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Place for fun: Wolfpack a perfect spot for college-aged players

Provided photo Michigan Tech’s Drew Eaton controls a puck before looking to give it to one of his defensemen during a game this season against the Northern Michigan club team at the Berry Events Center in Marquette.

HOUGHTON — Elijah Tormala is a sophomore mechanical engineering major and the co-president of the Michigan Tech Wolfpack men’s hockey club team. The group prides themselves on being a more relaxed team while still being competitive for weekend contests.

“We’re a laid-back version of the varsity team,” he said. “All of us love playing it at a pretty good compete level. However, we’re not as dedicated to hockey as the Division I team, as they are probably practicing everyday and working all the time. We usually practice two times a week and then we play games on the weekends.

“We’re a little bit less serious. We like to have fun at our practices. (There are) still some serious practices as far as doing drills, but it’s a little bit more relaxed. We’re all run by the students that are on the team. We do have one coach, however the team is run by (elected officers) and we push ourselves with our captains and the people who are on the team.”

The Wolfpack is composed of players will all different levels of playing experience. Most coming from high school teams looking for an outlet to continue playing the game without committing to the demands of a varsity squad.

“There’s quite a few people on our team who played high school hockey who didn’t want to look to play Division I hockey in college,” Tormala said. “We wanted to continue to play hockey, but on more of a laid-back schedule. Having some time off is a good way to balance the busy academics at (Michigan) Tech along with continuing to play hockey, staying fit and keep getting on the ice.

“We have plenty of guys who don’t want to put a ton of time into it but want to keep getting on the ice and keep their abilities up, (so) we definitely offer that. We go to practice and always want to get better all the time. we’re always competing every weekend, but it’s a little less season.”

The club officers have developed a relationship with other club teams in and around the Midwest to help develop home and road games each season.

“We schedule all of our games for this season (2020 and 2021) and next season as well,” said Tormala. “So we play quite a lot of teams in the area (in the Midwest)

“Unfortunately, a lot of teams don’t want to travel up here because they think it’s a far travel, but we’re pretty dedicated to it (and are) definitely down to make the trips. We like to take individual cars ourselves. (It’s) kind of a different way to travel, but we like to keep it cheap and fun on the roads.”

When discussing the past success of the club, Tormala was proud of the club’s ability to maintain a .500 winning percentage consistently.

“Historically, we’ve had some really good seasons all the way back,” he said. “We’ve been above .500 for all the seasons that are on (the website), so the past 10-12 seasons we’ve always been above .500 as far as our wins and losses, which is great. Recently we’ve been scheduling more difficult teams so we can really up our competitiveness as a team.”

“As a team, as a whole, we really want to come together and be a good team because we’ve got guys coming in from all these different high schools and AAA teams that have never played together,” said Tormala. “We just really want to have success and have good relationships and good chemistry with everybody on the team.

“I think the club team is a great balance between in between options for many different players. We have many different kinds of players. We have players, (so) having this club team really allows everybody to keep playing hockey, the game that they love. I would love to see everybody keep skating and playing hockey.”

Tormala wants the club to be approachable for those who may be looking to continue playing a game that they love without spending money to participate.

“Having this opportunity to play hockey at pretty low cost at a pretty competitive level (is important),” said Tormala. “I know, for me, it was a great option and I’m glad that I chose it.”

The team practices at Dee Stadium in Houghton. The team will be holding tryouts for the 2019-20 season in the first week of September.

“It’s a pretty cool location and it’s great for us because it kind fits our play,” Tormala said. “We like the smaller, tighter rink. It’s good for us. We practice two times a week, Monday and Wednesday, at night and we usually like to play a series against another collage about every other weekend during the first semester and then in the very beginning of the second semester.”

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