By Kayla Oxford, Staff Writer
According to the Advanced Technologies Academy website, people have played stick and ball games since ancient times. It is believed that hurling, an Irish stick game, and lacrosse, a Native American stick game, influenced the game we now know as hockey.
While it is most common to think of hockey played on ice with ice skates and a puck, roller hockey is played with a ball and roller blades.
The floor hockey tournament held on campus Feb. 6-8 was played on foot.
The tournament included seven teams that consisted of 60 participants altogether, and while the option to play was open to any student, only men signed up to play.
The three-day long tournament was held from 7-10:30 p.m. each night in the E.T. “Rocky” Palmer Student Activities Complex. It was hosted by Dustin Donnor, Wellness Services operations manager, and Trey Collier, Wellness Services graduate assistant.
“This tournament was just for fun, and there were no prizes given out,” Donnor said.
The tournament drew spectators as well as players.
“Monday, there were probably 50 people watching,” Collier said. “There was pretty much no room left.”
Teams played in a double-elimination style tournament to determine a champion.
“Everyone played two games on Monday, and one team was eliminated; four teams were eliminated on Tuesday, and the championship was Wednesday,” Donnor said.
Team Dy-nasty walked away champions of the tournament after beating The Donnor Party. Team Dy-Nasty included senior electrical engineering major Nathan Peterson, senior business administration major Thomas Willis, senior mechanical engineering major Ryan Substad, senior sports management major Kevin Ung, senior electrical engineering major Thomas Drury, senior digital media studies major Joseph Ladisa, junior sports medicine major Jacob Long and sophomore business administration major Cody Styx.
“We were not really out here to win,” Styx said. “We just wanted to have fun.”
Experience ranged from player to player. The tournament gave an opportunity to have fun and improve their skills.
“I grew up playing hockey (back home),” Peterson said. “It gives a chance to play something we don’t usually play down here.”
This is the fourth floor hockey tournament the Wellness Center has hosted.
Players and spectators seemed to enjoy themselves and, in the words of Collier, “It was awesome.”
