Worst Seasons in the last 25 years Part 1: Air force

Welcome to the Worst Season in the Past 25 Years, a series in which r/CollegeHockey reviews the worst season for all 60 Division I teams over the summer to alleviate the crushing boredom known as the off-season and take a horrific tour down memory lane.

If you are interested in writing an entry for your team, please let me know via PM. I’ll be posting entries on weekdays at approximately at 6 pm Eastern time and will be going in alphabetical order. If an entry is not posted at that time, assume that “real life” has gotten in the way and that I am not able to post. If I am aware in advance that I will not post at 6 pm on a particular day, I will announce it in prior posts as a heads up.

And now.../r/CollegeHockey presents the Air Force Falcons! Air Force has enjoyed their most successful seasons in recent memory when they joined Atlantic Hockey in 2006. They have won the regular season title 2 times, the conference championship tournament 6 times and have appeared at the Ice Dance (my name for the NCAA tournament) 6 times.

However, the worst season in recent memory for the Air Force Falcons is…

1995-1996 Record - 0-4-19 (W-D-L); no conference record due to being independent.

Wins: none

Draws: Illinois Chicago, Massachusetts Lowell (x2), Brown

Losses: Illinois Chicago, Yale (x2), @RPI (x2), @Massachusetts Amherst (x2), Colorado College, @Denver, Cornell, Providence (x2), Merrimack (x2), Brown, @Northeastern, @Union, @Army (x2)

Biggest Beatdown: 1-11 @Denver or 0-10 @Union

Head Coach: Chuck Delich

In his penultimate season as head coach of the Falcons, Chuck Delich lead the team to a 4-5-25 (W-D-L) record if counting exhibition games. Unfortunately, in official play, Air Force did not record a single win. Captain Mark DeGironimo scored 17 goals and had 23 assists according to eliteprospects.com. Teammate Todd LaFortune was close behind, with 15 goals. In net, Pat Kielb had a save percentage of .851 and a goals against average of 4.70.

To begin the season, Air Force had a decent, if rusty, 4 games against Illinois Chicago and UML. 3 draws were obtained along with one loss. A two game series against Yale was where the wheels fell off for Air Force with the matches going 0-3 and 1-8. An exhibition series with 314 (314 was Elmira College, according to u/LocksTheFox) was followed by a nightmarish trip to the East with RPI and UMass Amherst throttling the Falcons.

December began with an exhibition series against RIT, followed by a poor showing against the other in-state teams (CC and Denver). The month was finished off by being defeated by Cornell in the Denver Cup.

The new year began with a homestand of 6 games against Eastern teams in the form of Providence, Merrimack, and Brown. All of those games were in defeat. Another trip to the East Coast ensued, with defeats at Union and Northeastern.

February was the month of exhibitions, with 2 series against MSU Mankato and one with 352 (The University of St. Thomas, thanks again Locks!). The season officially ended with a trip to West Point, where Army was able to win the Commander-in-Chief trophy on ice. If anything, the home series with MSU Mankato was decently successful, with a win and draw to bookend this horrid season for Air Force.

This turned out to be head coach’s Chuck Delich second-to-last season; he was replaced by current coach Frank Serratore. Under Serratore, the Falcons would be able to compete for conference championships and get a chance to go to the Ice Dance. It appears that Air Force has already gone past its Dark Ages.

For Week 1 of this series, we will look at the worst seasons in recent memory for the following schools: Alabama Huntsville, Alaska Anchorage, Alaska _ (Fairbanks), and American International. Once again, if you are interested in doing the entry for your favorite school, shoot me a PM. Your school, name, and date will be added at the end of each post to serve as a reminder. So far, the following people have inquired about a spot:

School	Username	Tentative Date
Cornell	u/ABigRedWallaby	6/29
LSSU	u/binkelman	7/10
Union	u/azureamor	8/22
Vermont	u/LocksTheFox	8/23

The format for the posts in the series is still being worked on and your input is greatly appreciated. I hope that everyone can get a kick out of their rivals’ misery and learn a little bit about the history of this great sport!