If there is one thing Alex Payne, a senior journalism major from Arvada, is passionate about, it is inline hockey.
“I started playing when I was six and was playing street hockey with my cousins when I was four,” said Payne. “My parents could never afford ice hockey so I just got into roller because it was cheaper.”
On April 15, Payne was notified that he was awarded the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Associations (NCRHA) Outstanding Contribution to Collegiate Roller Hockey Award for his contributions to the league and his overall performance.
Payne is a forward on the Denver Pioneers Club Inline Hockey Team, which he has been playing on for four years. The team practices in the Gates Field House on the sport court.
Inline [Roller] hockey is played with rollerblades rather than skates and involves less checking, which is a defensive move in hockey that involves using the body to knock an opponent down when they have the puck.
The award is given to a player from each of the seven National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association’s Member Organizations, which includes over 2,000 players, who best exemplifies leadership qualities—on and off the rink—and has made a noteworthy contribution to the advancement of Collegiate Roller Hockey.
Over the course of his four years at DU, Payne has transformed the Club Inline Hockey team.
“The main thing that I changed was the attitude of the team,” said Payne. “When I started, it was just something that the people on the team did and they didn’t care about at all.”
He participated in Club Inline Hockey as a freshman, and as a sophomore he became president of the team and made significant changes to further develop the team.
“Sophomore year is when I recreated the team from the bottom to the top because I had to make a new constitution and all that,” said Payne. “When I was president, we wanted to have fun and we wanted to win. That was our goal from the start and it was for this year as well. It is something that I hope will stick with the next group of guys.”
Through his hard work, DU’s team is now ranked top 20 in the nation, they have won the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Roller Hockey Association preseason tournament and they qualified for the NCRHA national championship.
“Freshman year, I wasn’t planning on playing roller hockey for DU because I didn’t want my grades to slip or anything like that,” said Payne. “But when sophomore year came around, I had a different mindset. I started the program with my friends and it was the best year that I ever had playing hockey.”
Payne is ranked number 11 in leading scorers from Division II for this past season and has finished as the leading scorer in Rocky Mountain Region for the past three years.
The team went to Nationals during Payne’s sophomore year and were the only Colorado team there, according to Payne.
Although they qualified for the National Championship in Fort Meyers, Fla. this past 2012-2013 season, the team’s goalie was unable to participate and so they could not play.
“I was hoping to have that experience [nationals] this year but we weren’t able to,” said Payne. “The best experience I have had with Roller Hockey was when we went to Nationals sophomore year because it was the greatest time we have ever had playing and we were having fun and winning.”
Although Payne is graduating this spring, he still plans on playing for different teams in Colorado and his goal is to try out for the Team USA Roller Hockey Team. He is looking forward to what next year’s DU Club Inline Hockey Team will do.
“I’m starting to pass the torch on to Kevin Davis for next year,” said Payne. “I feel there is a lot of interest heading into next season because of the success we shared this season. I am excited to see what they do. I told my mom after I won this award that I want to come back to school now and still play.”
