By Joshua Boyd / USPHL.com,

The Philadelphia Hockey Club is truly excited about making its 2020-21 debut in the USPHL’s Tier-2 Tuition-Free National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC).

Jim Mackey, Owner of the Hollydell Ice Arena and Philadelphia Hockey Club, said the arena and club has recently completed a massive overhaul of the arena, including 5,000 square feet of new, permanent locker room space.

This includes more than 1,800 feet exclusively for the use of the PHC’s team entering play in the NCDC this fall.

“I bought the rink in August of 2017 and proceeded to gut most of the facility. I didn’t know if we were going to field an NCDC team, but I had a good idea of where I wanted us to be,” said Mackey. “We put in a second floor restaurant [Dunlop’s Bar and Grill]. Below that, we created a 4,000-square-foot dryland training and strength and conditioning facility.”

With a total of eight new, customized locker rooms and improvements to the existing spaces, PHC teams that run from Youth Hockey to NCDC will benefit. There will continue to be an exclusive locker room for Philadelphia Hockey Club’s USPHL Premier team, as well as exclusive space for the use of their full-season Midget teams that also play in the USPHL. The Philadelphia Hockey Club’s 15U team won the 2018-19 USPHL championship.

Mackey hopes to create a home away from home for the PHC’s NCDC players. A visit to Colgate University’s facilities spurred some inspiration.

“We want players to spend time at the rink. We really based it off of an NCAA Division I model of a room. We have our player’s lounge with foosball, video games and a large screen TV. We have a training room with two training tables, a dry changing room to change into and out of their dry clothes, and then the main locker room with adjoining bathroom and shower facilities,” said Mackey.

“We had recently toured Colgate with our 2005 group and we had also seen another space as well,” he added.

The Philadelphia Hockey Club is certainly proud of the work that it has undertaken and created a video to promote the facility, which was a big hit with alumni as well as current and incoming PHC players.

“We just put it out [April 15] and the guys are sending some great feedback,” added Mackey. “Our whole model has been based on creating a one-stop shop to develop hockey players, with all of the on-and off-ice amenities where they could develop from Youth to Midget to NCDC.”