NORTH ANDOVER — Merrimack College and the Middlesex Islanders broke ground yesterday on the Volpe Expansion Project, which will see a roughly $15 million investment poured into the facility at Merrimack College.
The centerpiece of the project is a second ice rink which will act as a practice rink for the college as well as being the full-time home of the Middlesex Islanders hockey club, a program that sponsors 41 teams from youth to junior hockey. Other plans include new locker rooms for other Merrimack sports as well as a new sports medicine facility and a training facility that will more than double Volpe’s existing footprint.
“Sports medicine is our largest growing major,” Merrimack president Dr. Christopher Hopey said. “This project will provide a $5 million facility just for sports medicine making it one of the best in the region, if not the country. It also gives our 600 student-athletes a world class facility. There’s nothing better.”
At various points throughout the ceremony yesterday, Hopey spoke to the college’s continued plans to move all of its sports to Division 1 as well as the addition of a women’s hockey team, which per Hockey East bylaws, would automatically be granted a home in the Women’s Hockey East conference.
“It’s been discussed and analyzed here a lot,” Merrimack College interim director of athletics Dean O’Keefe said. “We love our association with Hockey East on the men’s side and to have that for our women’s program is something we feel is part of the future. … It’s something we brought up with Hockey East and if we get to the point where we officially announce it they are supportive.”
Hopey also pointed to plans for both men’s and women’s basketball, if the Division 1 aspirations prove true, to play games inside J. Thom Lawler Arena, the roughly 3,000-seat home to the Division 1 hockey team. Lawler Arena, which will continue to house Merrimack’s hockey program, will be getting a new lobby, Hall of Fame and four additional luxury boxes as part of the construction.
“We have great facilities,” Hopey said. “This is just a little more to make it better.”
For the Islanders, it offers the program a full-time home as well as a unique opportunity to partner with a college athletic department, becoming the first such program of its kind to do so.
Under Richard Gallant’s leadership the past two years, the Islanders have expanded their teams from 23 to 41, including the women’s program almost doubling in size.
“This offers our kids an experience beyond just the ice,” he said. “We can interface our program with Merrimack College. We’ve already talked about opportunities for summer camps and to incorporate our kids with the college and no other program can do that. This does more than just give us a hockey home.”
Gallant says that his motto since taking charge of the Islanders has been to be ahead of the curve and involved and new, worthwhile opportunities within the game.
“We want to be a preferred partner,” he said. “If there is something in hockey that is new and exciting we want to be asked to be a part of it, and we are. We have great momentum right now.”
The facility also gives the Islanders the opportunity to host tournaments, showcases and more programs from USA Hockey. For months, rumors have persisted that the Islanders could be part of an expansion in some form into the USHL, considered the top development league under USA Hockey’s umbrella. Most of its programs are located in the Mid-West.
Earlier this year, the Islanders plucked Sean Tremblay, considered to be one of the best junior coaches in the country, from the Junior Monarchs program, furthering fueling the rumor, along with a report in the New England Hockey Journal that a USHL expansion into the Northeast could soon become a reality.
“If the USHL wants to come into this area we are now prepared with a facility and the showcase rink that we can do whatever hockey brings our way,” Gallant said.
The project is scheduled to be completed next summer.