Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/751248
PHOTOS BY MATT HIGGINS, MIAC 16 MINNESOTAHOCKEYJOURNAL.COM // DECEMBER.2016 orbin Chapman didn't particu- larly care which Minnesota college it was—he just wanted to play Division I hockey. Chapman grew up like most youth players in the State of Hockey with dreams of continuing to play at the collegiate level. After playing three years at Burnsville High School, Chapman decid- ed to play junior hockey for one season in hopes of getting picked up by a Division I powerhouse. But no Division I schools came knocking. Instead, a different door opened up with a new opportunity: Division III. It wasn't exactly what Chapman had in mind. "I think everyone who goes to juniors has a plan to play Division I," said Chapman, who enters his senior season at Division III Augsburg College as the team's captain. "For some it works out, other times you have to look in the mirror and figure out what you want to do after hockey. In my case, I wanted to go to school and found a good fit in Augsburg when I visited. The rest is history." The reality can be a hard to pill to swal- low. There are more than 47,000 youth hockey players from ages 6 and up in Minnesota—six birth years competing for college spots. There are 1,646 roster spots on 60 Division I men's teams across the nation. There are 846 spots on 36 Division I women's teams. Do the math and the odds of being named to one of those slots is slim. Even if you do happen to earn your way on to an NCAA Division I squad via scholarship or as a walk-on, you're not always guaranteed the ice time you might desire. Meanwhile, there are 79 Division III teams and 2,314 roster spots available. Seven of those teams are located here in Minnesota as members of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. "In the MIAC you've got motivated, competi- tive, student-athletes that you're working with on a daily basis," said Augsburg men's head coach Chris Brown. "You throw in the quality of play in our league and I think that we're probably the most unrecognized league with a lot of high- quality players that go unnoticed." Brown credits the high-end development in Minnesota with the reason the talent pool runs so deep. There were 207 Division I players from Minnesota last season—the most compared to other states by a landslide. "Kids in Minnesota are training harder, they're learning to play hockey at younger ages and their development is fostered in one of the best states for hockey," said Brown, who coached three seasons at Division I Alaska-Anchorage from 1997-2000. "The majority of them have dreams of playing Division I and pro hockey. Their goal in doing all of this is not to say, 'I want BY JESSI PIERCE WHEN ONE DOOR CLOSES… WHEN ONE DOOR CLOSES… Division III hockey keep doors open for players wanting to play collegiately C