While most kids grew up playing roller hockey with hand-me-down skates, plastic hockey sticks and a worn-down tennis ball, the Michigan club roller hockey team takes the pastime a bit more seriously.

For this group of Wolverines, strapping on their Mission HE 1500 roller skates with the newly designed Rink Rat rubber wheels is just a continuation of their childhood hockey days.

“A lot of the members of the team once played ice hockey in high school,” senior president Adam Goldberg said. “In fact, a lot of the members of the team played roller hockey in various leagues growing up as kids.”

Founded in 1999, the Michigan club roller hockey team competes in the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association, which has 200 member universities.

With both ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams, the 10th ranked Wolverines compete across the Midwest, playing 20-25 regular season games and often traveling on weekends to Illinois and Ohio.

For practice, the team rents out a rink at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield at least once a week throughout the regular season.

Unlike ice hockey, which requires five skaters on the ice per team, roller hockey has just four players, and no offsides or icing. But even with the different rules, transitioning between playing the two isn’t very difficult.

“Skill in roller hockey doesn’t necessarily correlate to how much ice hockey experience you have,” Goldberg said. “But it definitely takes time to transfer from ice to roller.”

Michigan’s conference, the Midwest Region Roller Hockey League, includes Michigan State, Ohio State and Eastern Michigan, all rivals that the Wolverines can’t wait to shove into the boards.

“We have some good rivalry games that get real intense,” Goldberg said. “It’s a lot of fun to beat a team like Ohio State in the rink.”

Last season, the Wolverines tallied a 15-5 record in the Midwest region and secured a Regionals berth in Wixom, MI for the 10th consecutive year. Michigan advanced to the Sweet 16, eventually losing to Florida.

With eight veterans lost to graduation after last season, the Wolverines are a much younger team this year. However, building on team chemistry and leadership from the returning players, the Wolverines are determined to return to Regionals, which will take place in West Bloomfield from February 27th-March 1st.

“We have some talented new kids,” Goldberg said. “We haven’t played in any college games yet so we’ll see how we are once the game starts but I’m confident we’ll play well. We’re building some great chemistry and really coming together as a team.”

Despite having classes to study for, stepping onto the rink representing the University of Michigan with a block ‘M’ on their chest drives the team to compete.

“We all love the competition and the ability to compete for the university of Michigan against other top schools in the country,” Goldberg said. “You could always play in some random Ann Arbor league, but the ability to represent your school is something special.