amphidrome, Calumet Colosseum, Dee Stadium, and the MacInnes Student Ice Arena. The Husky hockey program is a charter member of the WCHA in 1951 and became a national powerhouse under the leadership of Coach John MacInnes during the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s.[2][3] The team has won three NCAA Division I championships (1962, 1965, and 1975) and seven Western Collegiate Hockey Association championships (1962, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1974, and 1976).[4][5]

The Huskies host and compete in the annual Great Lakes Invitational held in December of each year. The four-team tournament was played for the 48th year in 2012, with the Huskies defeating Western Michigan by a score of 4-0, to win their 10th GLI championship, and their first since 1980.

Football

The football program at Tech has been around for over 80 years. They play their home games at Sherman Field. On March 18, 2003 the football program was eliminated due to budgets cuts made by the university, but through alumni funding, the program was brought back ten days later. The 2004 football season brought the Huskies into the spotlight with the winning of a GLIAC championship. The 2004 season was also a highlight for the football program due to the "Bash at the Big House," a football game played at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor against rival Grand Valley State University attempted to set an all-time attendance record. The team was the 2004 GLIAC Champions.

In 1981 Head Coach Jim Kapp retired after a six-year record of 41-30-2. During Kapp's first three years as coach and Ted Kearly's last three years the Huskies racked up a record of 52-12-1. In 1981 Ron Marciel was hired as head coach and stayed for only two seasons.

The winner of the annual game against Northern Michigan University is awarded the Miner's Cup.

Women's basketball

The Women’s Basketball team started off the 2009-2010 season at number one, and stayed in the top five for the entire season.[6] They went on to win the GLIAC Tournament, moving them on to the Elite 8 for two years in a row, this time in Missouri. The team also was ranked at number one for a large part of the season nationally. Along with this successful season, there were many records broken for Michigan Tech. These include: best winning percentage, most wins, most home wins, longest home winning streak, longest road winning streak, and best free throw percentage.[7]

From his start in 2003 coaching the Women’s Basketball team, head coach John Barnes lead the Huskies to success. Barnes won GLIAC coach of the year in 2005-2006 and again in 2008-2009. He was also named Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Region coach of the year. Barnes holds under his belt 1 NCAA Elite 8 berth, 4 NCAA Tournament berths, 2 GLIAC North Division Championships in the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 seasons, and 1 GLIAC Tournament Championships in the 2007-2008 season from his time with the Huskies.[8]

Assistant coach Kim Cameron is finishing out her fifth year with the Women’s Basketball team after being appointed to the position in September 2005.[9] Cameron served as not only the recruitment and travel coordinator, but also coordinated the girls’ basketball summer camps. Kim Cameron will be taking over the position of head coach for the Michigan Tech Huskies for the 2010-2011 after John Barnes resigned to become assistant coach for the Badgers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[10]

Michigan Tech strongly supports their academic program. Each player on the team has at least a 3.0 grade point average. In 2009-2010, the MTU Women's Basketball team number one in the nation by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association for an overall team grade point average.[11] The Michigan Tech Huskies had an outstanding 3.732 GPA. This was higher than any women’s basketball team in any division two team.

The Michigan Tech Huskies reached the national championship (which is the farthest they've ever gone) on March 25, 2011 against the Clayton State University Lakers. They lost 69-50 at the Civic Center in St. Joseph's, MO. They did manage to fend off the Northwest Missouri State Bearcats in the final four with a 89-78 win. In the Elite Eight the Huskies managed to beat the number one ranked Arkansas Tech University Golden Suns with a 69-58 victory. All the Arkansas Tech fans were sure they were going to the championship so they had a whole section already reserved for them at the national championship game. In the Midwest Regional Championship the Michigan Tech Huskies defeated the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Rangers 69-57. In the second round Michigan Tech beat the Drury Panthers 60-51, and in the first round defeated the Lewis Flyers 72-56. This year also produced another GLIAC Championship team as they defeated the Tiffin Dragons in the first round 58-40, the Hillsdale Chargers 69-58, and the Ashland Eagles in the championship game 63-53. The Michigan Tech Huskies finished the season 31-3 with their only losses coming to Clayton State University 69-50, Concordia University-St. Paul 78-70, and Ferris State University 63-60.

The Michigan Tech Huskies are 2010-11 national Runners-up, 7-time GLIAC Champions, 25-time GLIAC Tournament Appearances, 18-time NCAA Tournament Appearances, and 4-time Midwest Region Champions.

Nordic skiing

Like many schools in the northernmost regions of the United States MTU fields men's and women's nordic skiing. The Huskies ski teams compete in the Central Collegiate Ski Association, an NCAA ski-only athletic conference. MTU has its own downhill ski/snowboard hill, Mont Ripley, just across Portage Lake from campus, and maintains extensive cross-country ski trails (used for mountain biking in summer).

Track and field

One of Michigan Technological University’s Division II sports is men and women’s outdoor track and field. The women’s team came about in 1984, as an addition to the men’s team.[12] The school also funded an indoor track and field team until 1991 but had to cut its varsity status due to lack of funding for scholarship sports.[13] Due to renovation of Sherman Field and high cost to repair, the outdoor track was partially torn up and is not usable for track meets as of summer 2008.[14] This means the current track team travels mostly in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Lower Peninsula for meets, allowing them to continue a variety of competition.

Women's volleyball

The Women’s volleyball team at Michigan Tech first started in 1975. The very first coach was Cheryl Depuydt, who also coaches the women’s basketball team at the same time as well as taught a figure skating class. Football coach Ted Kearly was the one who found her and was in dire need for a women’s athletic coach. She was the first female instructor in the athletic department. Cheryl coached both teams without any pay and it was her donation to the athletic department to get the women’s athletics developed at Michigan Tech.

MTU volleyball has qualified for the NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship Tournament seven times. The 2009 season was the last season the team qualified for the tournament. The volleyball team has had a reputation of having a great academic standing in the GLIAC conference. They have had 30 players over the past four years earn Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference All-Academic Honors.

The Huskies are coached by Matt Jennings, a former assistant coach at the University of Pittsburgh, DePaul University, and Eastern Kentucky. In his first season as coach, the 2012 team finished 12-19 overall and 7-11 conference, a 10 match and 7 match improvement respectively.

The team was coached by Orlando Gonzalez for 3 seasons (2011, 2010, 2009). Previous to coaching at Tech he coached at Rutgers University from 2005-2007. He also spent almost 10 years at head coach to an elite high-level club, USA Michigan Volleyball.[15]

The previous coach for the Huskies was Krista Mikesch, who was a former player at Tech. She was an outstanding athlete and was an All-American setter from 1993-1996. She started all four years that she attended MTU and her freshman year she helped the Huskies to a first ever NCAA tournament bid. She coached two seasons as an assistant at Michigan Tech starting in April 1999 and then spent seven seasons as the head coach. In 2006, under Mikesch, the team recorded an overall record of 15-15. This was their best season since 2001, in which had an overall record of 18-12. Krista Mikesch resigned as head volleyball coach after the 2008 season, in which the Huskies finished with a 19-11 record. Mikesch left Tech with an overall record of 137-165 in her 11 seasons.

Cheer team

The Tech cheer team is a Coed noncompetitive squad that stunts, dances, and cheers on the sidelines of home women's and men's basketball games, and at Sherman Field for home football games.

Notable athletic alumni

Hockey players

National Hockey League players

Other hockey players

Football players

See also

References

  1. ↑ Michigan Technological University Brand Guide (PDF). Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  2. ↑ http://www.cchockeyhistory.org/index.htm
  3. ↑ Erik Nordberg. "From the Archives: Double the Pleasure, Double the Fun". Michigan Tech Magazine.
  4. ↑ "2007-2008 Michigan Tech Ice Hockey Media Guide, p. 87" (PDF). Michigan Technological University.
  5. ↑ "Unofficial MTU Hockey Webpage". cchockeyhistory.org.
  6. ↑ Wes Frahm. "Michigan Tech Women's Basketball Climbs to No. 3 in USA TODAY ESPN Coaches' Poll".
  7. ↑ Michigan Tech Athletics. Michigan Technological University http://www.michigantechhuskies.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=18800&KEY=&SPID=10930&SPSID=90467. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ↑ Michigan Technological University. "2009-2010 Michigan Technological University Women's Basketball Yearbook". Michigan Technological University.
  9. ↑ Michigan Technological University. "2009-2010 Michigan Technological University Women's Basketball Yearbook". Michigan Technological University.
  10. ↑ Michigan Tech Athletics. Michigan Technological University http://www.michigantechhuskies.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=18800&KEY=&SPID=10930&SPSID=90467. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ↑ Michigan Tech Athletics. Michigan Technological University http://www.michigantechhuskies.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=18800&KEY=&SPID=10930&SPSID=90467. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ↑ "Women's Track to Gain Varsity Status for Spring." Michigan Technological University Archives & Copper Country Historical Collections Vertical File: Track and Field .
  13. ↑ "MICHIGAN TECH TO DROP SWIMMING AND INDOOR TRACK FROM VARSITY STATUS."Michigan Technological University Archives & Copper Country Historical Collections Vertical File: Track and Field.
  14. ↑ "Field Improvements May Lead to Varsity Soccer." Michigan Technological University Archives & Copper Country Historical Collections Vertical File: Track and Field.
  15. ↑ Michigan Technological University."2009 Michigan Tech Season Outlook." Michigan Technological University Volleyball 2009 Media Guide.Aug. 2009. Web. 9 Aug. 2010.
  16. ↑ "Tony Esposito Statistics". Hockey-Reference.com.
  17. ↑ "Tony Esposito's hockey statistics". hockeydb.com.
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