MARQUETTE – Northern Michigan University has a long tradition of great hockey and to continue that, you need someone who understands what it takes to succeed at the Division I level.

Wildcats athletic director Forrest Karr knows the world of college hockey. He played goaltender at a D-I school, Notre Dame, and served as athletic director at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, a fellow member of the WCHA with the Wildcats.

It may seem like it’s meant to be that Karr is at another school with a hockey program, but Karr doesn’t think so and says that hockey is far from his only focus at NMU.

“I really think it is a coincidence,” he said about the hockey connection. “Over the years, I’ve really been fascinated and enthralled and engaged with some sports that I never even knew about growing up.

“When I was up in Fairbanks, I was heavily involved with the rifle program. I chaired the search committee for the coach who is still the coach there now. I always enjoy telling people about rifle and the dedication that those student-athletes have for that sport and the technical aspects of that sport.

“I came here and feel the same way about Nordic skiing, for instance. Not only did I watch the Fairbanks team in their rifle competition online, but I was also watching the video of the classic race on (a recent) Friday afternoon when Fredrik Schwenke won the race and it came down to the wire.

“I was screaming and hugging and when I jumped in the air, I hit my hand on the door frame and I cut my knuckles and was bleeding all over the place because I was so excited for Fredrik and for (coach) Sten (Fjeldheim) and for all the student-athletes.

“I think that if you enjoy competition, and you enjoy just the intercollegiate athletics, and what it teaches student-athletes, and you enjoy seeing them be successful, it doesn’t really matter what sport it is.”

In his not quite three years in charge of the Wildcats, Karr has accomplished a lot, including a new video board in the Superior Dome for football and adding the Izzo-Mariucci Room among other things.

“I want to be supporting the student-athletes and the coaches, finding ways to get them resources for them to have a better chance to be successful,” Karr said. “I hope in some ways that we’ve done that over the last couple of years.

“We’ve added the new video board in football and the video analysis in the room over there in the Izzo-Mariucci Room. There’s seating where different teams can scout their opponents and do video analysis work.

“We renovated the Olympic (Training) Site weight room and made it two or three times bigger than it was before for those student-athletes.

“We added some things on the soccer field such as the media relations and storage building and shelters for the student-athletes when the weather is bad.”

Those things are just a small part of what Karr hopes to achieve during his tenure. It’s a long and complex plan, but there’s one overall goal that is at the top.

“If I boil it down, I would like to see us get to a point where almost 75 percent of our sports are competing in NCAA postseason competition,” he said. “Right now, we have some teams that have people compete like track and field, women’s swimming and diving, Nordic skiing, both men and women.

“We’d like to get to the point where we can take the next step and see our teams do that on a regular basis. That’s the goal. It’s not to win the conference championship every year, but I believe that if you’re in the top quarter of the schools in the conference on a regular basis, that you give yourself an opportunity to then get into NCAA postseason competition.”

Karr also talked about things that can be accomplished at NMU, but some may not be achieved for quite some time.

One is the idea for a new basketball arena. Karr said that it’s a possibility, but the far more likely idea is updates to the Berry Events Center.

“A new arena could be done, but probably in the near-term, the question is how we can make the Berry Events Center a little quainter. A center-hung video board is a goal of mine.

“I was involved in that project when we got the funding for it at Alaska-Fairbanks to put a center-hung video board in the Carlson Center and I saw the difference that that made for the fans and their experience being able to see replays and engage in things.”

With a men’s hockey program in place, it might make sense to add a women’s program as well. Karr thinks it’s a great idea, but it’s not in the cards right now.

“That’s one that would be great here in the community,” he said. “I had the same situation up in Fairbanks. We had a really strong women’s hockey club program and our club team here just went to nationals.

“The thing that is a little bit challenging with women’s hockey is that there is no Division II. So you compete at the Division III or Division I level. For us, it doesn’t really make sense to compete at the Division III level, so if we were to go, we’d go all in with a Division I women’s hockey program.

“Then you have to look at the expenses. The expenses are significant compared to the four sports that we’re adding,” he said about the coming addition of men’s swimming and diving, men’s soccer, women’s lacrosse and women’s golf. “When we did the analysis, the expenses of just a women’s hockey program would be the same as all four of these other sports combined.

“With these other four sports, we’re going to add 92 students to the university. If we were to add a women’s hockey program, we would only add 26 or 27 students to the university. When you say the expenses are the same, the direction the board decided to go was to add 92 students compared to adding 27. You have to look at those things when doing the analysis.”

Karr also said that NMU is in better shape than other schools and things could grow even further.

“The truth is with our facilities, we can offer some new sports,” he said. “We have some space that a lot of schools don’t have. We have practice basketball gymnasiums, we have a volleyball arena that’s separate stand-alone. We have the space necessary to add things without interrupting current programs or hurting current programs.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 246. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal. net.