Ironworks Adult Roller Hockey League

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IRONWORKS ROLLER HOCKEY

ADULT INLINE LEAGUE • FALL 1999 SESSION
Sunday nights at the Ironworks Sports Center • No checking, 4-on-4, no excuses

*** WEEK 3 STANDINGS ARE UP *** WINTER SESSION SIGN-UPS OPEN NOVEMBER 1 *** GOALIES PLAY FREE *** HELMETS ARE NOT OPTIONAL, TONY ***

What's up, hockey people. Nick Bauer here, your commissioner, which is a fancy word for the guy who collects the checks and gets yelled at about the schedule. Welcome to the league page. I put this up so I can stop faxing the standings to eight different captains every Monday morning. Bookmark it. Tell your team. If it's on this page, it's official. If somebody told you something at the rink and it's NOT on this page, it's a rumor.

We're three weeks into the fall session and it's already the best one we've had. Sixty-four skaters, eight teams, two full games' worth of goalies, and only one guy thrown out so far (you know who you are, and you're welcome back in January if you can keep it together). Let's go.

STANDINGS -- after Week 3 (Sept. 26)

Team	W	L	T	PTS	GF	GA
Third Shift	3	0	0	6	19	7
Hammerheads	2	0	1	5	14	8
Blue Line Bandits	2	1	0	4	12	10
Rink Rats	1	1	1	3	11	11
Dead Legs	1	1	1	3	9	10
Puckheads	1	2	0	2	8	13
Mullet Brigade	0	2	1	1	7	15
Garage Sale	0	3	0	0	5	16

Two points for a win, one for a tie. Ties broken by head-to-head, then goal differential. Week 3 results: Third Shift 7, Garage Sale 1 • Hammerheads 4, Rink Rats 4 • Blue Line Bandits 5, Mullet Brigade 2 • Dead Legs 3, Puckheads 2. Third Shift is 3-0 and they are all guys who work nights at the plant and come straight from a shift, which is either why they're so good or why they're so angry. Garage Sale, hang in there -- you're the only team that's gotten better every single week and everybody knows it.

FALL SESSION SCHEDULE

All games Sunday nights. Four games a night: 6:00, 7:00, 8:00 and 9:00. Be on the rink and stretched ten minutes before your slot. The 9:00 game is over at 10 sharp because the rink guy wants to go home, and so do I.

Regular season (8 weeks): Sept. 12, 19, 26 • Oct. 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
Playoffs (top 4): Sunday, Nov. 7
Championship & consolation: Sunday, Nov. 14
Session party: Sunday, Nov. 21 at the rink -- open skate, pizza, trophy. Bring the family.

Yes, we play on Halloween. Costumes encouraged if you can skate in them and they don't have anything that could hurt somebody. No capes. I mean it about the capes; ask Dead Legs about last year.

Week 4 matchups (Oct. 3):
6:00 -- Garage Sale vs. Mullet Brigade
7:00 -- Puckheads vs. Rink Rats
8:00 -- Dead Legs vs. Blue Line Bandits
9:00 -- Hammerheads vs. Third Shift (the game of the session so far, be there)

The full eight-week grid is on the bulletin board by the skate rental counter. Captains, you all have the sheet. If you lose the sheet, e-mail me, don't call the rink; the rink doesn't know.

THE RULES (short version)

4-on-4 plus a goalie. Four skaters a side. Change on the fly.
NO CHECKING. None. Zero. This is a rec league, we all have to go to work Monday. Body contact that the ref thinks is on purpose is a 2-minute penalty; a second one in the same game and you're done for the night.
No slap shots. Stick blade stays below the waist on the backswing. Wrist shots and snap shots only. If you can't score with a wrist shot, that's a you problem.
No offsides, no icing. Just like every other inline league. It keeps the game moving and it means fewer whistles and fewer arguments with me.
Three 12-minute periods, running clock. Stop time in the last two minutes of the third if the game is within two goals. One 30-second timeout per team.
Penalties are 2 minutes, served, and your team plays 3-on-4. Majors (high sticking with contact, anything that looks like it was meant) are 5 minutes.
Fighting = out for the rest of the session, no refund. We have had exactly one of these in two years. Let's keep it at one.
Ties stand in the regular season. Playoffs go to a 5-minute sudden death, then a shootout.
The ref is right. Even when he's wrong. You can talk to me after the game. Politely. I've got a clipboard and I'm not afraid to use it.
Roster limit: 10 skaters + 1 goalie. Everybody on the ice has to be on the roster and paid up. No ringers. I know what your cousin looks like, Steve.

GEAR

HELMET: MANDATORY. NOT NEGOTIABLE. CHIN STRAP DONE UP. A hockey helmet, not a bike helmet. No helmet, no skating, and I will pull you off the rink in the middle of a shift and it will be embarrassing for both of us. Full cage or half visor is up to you -- I'll just say the guys who got hit in the mouth last session all wear a cage now.

Also required: hockey gloves, shin guards, elbow pads. A mouthguard is strongly recommended (they cost three bucks, your teeth cost more). Hockey girdle or pants, whatever you're comfortable in.

Goalies: full goalie gear -- mask, chest protector, leg pads, blocker, catcher. If you don't own gear, talk to me; the league has one full set we lend out for the session, first come first served.

Skates: inline hockey skates. If you show up on those fitness skates with the brake on the back, the ref will make you take the brake off before you play. That thing is a weapon.

Sticks: wood or aluminum, plastic blades are fine. The rink floor eats wood blades in about three weeks so most guys have gone to a plastic ABS blade. Tape your knob.

Jerseys: each team has a color. Bring a light shirt AND a dark shirt every week in case we get two teams in the same color, which happens more than it should because I'm bad at this.

FEES

$90 per skater per session. That covers 8 regular-season games, playoffs, the refs, the rink rental, the party pizza and the trophy that Third Shift will probably win. It works out to under ten bucks a game, which is cheaper than the movies and you get to hit a puck.

Goalies play FREE. Always have, always will. A league is only as good as its goalies, and goalies are hard to find, and goalies have to buy all that gear. If you are a goalie or you are willing to become one, e-mail me right now.

Checks or cash to your captain, captains get it to me by the second week or your team forfeits. No refunds after the first game, sorry, the rink doesn't give ME refunds either.

WINTER 2000 SESSION SIGN-UPS

The winter session starts Sunday, January 9, 2000 and runs 8 weeks plus playoffs, same format, same rink, same Sunday nights. (Yes, the year 2000. The rink runs on a clipboard and a whistle, so I'm not worried about the Y2K bug. My computer's another story.)

Sign-ups open Monday, November 1 and the session's full when it's full -- we cap it at 8 teams because that's what fits in one night. Fall teams get first crack until Nov. 15, then it's open to new teams and free agents. Free agents: e-mail me your name, position, how long you've been skating, and whether you can make 6:00 games. I'll put you on a team that needs a body. Don't be shy, half the league started as free agents. Fee is $90 again, goalies free again.

Want to start a team? You need 8 paid skaters and a goalie to hold a spot. Team names have to get past me and the rink manager. "Garage Sale" got through, so the bar is not high, but there is a bar.

THE RINK

The Ironworks Sports Center is the old roller rink out on Route 9 past the lumber yard -- the one with the blue roof. New owners put in a sport-court floor and real dasher boards in the spring of '98 and it made all the difference; before that we were playing on the wooden dance floor with plywood boards and taping our own lines. There's a snack bar (the fries are decent, the hot dogs are hot dogs), skate rental, a pro shop with tape, blades and wax, and a bench you can sit on while your knee stops hurting.

Open skate for kids is Saturday afternoons and there's a youth inline league on Saturday mornings if you've got kids who want to play. Ask at the counter. Sunday nights are OURS.

Other pages worth a look:
Kickflip Kyle's Skate Page -- the kid's got wheels, different kind.
Building a Backyard Halfpipe -- the Torres brothers. Don't try this with a hockey stick.
Over-40 Pickup Basketball -- for the guys whose knees have retired from hockey.
Back to the Pipeline neighborhood

Fans in the stands since August 1999:

E-mail Commissioner Nick
Standings arguments, free agent sign-ups, goalie volunteers (please). I check it Monday and Thursday nights.