The Hope College ice hockey team is skating into the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s top division.
The Flying Dutchmen will move up to the ACHA Division 1 level beginning with the 2025-26 season.
The ACHA is the national association for non-NCAA collegiate hockey throughout the United States and Canada. Since its founding in 1991, the ACHA has grown to offer three men’s divisions and two women’s divisions.
The Flying Dutchmen will join the Great Lakes Six Hockey Conference (GL6) when they move up to the Division 1 level.
The GL6 which will officially begin play in the 2025-26 season, will feature Adrian College, Calvin University, Davenport University, Grand Valley State University, Purdue University Northwest, and Roosevelt University.
Head coach Chris VanTimmeren said the Flying Dutchmen are excited about this new challenge against the ACHA’s best.
“I believe the program will be ready for the jump to the top level of the ACHA,” said VanTimmeren, who has guided Hope’s ACHA program since the 2000-01 season. “We have been preparing for the move since our acceptance and will continue to build for the fall of 2025. The team looks forward to the challenge of playing old rivals at a different level and starting new ones.”
Hope has excelled at the ACHA Division 3 level since the program was founded during the 1996-97 school year. In those 28 years, they are 574-203-24.
Under the direction of head coach Chris Van Timmeren, the Flying Dutchmen have developed into a national power at the ACHA Division 3 level.
Hope won three national championships in 2022-23, 2021-22 and 2017-18 and recorded five national runner-up finishes in 2022-23, 2013-14, 2010-11, 2009-10 and 2002-03.
Currently, there are 70 ACHA Division 1 programs and eight conferences.
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