Lace up those skates, tape that stick and get ready for some late-night intramural hockey.

Iowa State has offered ice hockey as an intramural sport annually since 1970, said Linda Marticke, intramural hockey sport coordinator. The sport offers student-officiated, competitive ice hockey to all students, faculty and staff of the university.

According to the intramural Web sites at the University of Iowa, Northern Iowa and Drake, Iowa State is the only major university in Iowa that offers intramural ice hockey. Iowa State offers three different skill levels to women and four levels to men.

“I think it’s a unique sport that a lot of people haven’t tried before,” Marticke said. “They give it a try and they really enjoy it.”

The preliminary and tournament games are all played at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena, where renting the rink can be expensive. Marticke said one hour of ice time costs $136 before midnight, and $102 after midnight. Because of the need for ice time, intramural hockey is one of the most expensive sports for Recreation Services to provide.

“The ice sports – broomball and hockey – are the most expensive by far,” Marticke said.

Although costly, there are 98 teams registered for intramural hockey this year.

Each team pays a $62 registration fee to help pay for the program, making hockey one of five intramural sports that charges a registration fee.

Marticke said those participants who do not have their own equipment are provided with a stick and a helmet, and are able to rent ice skates for $2.75 from the arena.

Alex Butera, junior in computer engineering, said because of the high costs to rent the rink, Rec services does a good job of making hockey affordable for students.

“Knowing that ice time costs a lot, being able to have all the equipment provided to you is nice,” Butera said.

Ryan Evans, junior in civil engineering, agreed that it’s convenient for students who don’t own hockey equipment.

“It’s reasonable,” Evans said. “You can’t play without the [equipment]. The whole point of intramurals is that everyone can play.”

Butera said offering different skill levels for students to choose from is a good idea.

“Having four leagues is good. You can play at ‘A’ league and be competitive, or you can play ‘C’ or ‘D’ league and not care,” Butera said.

Each game consists of three 8-minute periods of running clock, with 2-minute intermissions in between periods. Games are played Sunday through Thursday nights until March 29. Games begin at 8:45 p.m. Sunday nights and are played approximately every 45 minutes until the last game at 12:35 a.m.

On Monday through Thursday nights, games begin at 10:45 p.m., with a new game starting approximately every 45 minutes until 1:50 a.m. Marticke said the games are played late at night because it is the only time that Rec services can reserve the ice.

Students and faculty interested in joining may still do so, but players are required to participate in at least one of their team’s preliminary games in order to be eligible to play in the season-ending tournament in March.

For more information regarding intramural ice hockey, visit www.recservices.iastate.edu.