‘ There have
been times when
guys have yelled
at each other
after blowouts,
and that’s when
somebody steps
in and reminds
everyone that
we’re just here
to have fun.’
Luke Russ
lotte. Like many of his teammates on Carolina’s club hockey team, he could have
played varsity at a Division III school.
“I didn’t think it would be worth it to
go up to the middle of nowhere to play
hockey,” Russ said, “when I could come
here and it’s just as much fun.”
Not that Russ wasn’t serious about club
hockey. He even called the coach at UNC
before enrolling to chat about the team.
Unlike in water polo, hockey’s greater popularity requires students to try out for one
of its 20 roster spots — a roster filled with
“kids who grew up up North,” Russ said.
“We’re the only hockey team at UNC,”
Russ said. “So it’s not like we see ourselves
as a mediocre club team. We definitely
want to be competitive.”
But for a group of guys who came up
getting their daily comeuppance against the
boards, remembering that they’re not playing for the Stanley Cup, or even an NCAA
title, isn’t always easy.
“The first two years I played,” said Russ,
a senior who is also the club president, “it
was a little more difficult to dial it back.
Luke Russ, skating
hard against Temple
and showing it afterward, is in a game
that requires more of
a commitment — a
hockey player pays
$700 per season to
help rent an ice rink
in Hillsborough. But
then, these Tar Heels
don’t have a varsity
team to have to look
up to.
