Looking for Players & Coaches

We don't want to step on any toes with the NCRHA, so we want to reach out to the inline hockey community by our webpage. We are actively seeking NCRHA players and coaches for interviews from the pre-season through the NCRHA Finals. If you are interested in being contacted by our team at SlammHockey, please email us at SlammHockeyOnline@gmail.com.

We look forward to speaking with you.

Arizona State Announces 2010-11 Tryouts

Arizona State Head Coach Nick Boyarsky is ready to make another run at the NCRHA National Championship. Last year, in only their 2nd season, they played Cinderella and glided to a National Finals birth. The season ended on a sour note, losing 5 - 1 to the closest thing that the NCRHA has had to a dynasty, Lindenwood University. Coach Boyarsky announced tryouts for the upcoming season, to be held at the Barney Family Sports Complex located at 22050 E. Queen Creek Road, Queen Creek, AZ.

August 30, 2010 8:00 - 10:00 pm

September 6, 2010 - 8:00 -10:00pm

The cost for the tryouts are $5.00 for returning players, $10.00 for new players.

For more information email asurollerhockey@yahoo.com

Can't we all just get along?

Well we've been waiting in the brush waiting for the right time to come back out of hiding and start posting again. What a great time to do so...... NCRHA pre-season starts this weekend and that means that it is the best time of year for Inline Hockey. So in the upcoming weeks we will have our SlammHockey pre-season rankings out and a surprise for all of the DII Hockey fans out there.

I guess that why I have been laying low for the past 6 months, I have been doing a great deal of soul searching for what I can do for the game of inline hockey. The heart of the matter is if I was to go out, put my name and company out there and build a reputable professional inline hockey league from a grass roots level, would it make a difference in the inline hockey world? Initially, while working on a true business structure, league by-laws, ownership agreements, league rules, etc., I thought I could make a huge difference in this game. In 18-24 months, we could be operating in 6 - 8 cities nationwide and make this a profitable venture. You noticed the last two words, a profitable venture, and that is what is holding me back. Do I at some point want to make millions of dollars organizing the sport that I enjoy playing, watching, and helping out? Of course, but that is not what this sport needs right now!

We need to have all of these groups out there work with each other for the betterment of the game. With the addition of MLRH, MLRH2, MLRH AAA, MLRH AA and SlammHockey to an already huge plate of PIHA (Pro and Minor), AIHL (Elite and Minor) and all of the tournament series and local recreation leagues, it leaves me to question. Are there truly enough players out there to support all of these leagues? Or do these players, owners, rink owners, and administrators just feel that they can do something better and the league that they are in won't listen to their arguments on what should be done to help out?

The administrators of all of these leagues just felt that they could do it better than the last person and instead of offering opinions for the greater good of the sport, we have got a great deal of competition fighting over a small percentage of players. Somehow or someway we need to attempt to get all of the leagues on the same page and work toward something that will work for everyone. A league that has Charlie, Keith and Bill that can work closely with USA Hockey and AAU, along with a partnership from the NCRHA, Narch, TORHS and Statewars would be the best thing that inline hockey could have. Do we ever think that this will happen? Nah, there are too many ego's involved that are always feeling that they are owed something in order to work with each other.

I will tell you this, if I was going to start a league tomorrow the first person that I would hire would be Brennan Edwards. Mr. Edwards has done what no one in the sport has been able to accomplish, he has brought Inline Hockey to the forefront of Club Sports at over 100 colleges and universities around the United States. He has a growth pattern that has been great for the sport and seems to have the people around him that are competent enough to get things done. A hockey guy that knows how to run a business as well as delegate tasks to co-workers across the country is truly amazing. So Brennan, if you are taking a look at the blog and seem a little interested...........

Ok, bottom line is that with so many people pulling people from a number of different directions try putting a little effort into getting more youth involved in the sports by dropping off flyers for your local rinks, finding broken sticks adding plastic blades and handing those out to kids playing football in the road or basketball in the park. Don't throw away your old worn out wheels, pads, bearings, or anything else hockey related. Try cleaning them up a little bit (removing a little of the smell) and leave them at the rinks, with the parks and recreation departments or at the local schools, this will go a long way for getting more kids involved in the sport.

And of course, if anyone would like to help contribute to SlammHockey, please feel free to email me at SlammHockeyOnline@gmail.com.

I'm Back.....and not holding anything back!

Due to a much needed break, the Slamm Family just returned from a much needed 10 day vacation in beautiful Key West where we were hoping to spend some time hanging out with Jimmy Buffett, but his appearance at Margaritaville was a couple weeks earlier and we didn't get the invite. But we are back and ready to get going on the NCRHA Finals in a couple of weeks back in Feasterville (who knows I had a great time for the ECRHA Finals, I might just head back), we have all of the summer tournament series coming up (Narch, StateWars, Torhs, etc.) and most of all we have a couple of surprises in store. We are hoping to talk to some of the players in the industry and have interviews online as well as start our grass roots marketing of the sport to attempt to get more younger players involved. We are excited to start of the season of inline hockey on the right foot!

***Stepping down from the soapbox***

We really need to start speaking out against the use of professional in our leagues around the country. I see on Rich Graham's site (best inline site on the web), that there is usually a discussion about this once every two months, and sometimes rather lengthy "especially if ACCCT2 and OldTimer are active", but I feel that it is getting out of hand. All of us that either take the time to play, contribute or organize the sport are the current gatekeepers of this great game and need to walk on eggshells right now.

We have a struggling economy right now, where no one wants to take responsibility and it starts from the top (Current President blaming Former President, Unemployed blaming the Corporations, Athletes blaming coaches, etc.) and we need to stand up and take responsibility for growing this sport. We can't sit back and try to let things fall into place and if they don't blame it on something. We need to take a proactive approach to inline hockey and the growth in the sport, we need to go after these ice hockey families and show them that inline hockey is just as fun as lacrosse, soccer, baseball, basketball, golf (maybe not), etc. And the only way to get these families is to start talking to them about the costs and convenience of inline hockey.

Two years ago, our AAA ice hockey team was paying $275.00 per hour for ice time, and we could of utilized the local inline rink for $25.00 per hour on the weekends during the spring and summer. Looking back, I think $25.00 per hour would be more beneficial for house and low level travel teams just to work on face-offs and positioning and special teams and be able to get players in the inline facility.

You also have the ability to bring in kids that have never seen the sport of hockey (inner-city kids and southern cities) and introduce it to them by starting them at a Dek-Hockey level. All kids enjoy running and learning how to play a new sport. After they are addicted to the sport, then put a pair of skates on them and let them grow into hockey players.

We all need to do our part to grow this sport in order for it to succeed, and in the next couple of days SlammHockey will be introducing our initiative to help grow the sport one stick at a time across the United States. See you tomorrow!

SlammHockey NCRHA National Championship Predictions

Automatic Bids

University of Rhode Island - ECRHA Champions
Michigan State University - MCRHL Champions
Univ. of Central Florida - SECRHL Champions
Lindenwood University - GPCIHL Champions
Univ. of Louisiana - Lafayette - SWHL Champions
Colorado State University - RMCRHA Champions
UC - Santa Barbara - WCRHL Champions

At Large Bids

UMSL - (15-5-0) All five losses to Lindenwood
Rutgers - (24-3-1) Two tough losses in playoffs, otherwise great regular season
Buffalo - (22-6-1) Three losses to Rutgers, Michigan State & Lindenwood
North Texas - (17-6-0) Three Losses to LSU and one apiece to Lindenwood, UMSL & ULL
Florida - (13-7-1) Three Losses to Central Florida and one loss against DII Florida Atl.
LSU (19-8-0) Key wins at end of season against North Texas
Long Beach State (16-6-2) Northern Conference Regular Season Champions
Ohio State (16-7-0) Three Losses to Michigan State and one loss to Rutgers
Towson (19-7-2) Key victories against Ohio State and Buffalo in last month of season
UC Irvine (14-8-2) Key victories against Colorado State and UC Santa Barbara (2)
UNLV (13-8-4) Reached WCRHL Finals with wins against San Diego St. and UC Irvine
Mizzou (11-8-1) 6 of their losses are to Lindenwood and UMSL
Michigan (13-10-1) 8 losses were to Michigan State or Ohio State
Texas Tech (12-11-2) 6 losses to ULL or North Texas, beat LSU in only regular Season match
Florida International (14-11-2) 7 of their losses were to UCF and Florida, two losses to EMU
Sam Houston St (12-10-1) 5 of their losses were to ULL, UNT and LSU, also beat LSU and ULL
NC State (10-7-2) 2 losses to UCF

Almost there but couldn't reach the .500 mark (and we do not feel that if you can't get to a .500 mark than you shouldn't be in the postseason)

Penn State, San Diego State, Arizona State, Stony Brook

Didn't have a chance

Eastern Michigan, Cal Poly, Texas A&M, Missouri S&T, West Point, Middle TN State, UConn, East Carolina, Texas, Texas - Arlington, Western Michigan, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Hofstra, New Orleans, CSU Northridge

You will all notice that the Southwest has the most seeds in our teams, unfortunately I highly doubt the committee will give them more than the top three (ULL, LSU and NT) but the other teams (Sam Houston and Texas Tech) have a higher GF/GA average and higher strength of schedule than the four bubble teams from the east and west. The only teams that we feel could be interchangeable are NC State and Penn State just due to the fact that Penn State played in eight more games over the course of the season against a tougher division.

SlammHockey Power Rankings

Instead of putting out the Power Rankings for this coming week we have decided to do a recap of our weekend in Feasterville and give our Game Summaries from all of the ECRHA Divisional Finals. These recaps will be released on Tuesday afternoon at the same time the Power Rankings are usually released. On Tuesday evening our NCRHA Official Rankings will be posted on the site and then on Wednesday our IP Rankings will be available online.

Next Sunday evening we will make our predictions on which teams will come out of each region and make it to the NCRHA National Championships.

Please continue to check out www.slammhockey.com for all your inline hockey updates.

ECRHA Division 1 Regionals

We were able to get a cheap flight into Philadelphia on Friday night and enjoy a great weekend of hockey this past weekend in beautiful Feasterville, PA. Please see the links belwo to check out all of the action from the weekend in Division 1 ECRHA action.

Pool Play - Morning Session

Pool Play - Afternoon Session

Pool Play - Evening Session

Quarterfinals

Semi-Finals

Finals

ECRHA Regional Predictions

Please visit the link below to visit our Tournament Brackets. Accessing this link will also allow you to predict the ECRHA Regionals Single Elimination Tournament.

ECRHA Division 1 Playoffs

ECRHA Division 2 Regionals

ECRHA B Division Regionals

All teams will be input into the bracket as soon as the teams seedings are determined. The deadline for predicitions will be at Division 1 will be 10:59PM EST, Division 2 will be 7:59PM EST, B Division will be 8:59PM EST, please sign-in to see how well you pick all of the games.

RHA vs. USA Hockey Inline

The battle has just begun between the RHA and USA Hockey Inline and everyone can expect it to come to a rink near you in the next 6 months. With tournament season right around the corner and the people on the forefront of the Inline Hockey industry starting a mutiny against USA Hockey Inline, expect for things to heat up between these two organizations.

Earlier this week USA Hockey posted a message up on the USA Hockey Inline webpage stating where they stand with Inline Hockey in the United States. The mention that they have "always been committed to the long term growth and development of roller hockey and we will continue to work with and welcome with open arms any groups or individuals that share our ideals and long term goals in an effort to promote and grow of the greatest game in the world, HOCKEY!"

Now this is a complete fabrication of what USA Hockey has done for the sport of inline hockey. If anything USA Hockey has turned their back on players, coaches, facilities and fans of inline hockey in the United States. When was the last time that you heard USA Hockey was going to promote the sport at higher levels, so the players of inline hockey will have something to play toward. They do support the NCRHA, but the RHA supports them as well, so we are not sure who is actually sanctioning the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association. I live in a community of 500 thousand people, with a large arena that was the only sheet of ice in a 100 mile radius of the rink. Now that the arena cannot afford to keep ice hockey due to the rising energy costs and the lack of a professional hockey team, where do you think all of the players that were playing are going? Don't know........either do I. But it seems that it would be pretty easy for a sanctioning body to come into the area, work the the Sports Association and find out how to grow the sport of hockey in this area. Not ice hockey, but hockey in general.

The brass at USA Hockey have made the United States a power house in the terms of ice hockey, with the constant oversight, working with leagues and officials around the world, and creating something that someone can be proud of playing. With this they have also extended the ice hockey season to where even the casual ice hockey player, can't commit to playing on their local inline team due to time commitments. If they want to truly grow the game of hockey in general they need to look in the mirror and figure out what they can do to expand the sport into non-traditional hockey areas.

They have done that in major metropolitan areas, Los Angeles & Dallas, where a majority of the ice hockey players started playing inline hockey and gathered the skills that would allow them to compete in the game of ice hockey as well. A great example of this in the current inline hockey world is Itan Chavita, who grew up playing inline hockey and he excelled at the game at every level. From his base of inline hockey Itan has been able to play the game of Ice Hockey at the Minor professional level and I guarantee that a majority of people in the inline hockey community support Itan wherever he should end up playing at. Now USA Hockey has cut back on their grass roots marketing of the sport in certain areas for certain reasons. Whether it is the economy in the traditional ice hockey areas and the membership declining because more and more people are getting their Line's of Credit cut back on their homes, so they can't afford to have their children run around the country playing hockey for 10 - 15 thousand dollars.

Why not make a huge push into the south; South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. Make Inline Hockey the only point of conversation in each of these areas and develop ways to grow the game from the Inline Hockey side, rather than try to grow the area with ice hockey and then create inline players from there. The regional directors should be going around recruiting members of the hockey community to help them reach players that grew up playing football, basketball, baseball and soccer, and show them how great of a game hockey truly is.

The evolution of hockey is currently into its second century (not based on how the Native Americans, played before the Eurpoeans got here) and the game of inline hockey is currently in its third decade, having the 1990's as their hayday. Imagine if the sport of ice hockey's hayday was in its second decade of the sport, we would have no National Hockey League, no arenas, and only some guys playing on the pond in suit with handlebar moustaches. Really!

We can't give up on inline right now, we should be promoting it because of the cost differential and the ability to play anywhere, not just in a rink. I encourage you to call USA Hockey, send them emails, let them know that there are people out there that truly care for the sport of inline hockey and we don't feel that they do enough for us.

SlammHockey Rankings

The SlammHockey NCRHA Division 1 rankings are complete, but unfortunately you will have to wait to the regularly scheduled time on Tuesday afternoon.

For all your official SlammHockey Rankings please visit our SlammHockey Collegiate site here.

PIHA teams Suspends Operations

Now we know that this should be on the professional page, but lets be serious here, I haven't had time to put a lot of work into the PIHA page, so here is some basic information about what transpired with the South Carolina Pirates. The Pirates at one time were the new kid on the block in the Professional Inline Hockey Association, they brought in Chris Havelock (who is a great kid) and with Doug Jones running it it seemed to be a good thing for South Carolina. But from the looks of the website this is old news.

From the January 23rd news from PIHA

It was sad news that was announced to the players who attended team practice Thursday evening that the franchise was suspending it's operations.

The SC Pirates have suspended team operations for the remainder of the 2008 - 2009 season. Financial woes and failed committments by several sponsors forced the team to stop operations in fairness to the other teams in their division and league.

"I had a long discussion with Charley Yoder and Jim Van Horn who were willing to work with us on keeping this going provided we could meet financial criteria and other items. Sadly, after the discussion, it would not be fair of myself to make promises I could not keep and or assure the league our team could meet these financial requirements. To expect other teams to spend money to come to our facility and play then be unsure we could commit to the dates due to the severe economic issues our state is having, would not be right or proper", Doug Jones, general manager had to say.

"The league, it's people and management have been extremely fair with us and we have every intent of returning for the 2009 - 2010 season as long as we can meet our financial, season ticket and sponsor goals. We also understand that PIHA will work with us and insure that this is a win/win for both the league and the Pirates", Jones finished.

"I am extremely disappointed that our attendance this year, (game 1, 308, game 2, 117, Game 3 107, Game 4, 84) has slowly declined. It is certainly not because of lack of effort or dedication", Jones continued.

"We want to thank everyone who has supported us to this point and been with us on the great year and a half we have had. As long as we can satisfy PIHA's requirements and they allow us to return", Jones ended.

Something New for February 3

Since Puxatony Phil saw his shadow this morning and the only thing that means is 6 more weeks of winter, we thought we would spice up the Power Rankings for February 3rd. Our SlammHockey NCRHA Division 1 Power Rankings will be released early afternoon on Tuesday, February 3rd. All of our rankings will be available at the SlammHockey - NCRHA Webpage.

ATTENTION: We are looking for game photos that we can post up on the site, if you have any that you would like to see up on SlammHockey, please pass them along to SlammHockeyOnline@gmail.com

We are also looking for story opportunities, if there are any inline hockey events that you would like for us to cover on the website, please email us and we will get it up on the site as soon as possible.

Professional

The SlammHockey professional inline hockey page has been updated, to view the page, please click on the professional link above.

Apologies

Please accept our apologies for the IP Rankings, we were not aware of having to give out permissions. Everyone should have access to the page, if not please email us at SlammHockeyOnline@gmail.com and we will forward the file as an attachment.

SlammHockey

SlammHockey NCRHA Rankings

For Complete SlammHockey NCRHA Division 1 Rankings please click here.

SlammHockey Rankings

Our SlammHockey Power Ten Rankings will be released on January 27, 2009 at 1:00PM CST

Our SlammHockey Complete NCRHA D1 Rankings will be released on January 27, 2009 at 6:00PM CST

The SlammHockey IP Rankings will be released on January 28, 2009 at 6:00PM CST.

For all of our complete rankings please visit our SlammHockey - Collegiate site.

Game of the Year!

Lindenwood Lions beats UMSL in the SlammHockey Game of the Week!

Lindenwood 4 - UMSL 3

More details to follow!

StateWars - WinterWars II

As you know SlammHockey is a huge supporter of inline hockey in any aspect, and we feel that supporting StateWars was a no brainer for us. For more information and links for the upcoming WinterWars II events, please click on our Tournaments Link at the top or click here.

For any questions regarding the StateWars series please contact Tim McManus at tim@statewarshockey.com.

SlammHockey NCRHA Rankings

For the latest SlammHockey Top Ten Power Rankings please click here.

For the full SlammHockey NCRHA Division 1 Rankings, please click here.

The SlammHockey IP Rankings will be released on January 21 @ 12:00 CST at the SlammHockey-NCRHA Webpage.

NCRHA GOW - Lives up to pre-game hype

SPARTANS WIN, SPARTANS WIN

West Bloomfield, MI - In a game which could very well be a preview of the MCRHL Division 1 League Championship, the Michigan State Spartans kept their perfect record intact with a 4 - 3 victory over the Buckeyes of Ohio State.

Please click here for the rest of the article.......

WCRHL - Fall Semester Summary

The 1st semester of College Roller Hockey has come to a close on the West Coast. This comes off the heels of the December 6-7 event, which was played at the 949 Roller Hockey Center in Irvine , CA and Coast 2 Coast Hockey in Huntington Beach , CA .

For the entire WCRHL article please click here!

SECRHL Fall Division Summary

While most other teams around the country are still covering up with thick winter coats, players in the Southeast have already started hitting the beaches and sporting board shorts and sandals. The fall semester concluded with some hard fought battles between old rivals and some newly found rivalries which should lead to an interesting spring semester.

For the remainder of the article please click here.

Roller Hockey Alliance - Is it just a cash grab?

As soon as I got back from a long and much needed holiday vacation on Saturday afternoon the first thing I have in my email inbox is a story about the new "Roller Hockey Alliance". Please, please, please, give me more than 30 seconds to enjoy the fun of unpacking and letting my daughter enjoy playing her new keyboard that Grandpa got her (The microphone that got shipped with it must of been a mistake....so that got sent back to the company that built the keyboard).

If you have had your head in the sand or too many beers over the past few days, here is a quick recap of what the "Roller Hockey Alliance" is planning on doing.

"The Roller Hockey Alliance has been created by many of the leaders within the roller hockey industry in an effort to help unite and grow the sport. RHA does not want to try to be “Everything to Everybody”. Instead we want to offer assistance to others within the sport that share our vision. We are not worried about who gets credit for what, but instead focused on the end result becoming accomplished, which is to grow and unite the sport." - taken from the Roller Hockey Alliance Website.

What I feel that this means is that they are going to try to be the governing body of Inline Hockey throughout North America. They want to help grow the sport by offering assistance to rink owners, coaches, players and officials. And they would like everyone that takes advantage of this service to pay for it.

My initial thought of this was that it was about time that someone took the time and effort to do something that USA Hockey is not willing to do. Invest time and energy into creating a governing body for inline hockey in the United States. As the RHA mentioned on their website, since the late 90's inline hockey in America has stalled, and a large reason for that is the inability to create a league structure that works. The sport definitely needs this in order to succeed.

After getting through the first page and going to the "About You" tab that mentions all of the people that are involved with the RHA, it got me immediately worried.

The first member that jumped off the page at me was Daryn Goodwin. For those who are not familiar with Mr. Goodwin, he is the President of NARCh, the absolute best tournament series that has ever been offered in inline hockey. The guy has made a brand that all tournaments should be held up to, he is a great salesperson and an even better event organizer. His tournaments are always top notch and you won't find many complaints about any of the people that work for him. Now a lot of you are thinking, you have all of these great things to say about Mr. Goodwin, what is the problem with him being involved. He is the ultimate capitalist, he took advantage (in a good way) of a void in the inline hockey community and has made a great deal of money from it. God Bless him! But out of all of the Board of Directors/Founders, he has the most to gain.

For example, at the 2008 NARCh finals they had 435 teams participate at $750.00 per team. That is a gross income of $326,250.00 or $296.86/game played. I know that all of that doesn't go to NARCh, but to the facility rental, referees, staff, etc. But I do know that all of the kickbacks from hotels, merch sales and concessions do go somewhere probably NARCh. So if we do the math and figure that each team on average carries 10 players, and they all have to pay a $30 fee for insurance, that brings an additional $130,500 into the mix.

This isn't even counting the 22 NARCh qualifiers and East Coast and West Coast Winternationals. When you think about inline hockey, you don't immediately think that this is still a multi-million dollar industry and about 40% - 50% of the industry either directly or indirectly is passed through NARCh.

The second name that jumped off the page was Tim McManus. Again, he is an asset to the inline (and now ice) hockey community with his Statewars events. They have been able to produce some spirited hockey and able to create obvious boundaries for each teams. It is an absolute great idea and I am sure that it will continue to flourish in the future.

But (and yes there is always a but) he does make a great deal of money of this company and has a lot to gain from the RHA. The have 26 states compete in StateWar's Roller Hockey and with having 27 divisions, that equates to the possibility of 702 teams. The catch is that each team charges $60 to tryout for the team, that is selected by a group of individuals called the USRHC, who are according to their website:

"The USRHC (United States Roller Hockey Commission) is a national roller hockey organization that was formed to act as the unbiased selection committee to choose the top roller hockey players in the United States. The USRHC will hold open state tryouts and will choose the best players in each age year to represent their home state at State Wars."

Then after the $60 fee for tryouts, the players that are chosen for their states, then have to pay $265 to play in the tournament. So if my math is right and we round down to 500 teams at 10 players a team and $265 to play just for the StateWars Tournament they would have a gross income of $1,325,000.00. Yes you did read that right... over 1 million dollars and this is not including all of the kickbacks that are mentioned along with the NARCh tournament. The catch is that each player that competes in a tryout will have to get the RHA certification, you are looking at an approximate number of 3,000 players that will just compete in tryouts at their state level or an additional $90,000.00 to be involved with the RHA.

The last person that I thought was interesting was Charley Yoder. Mr. Yoder has been a great asset to the inline community through the years and has been a stand up guy and his son CJ is the current highlight of the inline hockey world. Keep working Itan you are getting close! But Charley has had his run-ins with the rest of the inline hockey world. Everyone saw this hit the fan when the AIHL started up this year and a majority of teams bolted the PIHA in support of Keith Noll and his new elite league that pretty much operates in the same format as the PIHA has in the past. People have mentioned that it was due to money and people have mentioned that it was due to leadership, I have no idea what it was for, but there was definitely a reason. And for the PIHA to get into bed with RHA is only a benefit for them, they are going to get players that are insured through the RHA that don't want to go through multiple insurance's and will choose to play PIHA rather than the other leagues.

The last thing that caught my eye was the mention on the Inline Hockey Central website that mentioned that the RHA was a non-profit organization, but no where on the RHA site, does it mention that they are a non-profit organization. Are they currently an organization? Are they a 501 (c) 3? Do they currently have an insurance program?

The tournament series are what has made the inline hockey community become stagnant with rink owners unable to form formidable leagues, because the teams want to have their weekends in the summer to travel to play in these tournaments. In order for inline hockey to succeed there needs to first be a true professional inline hockey league so players can look to forward to something with inline hockey and the second is to have a grass roots system overall that can get more players introduced to the sport. You can find more of my views on this in this article.

Ultimately, a Roller Hockey Alliance can succeed, but it needs to be operated by members that will not have their wallets open as using this for another source of income for their operations. Times are tough right now all around the United States and we need to focus on developing a base of players that will be around for the next 30 - 40 years playing inline hockey.

Great Story

You won't find this story on ESPN, but I would encourage everyone to read this story. Click here for the story.

SlammHockey Game of the Week - Recaps

Well we got one of the Game of the Week games right, the game between UC - Santa Barbara and UNLV was a great game and one to build off of in the this young series. For the complete recap of this WCRHL match-up click here.

The other game was supposed to be the turnaround game for the Michigan Wolverines, but unfortunately it didn't live up to the hype that was created for it. Maybe it was the constant blizzard that was going through the West side of Michigan or maybe Michigan just got outplayed, we will never know. But for the game recap for this Midwest Collegiate Roller Hockey League match-up click here.

Stay tuned to SlammHockey's Collegiate site over the holiday season for more updates and features for the second half of the NCRHA season.

First 3 Weeks & the Youth Movement

Well I am proud to say that we have made in through twenty one days with few hiccups. It has been an experience for me, due to the fact that we really haven't had experience with maintaining a web page before. In the past we have always submitted stories and let the webmaster (a non-paid hockey player, that just wants to help out, but has a really cool title) take care of putting the articles online.

Now I don't have a journalism degree and I don't pretend to, but we are going to continue to work on writing quality articles that hopefully our regular readers will be interested in reading. In the upcoming weeks we have some ideas of things we want to write on, but are always looking for more. If you would like us to write on specific subject let us know.

It looks like the youth movement in the United States toward inline hockey is really starting to slow down. Back in the late 90's and early 21st century the inline population was growing almost uncontrollably, now that all of us (I say us, like I am in the 18 - 23 demographic) are starting to play in the men's divisions at NARCh and TORHS, and less and less people are playing in the U8 - U18 divisions. I personally see this as a major issue currently with our sport and the only way to fix it is to get role models for these younger kids. I remember going to the Motor City Mustangs games and watching guys like Tony Szabo and John Vecchiarelli move like I had nothing to see on a roller hockey rink before. Nothing against the guys that we have now,but watching CJ Yoder just isn't the same for some reason. Now an up and comer that could change the game with the likes that we haven't seen since the RHI days is Itan Chariva, he has sick hands and can play a physical game as well. This is the type of player that could be this generations equivalent of the past RHI stars.

Secondly, this sport needs to get into the mainstream of sports. If I worked for USA Hockey, I would be pushing the sport of inline hockey hard right now. Why you might ask......let's see. We are in an economic recession, so that means that parents discretionary spending is being cut right now. With ice costs going up and ice numbers declining, why not promote a cheaper and less equivalent version of ice hockey to our kids. The parents don't have to worry about checking, so less chance at liability. They can find used equipment to put on "little Johnny or Suzie", and the rink costs are as close to going out to a local neighborhood park as they have ever been. USA Hockey can increase their membership by going out into these larger communities and promote inline hockey.

Let say that USA Hockey does some free inline hockey camps, clinics and rink time in Detroit. Everyone knows about the economic stability in Detroit, there is none. So the number of players in the metro Detroit area has went down quite a bit, now the players that are playing in Detroit are players from a 150 mile radius just so they can be on top teams and their parents can still afford it. But overall if you can offer these house and low level travel ice players a comparable opportunity to play hockey but as a lesser cost, the parent should be excited. Granted these kids won't play for Belle Tire or Victory Honda, but they are going to continue to play hockey, rather than lacrosse or basketball.

In closing, we all need to do whatever we can to promote the sport of inline hockey to the younger age groups. My kids will grow up in hockey, ice or inline, not because their father is a hockey obsessed parent, but because hockey has taught me some very valuable life lessons, more so than other sports, and I want to make sure that my kids get to experience these life lessons as well.

Youth Teams Need Your Help!

If you are based in the Southeast please click here to see how you can help with the future of our sport.

SlammHockey's NCRHA Division One Power Rankings

1 Lindenwood 2.97755
2 UM - St. Louis 1.17914
3 Michigan St. 1.02144
4 Ohio State 0.86725
5 Central Florida 0.75034
6 Florida 0.69309
7 Rutgers 0.65611
8 Mizzou 0.60683
9 Colorado State 0.55008
10 Buffalo 0.43792

For complete information on our NCRHA Power 10 Rankings please click here.

SlammHockey looking for Ranking Committee

Based on overwhelming input from our readers during the first week of rankings, we have decided to add another ranking system that is human based ranking system rather than just computer based. We are looking for 50 members of our community to members of our "IP" (Inline Professors) Committee. This committee will be required to submit rankings on each Monday for the Top 15 Teams in the country.

The IP SlammHockey Rankings will be released on the Wednesday of each week following events and will be only for Division 1 this season. Anyone can be a member of this committee, all that is needed is an email with the following information:

Name
Age
Email Address
NCRHA Team (alumni or current), not required to be a part of the committee
Current City & State

Email that information to slammhockeyonline@gmail.com and we will send out confirmations and guidelines for these positions. These confirmations will be sent out after the first of the year in order to maximize our footprint for our IP Officials.

The "Community"

I absolutely love the Inline Hockey Community. Everyone who wants a voice, has one, and everyone who doesn't care, just goes with the flow.

Thank you for the overwhelming support for our first Collegiate Division 1 Rankings. We received over 40 emails from members of our community, either asking about rankings or just supporting what we are trying to do. Now along with all of the good mail, we did receive some of the negative mail, oh well!

We will be releasing our Week 2 Rankings and our Final Fall Semester Rankings on December 9th and hopefully we will have just as much input for that set of rankings.

A couple of things that we did not mention with the Week 1 Rankings was that all of our rankings are based on current season stats, it has absolutely nothing to do with past seasons. At the beginning of this season, each team in Division 1 had the opportunity to become number 1. Secondly, we chose not to do rankings for the other conferences this season, with the reason being that the initial time factor to set up the computer system to get each team, stats, weighed scores, etc. is way to extensive. After this season, where we have a firm grip on the input and output then we will re-review the process for the 2009 - 2010 season.

Other than the Rankings we are still looking for people that are interested in offering some news, notes, scores, summaries, tournaments, rink news, etc. to our site. We are 100% based out of the southeast and it is difficult to cover the entire United States inline hockey scene without help. We have had a couple of offers for team summaries and would like to get as many as possible to get the news out there about the sport. Without everyone's support for the community and the businesses within the community we are destined to stay stagnant.

I will be updating this spot on a daily basis, with the recent addition of our second child, my sleepless nights will hopefully amount to some good thoughts.

SlammHockey's NCRHA D1 Power Rankings

SlammHockey's NCRHA Division 1 Power Rankings

#1 - Lindenwood 2.97749
#2 - Michigan State 1.68373
#3 - Univ. of Michigan 1.66962
#4 - UM - St. Louis 1.17911
#5 - Ohio State University 0.88240
#6 - Central Florida 0.75047
#7 - Univ. of Florida 0.69323
#8 - Rutgers 0.65616
#9 - Univ. of Missouri 0.60666
#10 - UC - Irvine 0.59479

Click here for the Full Story Regarding the SlammHockey December 2nd Power Rankings

For complete NCRHA Division 1 Rankings please click here.

Part Three - Two Requirements

The so-called inline hockey experts say that a professional inline hockey league needs to participate through the winter months and should also be a non-check league. My personal response to that is.......YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.

In order to be able to attract the best hockey players, (notice it says hockey; not inline hockey) is to be able to compete during the summer months. This off-season will give players that are currently playing in the IHL, ECHL and the CHL an opportunity to make some money during the off-season. One thing that a lot of people don't realize is that the players in these leagues are making anywhere from $300 - $700 a week. Granted they mostly have good benefits in housing, meals and other perks, but really on average these guys are making $15,000 a season playing professional hockey. Making this kind of money all of these players have jobs during the off-season, either working back in their hometowns or in the cities that they are playing in. Whether it is working at the pro shops, doing camps at the rinks, picking up odd jobs or even working construction, they all are doing something to supplement their income.

Now if you gave these guys a choice where they could continue to play hockey, stay in shape, and make the same kind of money they do during their ice season, most of them would say yes. They will take the $300 - $500 a week competing in front of a couple of hundred or thousand people. This also would give them an opportunity to stay in the towns that they are playing minor league hockey or give them a chance to play closer to home in front of more friends and family. Either way it is a win-win for these guys.

Secondly, if you take out checking in the professional inline hockey games you are making it too much like every other inline hockey league out there. People say that checking doesn't belong in inline hockey, and it doesn't for people like you and me that aren't even close enough skill wise to play professional hockey. The same falls for ice hockey, I personally don't want to get beaten up in my men's league and then go to work the next day. But professionals are getting paid to go out there and compete, not to be "nancy's".

If you offer a professional inline hockey league that doesn't offer full contact and the opportunity to have a fight, then fans won't come to the games. They want something different than what they can see at the local rink with the studs that can play without contact. The game really needs contact, not at the rec or semi-professional level, but at the level where guys actually get a paycheck.

These two items are crucial to any professional inline hockey league and both of them need to be incorporated into the league structure in order to be able to succeed.

Why, Why, Why.............

No.....this isn't a blog about the 1994 US Figure Skating Championships, in which Nancy Kerrigan........ Ok, I took that a little too far, I really don't pay that much attention to Women's Figure Skating (insert smart comment here).

Over the past couple of weeks, since I decided that one of my most recent callings is to promote the game of inline hockey, rather than try to change people's ideas regarding the sports, I have noticed the lack of communication from everyone regarding the sport. Now if I search Professional Hockey, a ton of hits come up, with 99% of them being relevant, but if I search Professional Inline Hockey, I get less than a page. I mean really less than one page of relevant hits.

As I mention in the About Us tab on the front page, we (collectively as inline hockey fans) owe a ton to Richard Graham and what he has done for the sport. He has truly made one site where everyone in the inline hockey community goes to check on the news, notes, information and what each other has to say about the sport. His site really offers everything to the inline hockey player or follower. I know when I promote inline hockey, Richard's name is usually the first or second name that comes up.

What IHC doesn't have, due to the lack of people willing to submit summaries, is a section to find out about games and who did what and how the outcome was reached. This is something that Bill Raue is a legend at, by creating something out of absolutely nothing. Bill was able to generate a little bit of respect just by putting together programs and talking about the outcome of the game. If one team was all there and the other team showed up with 4 players, no equipment and a 350 pound "team mom" you wouldn't know about it from the write up. It was always about talking it up, the only people who knew the truth were the players and the people that were there.

When you think about it, how are we supposed to grow the sport when all that is put out there is "COME PLAY IN OUR TOURNAMENT/LEAGUE"and then nothing comes up on the backside after the tournament is done. The Administrators have collected their checks, (which is most important to 95% of them) and already thought about putting on their next event, no follow up or anything. If there was a simple little write up on the Division Finals it would make a big difference in every one's eyes. A dad is going to tell his friends that Billy scored a goal in the Finals and that they can find the write-up at http://www.narhs.com/.

The "professional leagues", and as you see, I even call them Professional on this site, rarely put out pregame reports about big upcoming games against their rivals or post game reports just mentioning how the outcome of the game went in less than 6 sentences. Really.....I can put a write-up on a game without viewing one in over a year.


*****For illustrative purposes only*****
DENVER, CO - The Denver Blades defeated the Colorado Springs Thunder 12 - 9 last night in Professional Inline Hockey League (PIHL) action. The Blades, who are 4 - 1 in their last 5 games were lead by Johnny Smith with 5 goals and 2 assists. Backstopping the effort for the Blades was Robert King who had 46 saves including 14 in the final six minutes to get the win. The Thunder fall to 4 - 10 on the season and have a 10 day break prior to hosting the Utah Falls on Wednesday, December 12th in Colorado Springs. The Blades next home game will be on Sunday, December 9th against the visiting Los Angeles Rebels. For more information regarding the Denver Blades or the PIHL, please visit www.pihl.com.

I mean really it's not that hard to put together something short and sweet that you can either; 1) email out to your teams fan base; 2) send to local media outlets; or 3) post online somewhere. At least it gets the information out there and if someone searches professional inline hockey hopefully a few of these would come up on the first or second page.

The Collegiate teams I give a little more leeway to. I mean by day these guys are students and hockey players and at night they turn into 18 - 23 year old kids who want to (in no particular order) drink, hang out with friends, go to the bar, get laid, study (I might be giving too much credit on this one). So if they have a hard time putting together a paragraph or two describing what happened on the rink I can understand, but maybe two guys could work on it on the ride home. Then post it on a web page or submit it to the school paper or send it to someone to post it online it would greatly increase the chances of this sport succeeding.

We all need to work together in order to make this sport successful and more mainstream. You think it is a waste to post something online or publish something in the newspaper that 90% of the population won't read, but if one or two people read it and pass it along to others then that is how the following starts. We need to get people in place that care about the sport and the future of it in order to continue this growth, especially at the youth and collegiate levels.

Vote for Thomas

Once again Tim Thomas isn't getting any respect, guy has the second best Goals Against Average and the best Save Perentage in the NHL and he can't even get his name on the ballot?

It looks like fans in Beantown are starting a campaign to get him in the All-Star Game.

Please click on this link to vote Tim Thomas a write-in vote for the 2009 All-Star Game.

Part Two - Organizational Structure

The initial set-up of the League Operations and Structure is the most important part of the start-up process in the upcoming professional inline hockey league. Without a well oiled machine at the base of the new league, everything else will not be able to have a solid foundation to build from.

The ideal League Operational Structure would be to have a group of four to five investors all with their own niche (legal, web, sales, marketing and hockey operations) would be able to bring their own speciality to the table. All of these partners would need to be proficient in all other aspects in order to find how their ability would be co-existing with the rest of the members of the League Operations. Each one of the partners will need to put forth not only their time in the beginning, but also a sum of money that would go toward the equal stock purchase in the operating entity. The ultimate goal for each one of these partners is to be able to come up with an initial $20,000.00 investment and an additional $20,000.00 letter of credit from a certified financial institution. With having $100,000.00 in immediate liquidity it would let the company work off strict budgets until we are ready to obtain investor-operators after the first year of League Operation Structure.

Yes, League Operation Structure will take anywhere from 12 - 18 month prior to being able to promote our product to potential investor-operators. In this 12 - 18 month period all of the organizational documents (leases, contracts, feasibility studies, marketing plans, player development & recognition) will take place in order to cut down the time that the actual investor-operators will have to work on the paperwork and be able to put a product in their rinks. All of the league and game operations will be put into place also in this 12 - 18 month time frame, but will be open for final approval on all items with the initial investor-operators that are involved in the league. This route will at least give the league a working outline in order to plug in and remove items rather than start from scratch.

Each of the initial four to five investors would have equal say in everything that is involved with the initial league process and all will have an equal vote prior to the investor-operators coming into place. Proceeding the addition of investor-operators, the initial league entity will vote on a President that will vote on the league entity's behalf in all organizational meetings.

The President will be the only initial League Operator that will be on the company payroll, while all other initial investors will sit on the Board of Directors and will get compensated from these meetings as well as from profit made from the business. We imagine that only one or two of these investors will be interested in becoming the league President.

Finally, the organizational structure will be committed to putting together that best possible business plan for the company to be a success in the first five years of operation, whether it takes 24-30 months to get off the ground, that will be entirely in the hands of the investment group and will make sure that everything discussed in kept confidential until there is a 100% completion rate on all items. We will not have leaks like President-elect Obama's transition team.

Part One - League Structure

Overview - How to Build a Professional Inline Hockey League