Morgan von Hedemann has resigned as head coach of UB’s American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) men’s ice hockey team, ending his eight-year affiliation with the program, he told The Spectrum Tuesday afternoon.
Von Hedemann, who became head coach in 2021, said the undergraduate Student Association (SA) requested that he resign as a condition to allow the men’s and women’s ice hockey teams to be reinstated.
“If that means that our students get to play hockey, then I will do what I have to in order to ensure that our players have somewhere to play,” von Hedemann said.
Von Hedemann’s resignation comes amid an increasingly bitter relationship between UB’s ice hockey teams and the SA, which has governed the teams since UB ended its varsity hockey program in 1987. This May, the SA de-recognized the men’s and women’s ice hockey teams, saying they failed to hold the required three events on campus, among 21 other policy violations. The teams play in the Northtown Center at Amherst, which is located across the Millersport Highway from UB’s North Campus.
In September, the teams canceled their 2024-25 seasons, saying months of attempts to reestablish the ice hockey teams under other organizations and university departments had failed. A Sept. 20 statement posted on the ACHA men’s team’s website blamed the Office of the Provost for blocking a deal with the School of Management.
Four days later, von Hedemann released an online petition, now inactive, to reinstate the men’s and women’s ice hockey teams. The petition accumulated 4,477 signatures.
In identical Instagram posts Tuesday afternoon, the student e-board of the men’s ACHA and Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) teams disavowed the announcement and petition, as well as earlier posts on the team’s account, saying von Hedemann posted them without “consent or support from anyone on our board or part of our club.”
“We acknowledge and take full responsibility that we were de-recognized for not having three on campus events, which is something that could have been avoided, as well as multiple pending encumbrance violations that would have led to the result of de-recognition is well,” the post reads. “We are fully committed to following Student Associations’ [sic] structures and guidelines and establishing a transparent and healthy relationship moving forward.”
The men’s ACHA team has not announced a search for a new head coach.
SA President Samin Bhuya declined to comment.
Representatives for the men’s AAU team did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Mylien Lai is the senior news editor and can be reached at mylien.lai@ubspectrum.com
Sol Hauser is a former senior news editor and can be reached at sol.hauser@ubspectrum.com
Mylien Lai is the senior news editor at The Spectrum. Outside of getting lost in Buffalo, she enjoys practicing the piano and being a bean plant mom. She can be found at @my_my_my_myliennnn on Instagram.
