What started out as a possible nonexistence has turned out to be a big success for the ISU men’s roller hockey club.

Club president Dan Bumblauskas and captain Zack Anderson started the club three years ago, but the Collegiate Roller Hockey League didn’t think the club had the experience to compete in the league.

“Zack and I are both the ones that picked up the pieces and started this club,” Bumblauskas said.

“We finished in the top eight in Division II our first year, which is well above expectation. We went to Division I last year and picked up some more players and got a lot of incoming freshmen along with some sophomore guys,” he said.

Tryouts for the club occurred in the end of September and included about 20 players. The team has played eight games so far and their record is around the .500 mark.

“We should have lost only one of them. We’re having trouble having everyone on the same page,” Anderson said.

“We have played well and are giving ourselves a chance to win. We’ve had too many breakdowns. If the team makes some minor adjustments, then we will improve our record.”

Bumblauskas said the team is fairly young, and they should have a bright future ahead of them.

“We’re thinking of going to nationals again. We have a pretty good chance. We haven’t played to our ability yet,” he said. “We have to get a lot of the younger guys to play. We haven’t really jelled as a team. We’ve played some good games and have some rough ones, too. We’ll come together as the year goes on. We usually start off slow, and once we [get] the hang of playing with each other, we’ll pick it up.”

Since there’s no roller hockey facility in Iowa, the team travels to the St. Louis, Mo., area to play.

“There used to be a facility in Des Moines, but they tore it down,” Bumblauskas said. “Last year we played in a tournament in Des Moines, but they tore it down this summer. Right now, they’re breaking [ground] on a rink just southeast of Towers.”

The rink is scheduled for competition in mid-November. Also in the planning is an intramural roller hockey team in the future.

Bumblauskas said the club is in the Great Plains Division and that the CRHL is well organized.

The league the club is in plays from October through the end of February.

“There’s two national tournaments. There’s one in January, which is Winter Nationals, and that’s in Las Vegas,” Bumblauskas said.

“In the beginning of April is the one for the CRHL and that one will be played somewhere in the East Coast. Last year in Las Vegas, we did pretty well. We did a lot better then most people expected.”

There is some tough competition in the club’s division.

“In our division, we play teams like Indiana, Missouri-Columbia and other big-name schools,” Bumblauskas said.

“Lindenwood University is the defending national champion. They’re the only team that offers some sort of scholarships to roller hockey players. We actually beat them last weekend because they were missing some of their key players.”

Bumblauskas said roller hockey isn’t supposed to have that much more hitting than ice hockey, but the league lets things slide.

“It’s pretty rough. It’s not suppose to be physical. It’s a faster-paced sport,” he said. “There’s no offside and icing which usually stop play in ice hockey. It’s four-on-four plus one goalie, and it opens the floor more. There’s more speed and puck control in roller hockey.”