Brendon Esquibel doesn’t mind playing roller hockey.

But it’s not the same as ice hockey.

So the former Presque Isle High School goaltender and several other former Eastern Maine high school players will be among those who will have the opportunity to play ice hockey again next winter as the University of Maine is sponsoring a club program.

According to Esquibel, the student government approved their petition to put a team on the ice and they will play in the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s Division II Northeast Region.

There will be 54 teams in the region. They won’t be able to qualify for the playoffs because they will be a first-year team.

They had an informal team this past year, playing one scrimmage against a team from a local men’s league.

And he was stunned by the amount of talent on his team.

“It blew me away. It was definitely the best team I’ve ever played on,” said Esquibel. “We had about 50 guys try out for 30 spots.”

Esquibel said he and his teammates are “real excited” about the opportunity to play for a formal club program.

“There are a lot of kids from Maine who want to keep playing hockey. One thing I learned very quickly is that once you graduate from high school, if you stay in Maine and go to a college like UMaine, there’s nothing you can do. That’s why I started this team,” said Esquibel, who will be a junior this fall.

“We’ll be getting funding but we’ll still have to do our own fund-raising. There are a couple of fund-raising paths we’re looking at,” added Esquibel. “I’m hoping the student government will cover the ice time for us.”

Esquibel said they already have 12-15 games on their schedule for next season and they are hoping to have 20 to 25 games.

“You have to have at least 20 league games,” said Esquibel, who added that the season-opener will be on Oct. 5 against the University of New Hampshire.

He said they will probably play most of their games on the road because the Alfond Arena is occupied by four teams: the University of Maine’s men’s and women’s varsity hockey teams and the men’s and women’s basketball teams.

The Orono and Old Town High School hockey teams also use the facility.

“We’ve got a couple of home games scheduled in Brewer [T.J. Ryan Center],” said Esquibel. “We’d love to play at the Alfond. It would be a good selling point to bring other teams up here. There’s a lot of tradition at that arena.”

The roller hockey team will also be back next season after the team reached the quarterfinals in the Collegiate Roller Hockey Association National Championships in Colorado.

Among the former Eastern Maine hockey stars who played roller hockey were Brewer’s Reid McLaughlin and Orono’s Tony Raymond.

The players will be able to play both roller hockey and ice hockey next season or they can choose to play just one, according to Esquibel.

“We’ll work out the schedule the best we can,” said Esquibel.

“It will be good to have both,” said McLaughlin. “I don’t know if I’ll play both but I think I will. There are a lot of teams in the [ice hockey] league and that’s good.”

lmahoney@bangordailynews.net

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