Men's Ice Hockey Update

ALUMNI FUNDRAISER: BRUINS vs. MIT
On January 29th the MIT Men's Ice Hockey Club held its second annual Boston Bruins Alumni vs. MIT Men's Ice Hockey Alumni fundraiser. NHL Hall of Famers and legends Rick Middleton, Terry O'Reilly, Reggie Lemelin, and Ken Hodge faced off against MIT Engineers from the class of 2011 all the way back to the class of 1966. Attracting fans from the MIT and Cambridge communities, the event was once again a great success. The event represents the Men's Ice Hockey Club's primary fundraiser for the year and helps support the team and connect current and past players. Despite the talent of MIT's multi-generational team, the Bruins Alumni won by a score of 11-9. The MIT Men's Ice Hockey Club thanks the MIT community and their generous alumni for supporting the event and the hockey program this year.

NEW COACH: DAVE HUNTER
This summer MIT's coach of 13 years, Mark O'Meara, chose to part ways with the Institute and move on to a new head coaching job at Endicott College. The team was left to find a new coach for the 2010-2011 season. After soliciting and receiving applications from many eligible candidates, the team decided upon one who stood out above the rest. Dave Hunter grew up in St. Catharine's, Ontario, playing Junior B hockey there before moving on to play at Cornell University. Dave played on the varsity team at Cornell for four years with the likes of current Cornell head coach Mike Schaefer and NHL star Joe Nieuwendyk. After graduating from Cornell in 1986, Dave moved with his future wife to Reading, Massachusetts. Starting in 1997, Dave had been an assistant coach for the Reading Memorial High School, which became the first public high school to win the prestigious Super 8 tournament in 2008 and has produced a number of Division I players. He has also been a coach in Reading Youth Hockey the last 13 years as well as a partner in the PowerEdge hockey school, which teaches hockey skills for various youth programs throughout the season and hosts an annual summer hockey school. Since 2008, Dave has worked as a professional hockey scout for the Carolina Hurricanes, responsible for assessing Draft Eligible players in Prep School and Junior Hockey in New England. The team looks forward to a promising new era under Coach Hunter.

PLAYER PROFILE: MIKE ROSENWEIG
Mike Rosensweig is a senior forward, wearing number 15 for the Engineers. He hails from West Hartford, CT, is studying Computer Science here at MIT and is a brother of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. Last fall, shortly before the beginning of the school year, Mike, already very skinny, was having trouble eating and was losing weight. Then, his glands began swelling up and he started coughing up blood. Mike visited MIT Medical and was transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital where, after a couple of days running a number of tests, he was diagnosed with Leukemia. Almost immediately, Mike began chemotherapy and with a compromised immune system, was left in almost solitary confinement. After the first and second rounds of chemo, things did not improve significantly and doctors determined that Mike would need a bone marrow transplant. In December, doctors performed an autologous transplant, where they took healthy bone marrow cells from Mike's own body and used them to replace the sick cells. The transplant proved to be a success as Mike's health quickly improved. Amazingly, after missing the fall semester at MIT, Mike was able to return to school in February, while periodically continuing chemotherapy. Upon returning to school, Mike was surprised by some of his fraternity brothers, including hockey team captain Bill Near G, who had adopted Mike's new hairstyle. This October, after a one year hiatus, Mike returned to the team. The team has greatly benefitted from his return, as they are off to a much-improved start this season. Over the Thanksgiving break, Mike received his last treatment of chemotherapy and, after a year and a half long bout with leukemia, life is practically back to normal.