First-year Anna Maria program is taking its shot at Division 3

Connor McIntosh has emerged as part of the Anna Maria leadership core. (Brian Foley for Foley-Photography)

By the time he was finished with his junior year of high school, Jack Sitzman knew that he wanted his professional future to be in nursing and his immediate future to stay in hockey.

He looked at the new Division 3 program at Anna Maria (Mass.) College and didn’t see a rink on campus or a conference affiliation. But he also didn’t see a roster littered with returning juniors and seniors.

“It being a start-up, I saw it as an opportunity to get a lot of time to play,” said the freshman forward from Redondo Beach, Calif., who is majoring in health science. “There wouldn’t be a lot of juniors and seniors to try and beat out.”

As Anna Maria jumps into the often-unforgiving world of Division 3 hockey, it does so with an eclectic roster, made up almost entirely of freshmen. Each one, like Sitzman, has brought his own motivation and back story to the program, which in its first semester of existence has achieved some notable results.