The roller hockey team pose for a photo. Last season, the team finished at the top of the podium in the Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association Division II standings. Photo courtesy Northeastern Roller Hockey Team.

Roller skates glide on the concrete surface of the Marino Recreation Center basketball court as the Northeastern Roller Hockey team swishes pucks into the net and fights on every possession. The team, with more than 20 years of history, will attempt to notch its first-ever national championship title in the spring.

After coming up short at the 2024-25 season nationals in Fort Myers, Fla., the team is striving to bounce back from the losses and execute better in this season’s games.

Last season, the team finished first in the Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association, or ECRHA, Division II standings, earning it a promotion to Division I — a testament to the hard work and dedication put in over the years.

This year, the team will face tougher opponents whose schools offer athletic scholarships and more resources for players.

“It’s gonna be tough, because we’re playing people who get scholarships to play roller hockey,” said Mike Grbic, a fourth-year business administration major and president of the club.

So far, the competition has proven to be ferocious, and the wheels of the Huskies’ skates haven’t stopped since their three-game opener on Oct. 25.

The team started with a heavy loss against Quinnipiac University 12-1, but quickly recovered and brutally swept Farmingdale University 11-1. Then they fell, losing against Boston University 10-0.

The team lost seven key players last spring, and tackling a rigorous new division has been a challenge for the freshly assembled roster.

“This year, we’ve lost seven of the eight guys that were on last year’s Division II team, so I’m the only one returning, me and my brother … And so far, it’s not been going as good as last year,” Grbic said.

Even though the team is not performing at its highest level, Grbic is showing off against potent rivals, having netted the puck six times and earned two assists in three games.

Having good individual numbers doesn’t matter if the team fails to win the game, Grbic said.

“I would have been much happier if we won those games; we went 1-2 that weekend (Oct. 25),” Grbic said. “I would trade all my points for a win, but I was happy with my performance.”

Northeastern runs a coachless program, one of a kind among Division I teams. Executive board members fill this position by running drills, setting game plans and organizing shifts.

“If someone wants to try something at practice and it seems like a good idea, we’ll absolutely give it a try,” Amadia said. “It’s really just kind of the input of ourselves that sets that up, which is fun.”

Honing skills at high-paced “run-and-gun” practices is a core part of the club, Grbic said.

Grbic and Aidan Kelly, a third-year computer science and business major, found out about the team at Northeastern’s fall club fair. They both tried it out and quickly became part of the club’s executive board.

For Kelly, immersing himself in the sport was “a fun opportunity to keep playing in a more casual environment than some of the other clubs while still being competitive.”

Long-lasting friendships have flourished among the team members in the tight-knit community the club nurtures.

“I saw the roller table, I talked to the guys, I went out to practice and I’ve been there ever since,” Grbic said. “I’ve made probably my closest friends in school from that team.”

Many roller hockey players on the team started their careers playing ice hockey and switched to roller hockey after attending Northeastern.

Kelly began playing ice hockey when he was 4 years old, and first laced up his roller blades at the start of his first year at Northeastern.

Both ice and roller hockey are similar: They require pucks, goals, rinks and skates, but there are several tweaks that players must adopt in order to compete at the highest level.

Some of these skills take time to master.

“It took me two years to learn how to stop with roller blades,” Grbic said.

Amadia’s skating and shooting have improved throughout his one-year tenure on the team.

“I think it’s a skill that really takes a while to master; it’s not something you can learn in a day and improve,” he said. “The more reps you get, the more fluid everything feels.”

The National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association has seven conferences spread out across the country, and Northeastern competes in the Eastern division. The conference has four divisions, expanding from Division I to Division III and Division AA, which operates as a fourth division. Northeastern has two teams: one plays in the D-I division and the other plays in the AA. Practices are combined, and the executive board selects the rosters for each game.

As a coachless club, game rosters and line-ups are handled by the managing board, following a traditional practice used by other teams.

“We usually hold a trial for the first month of the season to assess players’ skills, and then we’ll decide within a month which players play for the D-1 and the AA teams,” Grbic said.

Regardless of skill level, the players acknowledge their individual talents and join the club to have a fun time and build memories, Kelly said.

The executive board manages the team’s equipment, including ordering jerseys, restocking water jugs and providing high-quality pucks. The rest — including sticks, gloves and protective gear — is handled by the players.

Goals change from year to year, and although the division rises and falls depending on the team’s results, the club’s overall mission is to grow and evolve, Grbic said.

“I think, since we lost so many players, a big goal is development,” Grbic said. “We want to see our players who didn’t get the opportunity to be one of those [high-minutes players] to take the strides in their game.”

Kelly said he wants to see more talent incorporated in the coming years to fill the vacant positions left by graduating players.

“I think for me, it’s having a better and more skilled team overall that can build year over year,” he said. “People get better at playing in practice, so the more skills we have in practice, the more everyone else is going to get better, too.”

Players have learned what it takes to be part of a team and grasped skills that will take them beyond college.

“It’s taught me a lot about leading a team or organization, not just from a teammate standpoint, but by being on the e-board,” Kelly said. “I think that could translate well to any career that I have.”

Belonging to a team requires experienced players to mentor the younger generation. For the older athletes on the team, giving back helps to keep the spark alive.

“You can’t just walk away from it. You’re there to run a club for other people,” Amadia said. “People were doing it before for me, and now I’m returning the favor.”