Wildest Dreams
UMSL Inline Hockey to become part of UMSL Athletics
GPCIHL June 15th, 2008 at 2:01AM June 15th, 2008 5:05AM
The UMSL Inline Hockey Club will become UM-St. Louis' first club sport this fall, and thus will become part of the UMSL Athletic Department in time for the '08-09 season.
The transition is still in its early stages, while Athletic Director John Garvilla carefully researches the sport of inline hockey as he plans the future of the club and assembles the staff for '08-09. His goal is a national championship.
Big Dreams Come True
May 11, 2007 -- Six-time national champion Chris "Pops" Marchand becomes the second head coach in UMSL Inline Hockey history.
Aug. 15, 2007 -- In a watershed development if ever there were one, superstar recruit PJ Tallo shocks the roller hockey world and enrolls at UM-St. Louis instead of Lindenwood. As expected, Tallo would be UMSL's best player on his way to being named first team IRC All-America in his freshman season. Thanks in large part to Tallo, UMSL now finds itself eyeball-to-eyeball with the mighty LU.
March 2, 2008 -- One day after a humiliating 11-2 loss that left the Tritons searching for hope, one game changes everything. After altering their strategy during the pregame huddle, the Tritons pull off an incredible 6-4 upset of Lindenwood in the GPCIHL DI championship game. By winning, the Tritons snap LU's record win streak at 109 games and claim the Great Plains Division I championship in their first year as a DI team. Newcomers score five of the six goals for the Tritons. Tallo's late-game winner stands right next to Dory's Goal in UMSL Inline Hockey history.
April 12, 2008 -- In front of a standing-room-only crowd at Tour Arena in Colorado Springs, the crown jewel of U.S. inline hockey venues, UMSL plays in the NCRHA Division I national championship game. Despite losing 6-3 to Lindenwood, UMSL represents itself quite well on the big stage, and may go down as the biggest story in the sport of roller hockey for the year 2008.
After a quick and stunning emergence that saw UMSL achieve more than one wildest dream type of goal in one year's time, the Roller Tritons will once again take a step forward as an organization.
For some, including Coach Marchand and club EVP Ben Lambert, the guiding light of the program for the past two seasons, the future is uncertain. But no matter what happens -- as I wrote back in August -- UMSL Tritons Inline Hockey is here to stay.
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Signing off...be it forever, or just for a short while...
Forever loyal...always a Triton...
"The Man Behind the Curtain"
(Thanks Will.)
James Lambert
