HOCKEY

Wausau to be new home for junior hockey team

Tim Johnson

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

WAUSAU – Marathon Park is a home rink for the Wausau West and Wausau East/Merrill boys hockey teams as well as the Central Wisconsin Storm girls hockey program.

The Wausau rink will get a new tenant next winter to join the three high school squads along with a number of youth hockey programs that make use the two ice sheets.

The sale and relocation of the Chicago Bulldogs — a Tier III men’s junior hockey team — was approved by the North American 3 Hockey League on Wednesday. The Romeoville, Illinois, club will be known as the Wausau RiverWolves and play its home games at Marathon Park beginning with the 2017-18 season.

"I think it means another activity for the community to do in the winter,” Dan Fiorenza, the administrator of the Wausau/Marathon County Parks, Recreation, Forestry Department, said Thursday. "Hopefully it will be 500 to 600 people a night coming to watch some high-level hockey. This has been in the works since the middle to end of January when (the Chicago representatives) came and looked at the location and began discussions with us."

Tim Brownell was also named the RiverWolves coach after spending the past two years as an assistant for the NA3HL’s Gillette (Wyoming) Wild.

“We feel we have a group with experience to help lead the RiverWolves and that we have hired an outstanding coach in Tim Brownell to help echo the believes that we want to instill,” Duncan Woodhall, part of the RiverWolves ownership group, REB Enterprise, LLC, said in the media release announcing the move. “His hard work, determination and professionalism will help set the organization for early success and create a lasting impression for everyone involved.”

The RiverWolves ownership group also includes Steve Black and his son, Bryant. The Bryants also own the NA3HL’s New Ulm (Minnesota) Steel.

There are 48 teams in the NA3HL, spread across 21 states and eight divisions. The RiverWolves are part of the five-team Central Division that includes the La Crosse Freeze and the Wisconsin Whalers, who are located in Oregon, just outside of Madison.

The teams play a 47-game regular season, and Granite City Lumberjacks won the league championship, the Silver Cup, this past season.

Fiorenza said the addition of the junior hockey program should not interfere with the schedules of the high school and youth teams that use Marathon Park, as RiverWolves practices will be held in the afternoon and games will generally be Friday and Saturday nights.

The NA3HL is one of six Tier III junior hockey leagues across the country. The Wisconsin Rapids Riverkings are part of the the Tier III U.S. Premier Hockey League. Tier III programs are for high school or post prep players who have aspirations of eventually playing in higher-level junior leagues — the Tier II North American Hockey League, Tier I United States Hockey League — or college hockey.

The Bulldogs were an affiliate for the NAHL's Minnesota Magicians this past season.

Tim Johnson: 715-845-0731, or twjohnson@gannett.com; on Twitter @timmyjo11