As a new school year continues under way at RWU, lawn furniture is not the only new announcement students have anticipated.
In September, just after classes commenced, Vice President for Student Life, Dr. John J. King announced that three new varsity athletics programs will be introduced to the university. The sports include, Men’s Ice Hockey and Women’s Golf that will begin in the 2025-26 academic year, and Women’s Ice Hockey that will begin the following year in 2026-27.
King expressed his “excitement” for the emerging programs.
With the announcement of these sports, some students wonder, ‘why these sports specifically?’
King explained that the decision was made while considering a wide range of factors including what RWU’s current facilities can handle, what sports are currently popular in the conference, and what sports can draw more students to RWU. King and his staff felt women’s ice hockey and golf are both sports growing in popularity.
“There’s a whole emerging group of very talented and very popular women golfers and we just thought, why not provide that opportunity for women here,” King said.
King also described the current use of RWU’s athletic facilities as “stressed as is.”
“We’ve deliberately selected new sports that do not demand on-campus locker room space, or field space, or court space,” King said.
Among the new sports, men’s hockey is not a brand new program for RWU. The university has hosted a club men’s team since 2009. However, one of the biggest motivations to create a varsity team for Men’s Ice Hockey was to garner school spirit and to “generate fan interest,” King said.
“Our club men’s program has been very successful… There’s a lot of students who go to see hockey because it’s exciting,” King said.
Although the athletic department will begin recruitment now for the soon-to-be varsity men’s hockey team, King plans to keep the men’s club team program alive. King is aware of potential for overlap of players on the club team and varsity team, however, wants to keep both opportunities for student athletes.
“Our ultimate goal is to maintain the club team, because it is a different level of skill, competition, and commitment of time. We still want to have that opportunity for the men to have that program,” King said.
The athletics staff will spend the next year preparing to launch the programs including employing coaches and trainers and recruiting current and incoming students. King also anticipates transfer students for the new teams.
“New programs whether they be athletic or academic, can result in new students that would’ve otherwise not have considered Roger Williams strongly,” King said. “We also really wanted to increase fan opportunities in exciting sports.”
For more information about the upcoming programs, contact the RWU athletics department.
