Nine members of the NIU hockey program have traded in the green and yellow of Crystal Lake South high school for the black and red at NIU.

Eight are players, including Mark Greenberg, Nick Remley, Jonny Perillo and Danny Stetzinger who are on the D-II team. Jon and Brian Pounds, David and Brett Frietag are on the D-III team.

NIU hockey general manager Ian Kalanges also went to Crystal Lake South, graduating in 2004.

Greenberg said playing with three former Gators has been a fun experience.

“It’s pretty cool just because you grew up playing with them so you know how they play,” Greenberg said. “So the chemistry is already there, so it’s not hard to play well with them.”

Remley said before coming to play at NIU, a couple of them wondered if playing together in college could be a possibility.

“One day we were sitting around [and] we were kind of talking about schools and like three or four of us just decided that we should all apply to NIU,” Remley said. “And then there was about three or four of us that got accepted; that was for last year’s season, and then this year, two more guys got accepted from Crystal Lake South.”

Graduate student David Frietag said he thinks Kalanges’s presence and having familiar faces on the team has helped the program in recent years.

“I’ve known Ian for a long time,” Frietag said, “He’s pretty much been one of my best friends since high school, so I kind of saw what the program was like when he was a freshman here, and that he’s developed the program really well. I think a lot of it has to do with a lot of the guys coming from a specific area and kind of just knowing each other and playing with each other before.”

Kalanges said the fact that NIU plays its home games in West Dundee and Hoffman Estates has helped the program draw interest from the northwest suburbs.

He added it could have an impact for the hockey team in the future as well.

“I think another reason why kids come from northwest suburbs is the rinks we play out of for our home games. The Leafs Ice Center and Hoffman Estates are in the northwest suburbs,” Kalanges said, “So when kids are at their rinks in high school and they see us playing, it kind of puts it in their head, ‘Hey, maybe I should check out NIU.'”