PEORIA – Kawena Lee was awakened by teammate Zach Hoffman while taking a nap on his couch with the news that Bethel University’s roller hockey team had folded due to financial issues.
“I’m all lethargic and drowsy from my nap still, and (Hoffman) says, ‘Did you hear about the news?’ I said no, and he told me to check my email because Bethel just closed their roller hockey program,” Lee said.
One year removed from making the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association (NCRHA) semifinals, members of the Bethel University Wildcats, located in McKenzie, Tennessee, suddenly needed new places to play for the 2024-25 season, and a trio of players found a home in the desert with Grand Canyon University. Along with forwards Lee and Hoffman, defenseman Josh Little also joined the movement to Arizona.
While the high-level competition and program structure may be a substantial selling point for GCU, which is coming off a championship season, the newcomers admit that a current Lopes player and former Bethel transfer may have played a role in their decision as well.
“As soon as I heard the news, I was on the phone with them,” said Ryan Meltzer, a goaltender for GCU and former teammate at Bethel. “It sucks that we lost that program because they were a great program for us to play against, but my first reaction was, ‘Let me get on the phone with these guys and get them the opportunity that I was given when I got to transfer over here.’”
The structure and leadership of GCU’s program are the main selling points for transfers coming in from all over the country for the Lopes, who open NCRHA play Saturday in a tournament in Corona, California, and kick off their home schedule Nov. 22 against Arizona State at Peoria Sportsplex.
Including the three newcomers, the Lopes roster is composed of eight transfers, including Aydin Schwetz, the director of operations for the program. Coming from Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri, Schwetz has built this program from the ground floor and turned it into one of the most desirable landing spots for college roller players.
“Our pitch for recruitment is that we care a whole lot about roller hockey, way more than everybody else,” Schwetz said. “We built our program from the beginning on two foundational pillars. The first is creating as much opportunity to play roller hockey as humanly possible … If you come to GCU you could play roller hockey for 16 hours a day every single day of the year if you really had the drive and desire to do that.
“The other concept is that we give a s—. What that means is that we, the program, are going to treat you as much as an NCAA athlete as we financially can, but you are also expected to treat yourself as much of an NCAA athlete as you can. You guys are the new players in our program, you have to watch what you eat, they have to work out outside of our team workouts because three days a week is not enough for what our goals are as a program. We take it as seriously as a sports team could take it.”
The difference in games played between GCU and other college roller hockey programs factors into the decision process as well. The Lopes will play around 50 games this season, 20-25 more than other programs at the Division I level. This is possible due to the increased number of tournaments the team schedules, competing against traveling club teams which include teams composed of adults. This season, the Lopes have already participated in the Rhinos Cup tournament in California and face a heavy schedule, much to the excitement of newcomers.
“The main selling point (for GCU) was the amount of hockey they play here,” Little said. “They play about double the games we did at Bethel, so that was a big factor in the decision for me.”
Each of the transfers looks to bring something to a GCU team that aims to defend its Division I championship, a title the Lopes won in their second year of operation. Hoffman, a 5-foot-9, 150-pound forward from Papillion, Nebraska, led Bethel in scoring during the 2022-23 season.
With many other talented players around him, Hoffman is excited for the chance to compete with his new team.
“We have a lot of high-skilled guys … just coming in here and being able to play with top-level guys like that is just going to make me feel more comfortable in my position,” Hoffman said. “For myself, my goals are to take things one game at a time and don’t try to rush anything. We’ve got to take it win by win and practice hard every single day and come to the rink ready to work hard.”
This talented group of transfers joins an already talented Lopes team. GCU will feature a Division I team as well as an AA division team (a division for all of a school’s secondary teams to compete), which are both expected to make a deep run in the playoffs this season.
