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Hockey team needs players, fans, support
Roadrunners market squad at Spring Fling to boost interest
By Eric Lansing
lansing@mscd.edu

Photo by Nicholas Duckworth • nduckwor@mscd.edu From left, Jared Stoke, Sean Leaman and Turner Bahn represent the Metro hockey team at Metro’s annual Spring Fling April 26 at Auraria to help gain support for their coming season.

Metro’s club hockey team hosted a booth at the annual Spring Fling April 26 in a campaign for new talent and to garner support from fellow students on Auraria.

“We are just trying to promote the team,” said senior Sean Leaman, a forward on the Roadrunners’ hockey team. “We are seeing if we can get a bigger fan base, as most students don’t even know we have a team. We are also trying to recruit some players.”

Metro’s other sports, such as basketball, baseball, and soccer, seem to have an overabundance of players trying to make their respective teams, but the students’ interest in hockey is mediocre at best, according to Leaman.

“We had a really small turnout for tryouts (last season),” Leaman said. “We had a pretty short bench as we lost players to injuries and to eligibility.”

Hockey requires a significant amount of players coming off the bench, as it is a physically challenging sport. Players constantly skate up and down the ice and punish their bodies with hip checks and flying pucks.

In hockey, players are out on the ice for 35-40 seconds before a substitution is made to give those players some rest, and not having a full team on the bench can be exhausting to the players.

Although the Roadrunners were close to playing entire games without substitutions, next year may finally bring a full team to the ice.

“We ended the season with about seven forwards and about four defensemen,” Leaman said. “But we have more returning players this year than we have had in any other year.”

If playing against schools such as the University of Denver and the University of Colorado weren’t challenging enough, getting fans to come to the games is a task in itself.

“We’re just trying to get people out there to see us play, to support us, and to yell and cheer for us.”

Metro doesn’t have an ice rink on campus, so the team plays wherever they can. Time is also a concern as most of the games don’t start until later into the evening, usually around 10 p.m., and hockey games last between two and three hours.

But next year may be different, as a new ice rink has been built near C-470 and Broadway Avenue in Littleton called the Ice Ranch. Leaman said they spoke to some of the officials of the new rink and got there early enough to reserve time and space for the 2007-08 season. This means that they may have a permanent home – instead of driving to different locations every week – and decent start times so family members and fans won’t have to stay awake as late to see the outcome. There is also an added bonus for attending Metro hockey games.

“They are going to have a bar above the rink,” Leaman said. “They’ll have drink specials which will hopefully help us promote the games a little bit.”

The hockey team is also holding a golf tournament on June 30 at the Hyland Hills Golf Course in Arvada. It is a way for the hockey team to raise money for uniforms, ice time, referee fees and travel expenses for the upcoming season.

The cost to compete in the first Metro State Hockey Golf Tournament is $110 per individual. The price includes entry into all events, as well as 18 holes of golf, a riding cart and range balls. There will be a lunch provided by CD’s Wings, drink specials, various awards and contests.

The hockey team is also looking into sponsors for the event and may possibly auction off items such as autographed Avalanche jerseys.

With the booth, the golf tournament and the new recruits, the Roadrunners look to turn around a dismal 2006-07 season and develop into a top Metro sport that will have fans raving about hockey on campus.