What the puck? A hockey team?
At least three times a week, a group of eight or nine players turn the concrete basketball courts at a local apartment complex into a rink, and they glide in with their game faces on.
Seniors Matt Moore, Jeff Salatino and Billy Villacorta started gathering fellow hockey players their freshman year to play in the pit’s basketball courts.
“We started going to tournaments (with this group) in November of ’06,” Moore said. “Our first one was in Dothan, Alabama.”
Earlier in the month, the team traveled to Tallahassee, Fla. for their first tournament of the semester, where they beat a team from Florida State University.
A lack of facilities prevents the team from practicing on skates. This becomes troublesome to the rookies because a majority of the tournaments are for inline skaters.
“The concrete on the court eats up the wheels so we just play in shoes,” Moore said. “We tried to practice at the roller rink (in Milledgeville) but they wouldn’t let us.”
“We all throw our sticks into a pile and one guy closes his eyes and tosses them into two piles to pick teams,” Moore said. “If that yields even teams then we play the best of five games.”
By the end of the week, the team finds out if this time next year the team will be a recognized student organization. Jeff Brittain, sophomore, leads the team’s efforts in this endeavor.
“Hopefully, it will catch on and we can watch it grow,” Brittain said.
With RSO status, comes a much-needed incentive: money. The funds the team expects to receive will go to tournament fees, traveling expenses and new equipment, according to senior Tony Zametin.
Various levels of experience are represented among the team.
Moore’s experience speaks for itself. At age 5, he picked up his first hockey stick in St. Louis, Mo. Since then, he has played on various traveling and school teams. In 2005, Moore, along with teammate Jeff Salatino, won the state championship with their high school.
Zametin, from Russia, hit his first puck two years ago at Young Harris College. He played in his first hockey tournament earlier in the month.
“When I transferred from Young Harris I checked online to find people that played hockey in Milledgeville,” Zametin said. “That’s how I found these guys.”
Canadian native, Jeff Salatino, is no stranger to the rink. Growing up in British Columbia, hockey runs through his veins. Even though Salatino competes in triathlons, undergoes a 21-hour course load, trains in mixed martial arts and looks to attend graduate school next fall, this senior still saves time to aim for the back of the net. With all the talent he brings to the court, the team missed him at its past tournament.
“He’s one of the most skilled players in Milledgeville, but I think he felt it was too early on in his relationship with his new girlfriend to go away for the weekend,” Moore said.
The team plans to travel to Tallahassee again in December for their second tournament this semester.
With Moore organizing practices, Villa signing up for tournaments and Brittain leading the efforts to become a club team, no one person calls himself the captain.
Other players include: Michael Chase, Erik Olney, Ryan Hudson, Jared Main and Cain Cantrell.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 24 2008. Filed under Sports.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
