UPDATED: Nov. 30, 2017 at 4:09 p.m.

Ryan Dunn skated with his hockey stick and a puck in Flanagan Gym, weaving on his roller blades through people at the 2016 club fair. Just hours before, Angie Petrie, the associate director of programs, told him there would not be a club roller hockey team for at least a year. There wasn’t enough interest.

Dunn’s last-ditch effort to generate interest in the club included 20 people signing up to play. With the list, Petrie allowed the club to register in the developmental league, Division IV, where it lost in the conference championship the year prior.

Not only did Dunn — who is also a staff writer for The Daily Orange — singlehandedly save the club, he has brought it back to prominence. Just two years after the university stopped recognizing the roller hockey team as an official club, Syracuse (3-7) is now fully rebooted and compete in Division II of the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association.

“If Ryan didn’t go to Syracuse, there wouldn’t be a club,” Matt Hankin said.

Hankin, a former captain, played on the roller team for four years and his number, 21, is retired by the club. Hankin is a former design editor for The D.O.

Dunn, who grew up in San Jose, California, has played roller hockey his whole life. He had the SU roller hockey team in his sights even before he stepped foot on campus. Now at Syracuse, Dunn is the president of the club and eighth on the team in points.

But the program has been on the verge of extinction twice in the past five years, Hankin said. The problems stem from the revolving door of club leaders, Dunn added.

“You can break it down by president,” Dunn said.

First, Jared Bly led a laid-back program in 2013-14. Then, in fall 2014, Conall McNelis completely changed the culture when he took over. Instead of just scrimmaging for two hours at practice and not caring about losing, McNelis put the team through intensive drills. That season, SU went undefeated.

“It took me about a month before saying to the old captain, Jared, ‘Like yo, we actually have to practice,’” McNelis said. “’We can’t just scrimmage.’”

But when McNelis graduated in 2015, the future of the club looked bleak.

A number of seniors had graduated, and a large portion of the team had decided to shift focus toward intramurals, Hankin said. He thought there wasn’t going to be a program anymore, until he received a message from Dunn.

“One day,” Hankin said, “I get a Facebook message from Ryan saying, ‘Yo, do you still want to play hockey? I’m trying to get the team back together.’ I’m like, ‘Hell yeah!’”

Dunn, now a sophomore, rebuilt the program from scratch last year as a freshman. By promoting the club on Facebook and through flyers around campus — plus his performance at the club fair — Dunn drummed up enough interest to keep the club afloat.

Ultimately, rag-tag group registered in the developmental league because Dunn didn’t think the team would be any good. He was wrong. The team finished 6-4.

This year, Syracuse held open tryouts and moved up to Division II, starting the year 3-1. Practices are organized to the point where the drills are on a tight, timed schedule. Nearly none of the players have any roller hockey background, mostly coming from ice hockey backgrounds.

The biggest difference between ice hockey and roller hockey, Dunn said, is that the rink is larger and more open. This means more possession and less offense, as teams will hold on to the puck for minutes at a time.

“We’re probably, in terms of pure skill,” Dunn said, “we’re one of the more talented teams in the league. We’re definitely one of the faster teams in the league.”

Andrew Ungvary, an assistant captain with an ice hockey background, said the transition has been difficult.

“There’s a lot more space to move around and create chances for your teammates, Ungvary said. “In roller, you can always send the puck back and reset if there’s nothing there. I’d say that’s the biggest difference.”

Since SU’s 3-1 start, it has gone 2-8, including a recent four-game skid to finish the fall semester. With just three upperclassmen on the team, experience is their biggest problem.

Syracuse roller hockey’s tumultuous history is cyclical: once a president graduates, the void in leadership creates uncertainty. But Dunn, a sophomore, represents a steady influence on the club’s future.

“It’s a work in progress,” Dunn said, “but I have faith that our leadership as we have it now, will grow and become a little more headstrong over the next couple of years.”

Published on November 29, 2017 at 9:17 pm

Contact Danny: dremerma@syr.edu | @DannyEmerman