{"id":647883,"date":"2026-03-11T11:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/647883\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T11:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:39:12","slug":"unf-hockey-club-team-takes-flight-at-aau-hockey-nationals-in-jacksonville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/647883\/","title":{"rendered":"UNF hockey club team takes flight at AAU hockey nationals in Jacksonville"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 The University of North Florida\u2019s ice hockey club is making history on Wednesday as the Ospreys are playing in the AAU National Championship Tournament for the first time. <\/p>\n

The Ospreys are looking to clinch their first national title in ice hockey, and they\u2019ll be doing it in familiar territory.<\/p>\n

The Community First Igloo on Philips Highway, the rink where UNF plays its home games, is hosting the 17-team, double-elimination tournament.<\/p>\n

UNF is taking on St. John Fisher University, a school out of upstate New York, at 6 p.m. Wednesday. The tournament runs through Sunday.<\/p>\n

The club team is fully funded by the players and does not get any money from the university.<\/p>\n

Making the tournament is a big accomplishment for the Ospreys, who have won 15 games this season, the most victories they\u2019ve had since they joined the AAU league three years ago. <\/p>\n

The Ospreys went from seven full-time players on the squad last year to 25 this season, and won more games in 2026 than in their first two seasons combined.<\/p>\n

Team captain and president Jeremy Diaz and coach A.J. Mangine, who is in his first season with the Ospreys, both say they feel there was a change in the team\u2019s culture this year that helped in its success. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of guys, they were a lot more bought in this year,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cThis year, having a full team, guys were more brought in. They want to win this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mangine said the players are \u201ceasy to coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a great group of kids here. They want nothing but success both on the ice and off the ice,\u201d Mangine said. \u201cFor me, it was just building relationships with guys. I want to help them succeed on the ice and off the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

George Brkljacic, a freshman left wing who set a single-season record in the league with more than 60 goals, said the team feels like family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what hockey does. It brings people together,\u201d Brkljacic said. \u201cI would definitely say, past that three- or four-week mark, everyone started buying in a little bit more.\u201d <\/p>\n

If you are planning to head to Wednesday night\u2019s game at the Igloo, you\u2019re asked to bring a non-perishable food item, which will be donated to Feeding Northeast Florida to help the thousands of people who are food insecure in our area right now. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The University of North Florida\u2019s ice hockey club is making history on Wednesday as the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":647884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[275331,5229,3188,723,8665,7310,62,46512,67,586,132,5230,14645,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-647883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-aau-national-championship","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-unf","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-university-of-north-florida","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116210353935060835","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}