After making its debut in 2008, the Mississippi State University Ice Dawgs hockey team opens its sixth season 9:45 p.m. Friday against the University of Memphis in Olive Branch at the Mid-South Ice House. Although the program is growing in success, the team has come a long way to establish itself and gain recognition.
The Ice Dawgs evolved from a dream to a reality with an increasing fan base in five short seasons. Former students Alex Palmer, Mike Miller and Patrick Schwartz were friends at MSU and developed the idea to bring the sport to campus.
Assistant coach and former player Tim Barclay, who also helped start the program, said the three friends conjured up the idea, and other schools followed to expand the sport across the South.
“The three of them kind of got together and had an idea, ‘Why not start a hockey team?’” he said. “Alabama has had one since 2005. Ole Miss got a team the year after we did, and it kind of snowballed into one of those things where one team starts it, and then everyone has one.”
From starting with just three players, MSU expanded its roster to 16 for a highly-anticipated 2013 season. 
Despite falling short of its goals in the 2012 season, Barclay said he already sees a difference in team chemistry this year. 
“The difference with the crew this year compared to last year is by far our dedication and our teamwork. Last year, we had a lot of good guys and a lot of great hockey players, just not committed. They wanted to go to games and that was it,” he said. “The commitment level has definitely grown exponentially just in the past few weeks compared to last year. We have 5 a.m. practices, and every single player is at every practice.”
Goalie Stephen Diaz, sophomore biomedical engineering major, enters his second season in the net. Diaz said the team does not get much practice time on ice and seeks alternate ways to prepare for games.
“We don’t get a lot of ice time, so we make use of the ice time we do get, and we work hard off the ice to get ready for the games,” he said. “We’ve adopted team workouts twice a week at the Sanderson Center. That will help with conditioning and strength training.”
Along with conditioning workouts, Barclay said the team practices by playing a form of street hockey to develop skills and technique.
“We have an in-line rink in Starkville. All the guys have golf balls, and I had them paint theirs for something fun to do and to get creative,” he said. “We go to the in-line rink and do stick handling drills, positioning drills and different kinds of plays. We tend to go through things a little slower so that way it’s more developmental.”
Since there is little game film to review, Barclay said the Ice Dawgs use past experiences, opponents’ experience and even NHL interaction to prepare for games and get a better understanding of position technique.
“We take our past experience and base it on how they played in the past and how we’ve played in the past and try to figure out what we can do better,” he said. “As far as films go, though, we review NHL film. I have NHL GameCenter so I have the guys over. We review games and say, ‘Everybody watch your player, and watch your position. Know what he’s doing.’”
Center Joey Weigand, junior kinesiology major, said learning from NHL games is pivotal and helps the team learn each position better.
“Replays help us see the correct way to set up in the zones and the tendencies that come from certain set ups,” he said. “It provides a clear look into how to do things correctly on the ice, but you also get to see what happens when flaws in your set ups and positioning start happening. It creates awareness above all.”
After Friday’s game, the Ice Dawgs drop the puck Saturday at 4:15 p.m. For more information on the team, visit icedawghockey.com and follow @msuicedawgs on Twitter.