The first taste of national competition for the Oswego State roller hockey team begins next week in Fort Myers, Florida. The 2017 National Collegiate Roller Hockey Championships will take place on April 5, giving this club sport an unprecedented opportunity.
In six years as a program, the team has never made Nationals until this season. But a late-season push and three wins in the Div. II Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association playoffs helped the Lakers punch their tickets to Nationals.
This end of season run included two wins over Penn State, which allowed the Lakers to jump them in the ECRHA standings prior to the playoffs. Oswego State was also able to beat top-seeded Stony Brook University, 6-3 in the playoffs.
This all happened without a practice facility for the team to use during the season. The program lost their right to practice in Sweatman Gymnasium after a team tryout left the floors too scuffed for the school’s liking.
“Ever since two years ago we haven’t been able to practice at all,” forward Ryan Holmes said. “So, we literally go to every tournament, you know, rusty because we don’t have anywhere to practice.”
This forces team captains Joe Cosme and Michael Boyd to make adjustments in-game without a coach to help lead the way. It has also proven to be even more difficult because Boyd is the team’s starting goaltender and is not on the bench during most games.
“Overall, other teams have the opportunity to correct anything they are doing wrong through practice,” Boyd said. “It’s hard for us because we are just learning on the fly.”
Having no coach in this club sport is rare among other teams. Due, in part, to this, the players believe it has helped them grow into the tight-knit group they have become during the season.
“I think everybody’s come together really and embraced the whole team aspect and that’s gone miles for us,” Boyd said.
The team added six rookies this season, composing half of this year’s team, putting another obstacle in the way of the improbable run to the 2017 National Championships.
“It’s probably been the most growing pains in a season, trying to get everyone to understand how to play the system,” Holmes said.
The talent level of this team is not up to par with past seasons, Cosme said. However, the emphasis on hard work and playing for one another has helped them to this point of the season that no prior roller hockey team on the Oswego State campus has achieved.
Going into next week’s round robin tournament, Oswego State has a practice scheduled prior to the start of the tournament to help correct first-game woes they have experienced throughout other points of their schedule.
They are also planning to bring some water from Lake Ontario down to Florida like they did during the playoffs this season, as a way to help rally the team.
“We have a little mason jar on the bench of Lake Ontario water,” Cosme said. “We feed off of it. We would dip our hands in before our games [and] rub it on our faces.”
The mason jar was shattered during the team’s 4-3 win over Endicott College on March 4. Oswego State was leading 3-1 prior to losing the lake water, but surrendered two quick goals to allow Endicott College to tie the game. This time around, the team plans to bring a few back-ups to ensure the good luck does not run out.
Oswego State begins its quest for a national crown on April 5 at 7 a.m. against Louisiana Tech University.
“We were below .500 going into the last tournament,” Lakers leading scorer Jack Tofallos said. “Just made .500, just made the tournament, and then we haven’t looked back since [then]. We just gotta keep it going from there.”
