DE PERE – The De Pere Deacons men’s hockey team is off to a strong start this season with a 4-2 overall record, keeping their reputation and expectations of their long history alive.
“A lot of people just don’t know our history,” said Deacons Vice President of Hockey Operations Paul Clifford.
“We just got into the Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame. We’ve been around a long time. Back in the ’80s we won six straight Badger State Hockey League titles from 1982-88. We also won back to back Wisconsin Amateur Hockey Association state titles two different times and a total of five overall. At one point we were one of the most successful programs in the state of Wisconsin at any level.”
The Deacons’ history and reputation is a testament to their high level of competitiveness and expectation for their players.
“Our players are at least 18 years of age. Our captain is 53 years of age. That’s very unusual, but most players for us are going to be 18 to mid-30s,” said Clifford.
“We do have players that play for us and then move on and play junior college or some level of pro. Our league is what they call ‘Senior A Elite.’ It’s a semi-pro hockey league. Our players are anywhere from really good high school players to players that went on to play juniors — say the Gamblers, which is ages 18-20 and a top level program. We get a lot of those tier 2 or tier 3 Junior A players. We have club hockey players, DIII hockey players like at St. Norbert and even some DI players as well. We’ve even had some guys that have played minor league pro,” said Clifford.
The Deacons are a part of the Great Lakes Hockey League — including 10 teams — and play in a competitive division facing multiple teams across the Midwest.
Throughout their season, the Deacons face two teams from Madison, a team from Fond du Lac, Fox Cities, Eagle River, Mosinee, Marinette and two teams out of Michigan — Calumet and Portage Lake.
Though the level of competition is high, Clifford said that making a commitment to the team is feasible due to their reasonable schedule.
“We have students that are going to St. Norbert and tech schools to people that have full time jobs. We practice one day a week — every Wednesday night from 9:30-10:30 p.m. at the De Pere Ice Arena. We’ve been practicing there every Wednesday night since 1977 — we are 47 years into this,” said Clifford.
According to Clifford, the team is made up of relatively experienced players who are looking to continue their athletic career on the ice with an opportunity outside of a collegiate or professional setting.
“It depends on the individual but typically the level of competition is for someone who excelled as a high school player. If they played junior, college, or some club level, those people tend to do very well for us. We can have 30 people on the roster but only suit up 20 per game, so we don’t often cut unless it’s clear that someone can get hurt because they aren’t ready to play for us.
It’s full-check so this is one of the unique things about it. It’s not like a men’s league or bar league. It’s pretty competitive hockey and some people don’t realize how good it really is,” said Clifford.
Clifford said that because the league is considered amateur, it does not interfere with a college athlete’s eligibility at all. Though the athletes do not get paid, Clifford said they are well taken care of.
“We help pay for things like gas money when needed. We have our own locker room. We provide tape, hotel rooms on the road and bus rides,” said Clifford.
Many of the players on the Deacons have found the team through social media and are often recruited to play or proved their ability through their annual tryout.
“We have tryouts every year in October. We recruit through the high schools and through social media. We have a Facebook page and Instagram. We have a network that we work with of existing and former hockey players,” said Clifford.
“We typically start playing games at the end of November and go through the end of March. Our league tournament is always the first week of April.”
Clifford’s story
As the vice president of hockey operations for the Deacons, Clifford — along with President David Lepp and Head Coach Greg Nuthals — is extremely dedicated to ensuring the success of the program.
“I played with the Deacons from 1984-88. I left for many years and did my corporate thing — I was President and General Manager of Sherwin Williams for 34 years. I retired in 2022 and I’ve been back with the team for about three or four years now as vice president of hockey operations. I wanted to get back into it and I’ve coached a lot and been involved in hockey my whole life, so I help with recruiting a little bit now, too” said Clifford.
“We were recently accepted into the Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame in Eagle River where we have a display of old jerseys, equipment, trophies, newspaper articles and pictures of the championship teams displaying their 8 BSHL league titles, 5 WAHA state titles, 4 GLHL league titles and 1 National Championship," said Clifford.
Most recently, the De Pere Deacons won the Great Lakes Hockey Tournament Championship in 2021.
“We are a 501c3 non-profit organization. We have a handful of ways to raise our own money. We charge each player $400 to play. They can offset that $400 by selling ads in our program. That’s one of the biggest ways that we raise money. We put together a program that we sell at the games for $2. We contact businesses to buy ads in the programs and we get a fair amount of revenue through that,” said Clifford.
“We also have a raffle we do every year that is a good money-maker for us. We get money from the gate, beverage sales and apparel. We have a couple corporate sponsors that help us out as well. We operate on a $30,000 per year budget so it’s pretty skinny, but we’ve made it work for a long time.”
However, the Deacons are also always looking to the community for their support as well.
“We’re always looking for sponsorship or donations. We’ve been a part of the community going on 48 years,” said Clifford.
As the team looks towards expanding their 4-2 record going deeper into the 2024-25 season, they will also be looking for new athletes and fresh talent in the fall for their next season as well.
For more information on the De Pere Deacons, visit their website, deperedeacons.com or their Facebook and Instagram pages.
For any further information or questions, contact Paul Clifford, vice president of hockey operations at paulr8150@gmail.com or 920-977-3707.
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