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In-line hockey proud to wear burgundy and blue
By Eric Lansing
lansing@mscd.edu

Sports at Metro come in many varieties, from the championship soccer and basketball teams to the club-level teams of tae kwon do and rugby. In-line hockey is the newest sport to be officially sanctioned by the school, introducing a Metro team to the vast world of campus athletics.

Starting forward Cody Lemon is credited with founding the new team and was surprised to see so many fellow students come and try out.

“I probably started it three seasons ago,” Lemon said. “It started by word of mouth to get some people to join, and we had a pretty good turnout for tryouts. We tried to get sanctioned last year during midseason, but when we spoke to the director, we would have had to do the whole thing over again the following season. So we just wanted to get everything solved and do it from the start of this year.”

“There was a lot of paperwork (to get the team sanctioned),” Lemon said. “It wasn’t much fun, but it was worth it.”

In-line hockey, or roller hockey, is like ice hockey without the ice and ice skates. Instead of ice skates, players wear in-line skates. And whereas ice hockey has six players, in-line hockey has only five players on the rink including the goalie.

Being sanctioned allows the team to play in a league and compete with other schools that have the sport. Metro plays in Division I for the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association and plays against schools like Colorado State, Northern Colorado, Arapahoe Community College and the University of Denver.

Starting defenseman Andrew Smith is the assistant captain and says that in-line hockey is more exciting and less expensive than ice hockey.

“In some ways, it’s a faster game,” Smith said. “It’s faster, higher scoring, and for me personally, I have played ice hockey, and I just like roller a lot more.”

“I don’t even know how to ice skate,” Lemon said when asked why he preferred in-line skates to ice skates. “A lot of people are turned off by ice hockey, I think because ice time is expensive. Finding rink time is easier in roller hockey, because ice time is hard to find. You get a lot more playing time, and it’s a fast-paced game that is fun to watch.”

Coaching the Roadrunners is Tom Barr, who was brought on just a few weeks before the season. Barr is amazed at the dedication Lemon and Smith bring to the new team and the love they have for the school and the sport.

“These two guys have been instrumental in putting together a great team and group of guys,” Barr said. “I got to give credit to these two guys for really getting a team together for this school. I haven’t seen such commitment from two guys in my coaching career, and they have put together a heck of a program.”

“It’s awesome,” Smith said about Metro sanctioning the team. “This is my first real competitive roller-hockey team I’ve played for. I played for another university in Colorado, but it wasn’t as good as this team at Metro. I’m proud to be a part of this team,” he said.

The team plays from the heart because they have few expectations for a future in the sport and few people will go into the NHL from roller hockey, Barr said.

“They don’t have the superstardom like ice hockey brings, or the benefit of money, or the benefit of scholarships, so it all comes from the heart,” he said. “All these guys come out and give everything they have, and that’s what I love about coaching roller hockey.”

The Roadrunners finished the first half of their season with a 5-5-1 record, including a 6-3 win over DU. They will continue their season in January and hope to make a run at the playoffs. The team will also continue to play not just for a winning record, but also for the school whose emblem is now embroidered on their jerseys.