While the college football season rages on and the weather starts to cool towards the winter, hockey is quietly carving out its place in the heart of South Carolina.
The South Carolina club hockey team is taking the steps to reach new heights to begin the 2025-26 season as the sport and its fandom continue to grow in the Southeast.
Over the summer, the club hockey team, branded as “Cock Hockey,” agreed to join the American Collegiate Hockey Association. The team spent the past two seasons playing in the Amateur Athletic Union club-hockey circuit. The decision, effective this season, marks Cock Hockey's return to the ACHA after a four-year hiatus.
The Gamecocks hoisted the AAU Division I trophy on March 10, 2024, in the inaugural season of AAU club-hockey in 2023-24 after going 18-4-1 and defeating the Buffalo University Bulls in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Senior center and Team Captain Jake Puskar said joining the ACHA offers the chance for Cock Hockey to achieve the feeling of winning a national championship again.
“It’s so much more fun to win with all of your best friends, all your teammates,” Puskar said. “We’re definitely chasing that again, and the move to ACHA is a step up for the program.”
Founded in 1991, the ACHA is a staple for club-level collegiate hockey in the United States. The ACHA is home to 461 different university-affiliated hockey teams across 48 states and two Canadian provinces.
Cock Hockey moved into Division II of the ACHA to form the Southeastern Conference Hockey League in partnership with the Atlantic Coast Conference to make a sub-division with five other conference foes. Those opponents include the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Auburn Tigers, the Georgia Bulldogs, the Ole Miss Rebels and the Tennessee Volunteers, all schools who are NCAA members of the SEC.
“Just a super good opportunity for our program, not only this year but for the future,” said Benjamin Riccitelli, senior defenseman and Cock Hockey director of finance. “It’s a super respected league, and there’s a lot of better competition in there.”
Since its founding in 2001, Cock Hockey was a previous member of the ACHA Division III before moving to the Collegiate Hockey Federation after the 2019-20 season. The Gamecocks are back in the ACHA in Division II after two years in the CHF and two more years in AAU.
Despite moving into a new league with a set division, Cock Hockey still has the autonomy to schedule its own games, according to Brendan Flaherty, club president and senior defenseman assistant captain.
The team is scheduled to mostly remain in the area, including several out-of-conference teams, such as the Wake Forest Demon Deacons and the North Carolina Tar Heels, along with the annual matchups with the Clemson Tigers. Flaherty said that Cock Hockey eventually hopes to travel to play new teams, but it will come at a cost.
“It definitely opens up our schedule for more possibilities of playing different opponents we’ve never played,” Flaherty said. “The ACHA is definitely a little bit more expensive ... This year, we kept our schedule relatively similar.”
As a club-level team below the NCAA, Cock Hockey is completely player-funded, according to Riccitelli. Each player makes a one-time payment per season of $2,500 to fund travel costs, equipment and renting ice time, according to Sara O'Briant, Cock Hockey director of philanthropy and public relations.
“It really shows the dedication that our team puts in,” Riccitelli said. “It’s a huge financial burden for college kids to pay this money for the team, but it really shows what family we are.”
Cock Hockey has done its part to cut the difference on home ice. The Gamecocks play at Flight Adventure Park in Irmo, South Carolina, informally known as “The Plex.” The Plex has a capacity of 600 people, routinely selling out as fans fill up the bleachers and line the boards around the goalposts.
Flaherty said The Plex sells out in 20 to 30 minutes for most home games, especially against SEC opponents, and will sell out in just five minutes against Clemson. Flaherty said the team prioritizes scheduling games against SEC opponents to generate immediate hype from the fanbase.
“That’s the best part of playing for this team, it's just the fans that come out,” Riccitelli said.
The team relies on its regular season record to qualify for the ACHA regional tournament beginning on Feb. 20, 2026. If the Gamecocks win the regional tournament, they will qualify for nationals, beginning on March 12, 2026.
While the playoff structures of both divisions are similar, the ACHA offers a new challenge. Cock Hockey could face any Division II team across the country in the ACHA playoffs, including talent from the Northeast that it's never seen before.
“It’s a new challenge, more teams that we aren’t used to facing in the past when we get to the end of the season, but it’s something we know we’re ready for,” Flaherty said. “We know we’re one of the top teams in the country when we play at the best of our game.”
Puskar said because the ACHA is more "notable" than the AAU, the move could bring new talent to Columbia. While the team cannot offer scholarships below the NCAA level, junior winger and Club Vice President Enzo Fanelli said the prospect of eventually playing more northern teams could influence the college decision for young players in its favor.
“I think a lot of people were a little discouraged that we don’t play a lot of northern teams,” Fanelli said. “We still aren’t going all the up to (Massachusetts) and all that, but there’s a lot of good competition coming down south, and the fact that our whole conference moved into a harder conference just makes it a lot more interesting, and I feel like a lot of guys like the vibe that we give.”
Cock Hockey also has a player recruitment file interest form on its website.
The College Hockey South conference, the largest hockey conference in the southeast, is a fellow AAU division that is fully reclassifying to the ACHA. Flaherty, an Orangeburg, New York, native, said the Southeast continues to grow when it comes to club hockey.
"There’s 10 rinks within 30 minutes of my house,” Flaherty said. “You come down here, and there’s four rinks in the whole state.”
Puskar credited the success of the few National Hockey League teams for helping create a market for collegiate club hockey in the Southeast, noting the back-to-back champion Florida Panthers. According to Puskar, the Southeast is becoming an area for hockey lovers, providing a tangible medium for the Gamecocks to thrive.
“Hockey in the South is booming,” Puskar said. “There’s a market here. There are fans that love watching us play, love watching our games because they love hockey.”
While the sport becomes more popularized in the South, Cock Hockey is not satisfied with the club level. Puskar said he expects the growth to continue and eventually lead to NCAA's expansion for the Gamecocks and their opponents.
“There’s a market for it, and I think it’s going to keep growing,” Puskar said. “I think at the end of the day, we’re going to see D1 hockey here at this school and all across the SEC, and I can’t wait for that.”