Roller Hockey Arrives at SJC Long Island

December 04, 2015

When you're a school like SJC Long Island, there are benefits and drawbacks. A drawback? No roller hockey club team. Benefit? The ability to start a roller hockey club team within a semester, and have a squad in place playing games throughout that winter.

Thanks to the initiative of marketing major Joseph Tedesco '18 and the diligence of fellow marketing major Chris Carleo '17, this fall the roller hockey club went from idea to reality — with the help of President Jack P. Calareso, Ph.D., Vice President of Student Life Rose Mary Howell, Ph.D., and the admistration at SJC.

Joe and Chris recently spoke to us about the new roller hockey club, its phenomenal growth and the future of the squad.

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Chris Carleo '17
Captain • Defense, #16 
 

Joseph Tedesco '18
Assistant Captain • Goalie, #96

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What was the inspiration behind the creation of the team?

A single flyer in the hallway in the basement of the Business & Technology Center would have to be the inspiration. Joseph Tedesco had put a flyer up on the board looking for people interested in trying to start a roller hockey team so I gave him a call. I have several good friends who play on the club roller hockey team at Hofstra University. They play in the Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association (ECRHA), a member conference of the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association (NCRHA). I talked to Joe about this idea and we basically decided we would work together and see what we could do.

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Who was the creative force behind the club?

Once we discussed how we might get this team going and seek approval by the school, we went to work. Joe kept looking for players interested while I emailed both the faculty at the college as well as league officials. 

As I said, Joe had put the flyer up to drum up some interest. Once we discussed how we might get this team going and seek approval by the school, we went to work. Joe kept looking for players interested while I emailed both the faculty at the college as well as league officials. After finding enough students interested in playing to form a full roster, Joe and I worked on creating a proposal in order to possibly be approved by the school. In terms of designing the jerseys; I was bored one night and sketched out a design. Joe and I decided that if we do get approval by the school, these jerseys would be perfect. I had a friend create them on the computer and later they were manufactured by Labeda. Joe and I worked together on a lot of the steps leading up to final approval.

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What was involved in the process of getting the club team together and approved by the school?

Getting all of the guys together was not as hard as we thought. Once you get a couple students interested in something they happen to know someone else who might be interested. Then they know another person, so on and so forth. Getting approval by the school was a tricky situation. SJC obviously has a well established NCAA sports program, and a very organized Student Government Association which oversees a number of clubs. The problem was in the fact that the idea of a club sport, in our case a roller hockey team, would not fall under the jurisdiction of either of those organizations.

Getting all of the guys together was not as hard as we thought. Once you get a couple students interested in something they happen to know someone else who might be interested. Then they know another person, so on and so forth. 

After speaking with several school officials on both sides it seemed as if we would not be able to start the team because there was no place to put us on an organizational level. After contacting President Calareso, we were placed under the supervision of the Vice President of Student Life, Dr. Howell. Since we gained approval, Dr. Howell has exceeded my expectations in terms of helpfulness. She is constantly available if I need an answer about a question and if she does not have the answer right away she always gets back to me as soon as she knows. Her willingness to help get this team off the ground as well as her excitement towards the new program has made this process a lot easier for Joe and me. It was a lot of hard work for me and Joe but knowing that we have someone like Dr. Howell on our side makes it that much easier.

[Dr. Howell's] willingness to help get this team off the ground as well as her excitement towards the new program has made this process a lot easier for Joe and me. It was a lot of hard work for me and Joe but knowing that we have someone like Dr. Howell on our side makes it that much easier.

Islanders or Rangers?

That’s a personal opinion. Joe and I are diehard Islanders fans, but it is probably split 50/50 Islanders and Rangers if you ask the rest of the guys.

Where do you play? How can the fans keep up with the team online?

Right now our record for the regular season is 1-5, but we hope to have a strong second half and make a push for regionals which would be held in Feasterville, PA in March. 

We play our games over the course of six weekends from October to March. We have played one preseason weekend in Feasterville, PA, as well as two regular season weekends in Harrisburg, PA, and North Arlington, NJ. In February we will travel to Grove City, PA, before closing out the regular season with a home weekend playing at Skatesafe America in Bethpage (Feb. 20-21). Right now our record for the regular season is 1-5, but we hope to have a strong second half and make a push for regionals which would be held in Feasterville, PA in March. Fans can follow live stats on the league website. Here they can also check out the player stats, results of previous games, and the schedule for upcoming games. We also have a Twitter account for the team. Here we give followers updates about games and announcements the team or league might have. 

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What’s next for the team? Any goals for the upcoming year?

Like I said, we are mid-season right now so were looking to have a successful second half of the season and maybe some success in the playoffs. After that, we are definitely going to focus on getting the teams name out there more and hopefully draw up even more interest from the students.

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Follow the men's roller hockey team on Twitter.  

For updates, game schedule and more, check out the team page.