Wausau RiverWolves sign 3 local hockey players

WAUSAU - Cale Bowman spent his high school career playing home games at Marathon Park as a member of the Wausau West boys hockey team — now, he's getting a chance to continue his hockey career in that same place

The West graduate was back in the arena Monday morning, standing on the concrete flooring in the middle of Rink A as he listened to a news conference for Wausau’s newest hockey team, the Wausau RiverWolves. Bowman is one of three local players who have signed to play for the Wausau RiverWolves, a Tier III men’s junior hockey team, which will begin play for the 2017-18 season. Austin Burgener and Seth Jaglinski, from Merrill and D.C. Everest, respectively, have been signed as well.

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“I’ve got a home (with the RiverWolves) and I get to play at my home-home, so it’s a double win,” said Bowman, a 2016 West graduate who played this past year for the Ironwood Yoopers of the U.S Premier Hockey League. “I am just excited for the opportunity.”

The RiverWolves are a North American 3 Hockey League team, which relocated to central Wisconsin from Romeoville, Illinois.

The news conference Monday came less than three weeks after the team’s move to Wausau was approved by the NA3HL. The franchise was purchased by REB Enterprise, LLC, a group which consists of Duncan Woodhall and Steve Black and Bryant Black. Bryant, son of Steve, is the vice president of operations for the RiverWolves as well.

The group also owns the NA3HL’s New Ulm (Minnesota) Steel, and relocation talks with Wausau became serious in late March.

Woodhall said the community’s overall support of hockey, and a lack of junior hockey in area, made Wausau an attractive spot for relocation.

“There is a great tradition (of hockey) in the Wausau area,” Woodhall said Monday. “There is strong youth and strong high school programs …and we’re excited to be here and part of the community and earning our stripes.”

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 Madison.

The NA3HL is one of six Tier III junior hockey leagues across the country. The Wisconsin Rapids Riverkings are part of 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 RiverWolves will play a 22-game home schedule at Marathon Park, with matchups on Friday and Saturday nights. The league has a 47-game regular season, followed by the postseason, which is capped by the Silver Cup championship series. Players live with host families during the season.

The RiverWolves will have a 25-man roster and be led by Tim Brownell, who was named the RiverWolves coach after spending the past two years as an assistant for the NA3HL’s Gillette (Wyoming) Wild. Players will report for camp the week after Labor Day and the regular season will begin in either late September or the first week of October. The league schedule will be released in the second week of June, and the league draft will be held in early summer as well.

"Our style of play will be fast and physical up-and-down the ice," Brownell said. "The (junior) game is far changed from '70s and '80s where it was more brute force and to use a term, 'goon-style' of hockey. Everyone just wanted to go to a game because there was fighting. There is a time and place for a fight, absolutely, but that is not the style of coach I am. I would rather hurt somebody on the scoreboard than hurt them physically.

"We want to play two-way hockey, battling on both ends of the ice," Brownell said. "I think to beat a lot of the teams (in the league), you have to be sound in all aspects of your game."

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