It's the best kept secret in Northern Nevada. There will be no national television coverage. But there will be a shot at winning a national title.
While this club toils mainly in obscurity, the University of Nevada men's roller hockey team has a legitimate shot to claim a national title when it competes in the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association Championships to be held April 13-17 in Ft. Collins. Colo.
The team will go into the tournament with a 24-0-1 record and a No. 2 national ranking at the Division II level in which schools between 5,000 and 18,000 students compete. The team also features three area athletes - Carson High graduates John Ahdunko and Steve Caloiaro and Douglas graduate Andy Weiss-Berg.
Caloiaro and Weiss-Berg are freshmen, but both have seen their share of action this season. Caloiaro is the team's backup goalie while Weiss-Berg is a forward on the club.
Ahdunko, a senior, is one of the team leaders. He's the starting center forward and along with three other teammates, he's among the leading scorers in the Western Collegiate Roller Hockey League.
The Wolf Pack are coming off a WCRHL tournament title. They obviously hope to improve on last year's performance of reaching the national Final Four by winning it all this year.
"I feel like this year we have a much stronger team," said Matt Van Ness, the team captain and starting goalie.
The 16-team national tournament will be divided into four four-team divisions with the top two teams in each division advancing to a single elimination eight-team playoff. Newman of Pennsylvania is ranked No. 1 and there's already talk of an East Coast-West Coast showdown for the title between the two schools. "The East Coast teams are talking a lot about us," Ahdunko said.
Ahdunko also said the team is gaining more noteriety. "There's already a big hype about us winning nationals," he said. "There's a lot of pressure. The whole region is looking for us to kind of take it over."
Ahdunko played in the local junior and Carson Senator programs. He said he feels he's peaking at the right time to end his college career.
"I'm definitely at the top of my game this year just due to the fact that I'm more confident in myself," he said.
As the center forward, Ahdunko is a key to the attack. "You set the tone of the play," he said.
All of the members of the team are true student-athletes as well. Ahdunko will graduate with a degree in information systems in May and already has a job lined up with Wells Fargo. "We definitely have high grade point averages," he said.
In addition, the team works with limited funding and has had to raise all of the funds needed to travel to nationals on its own.
Ahdunko is hoping that his play in the national tournament will lead to a tryout with Team USA, the current world champion.
"It's actually a very competitive league," said Ahdunko about the level of competition in college. "You play against a lot of the top ranked players in the United States."
Caloiaro, a political science major, also came up through the local junior ranks and the Carson Senator program.
"I just love the sport. It was an opportunity and a chance to play a college level sport," said Caloiaro about why he came out for the team.
"It's been great," Caloiaro also said about being a part of the team. "It's been everything I could ask for. I knew that we were going to be good.
"I didn't think we would go undefeated. But we still have a lot to prove to the rest of the nation."
