By Steve Seepersaud
Roller hockey was — and still is — a defining part of the Binghamton experience for Bryan Spano '98. As a student, he established the club team, and he's on Binghamton's alumni team. Yes, there is such a thing!
Spano has been playing since the age of 12 and came to Binghamton from Manorville,
N.Y., wanting to keep doing what he loved. The only option at the time was ice hockey,
which he gave the proverbial college try before setting up intramurals in roller hockey.
"A friend of mine was running a talk show on BTV, so I went on there and said whoever wants to play can call me," Spano said. "By the time I got back to my apartment, 150 people had called and left their numbers."
He wound up with 110 players, more than enough to form a league. The following year, he got a charter for Binghamton to have a roller hockey club team, and he reached out to athletic directors at SUNY Brockport, the University at Buffalo and the Rochester Institute of Technology to schedule two games against each school. The club squad continued after Spano graduated and won a national championship in 2003.
Spano returned to Long Island and played hockey post-graduation at Skate Safe America in Farmingdale. Rink owner Jimmy Tamburino was hosting a tournament for college alumni teams. Spano said he'd love to have a Binghamton team but the teammates he kept in touch with weren't playing any longer. Tamburino knew Ryan Hart '15, and suggested he reach out to Spano.
"My friend sent me a post on Instagram about an inaugural alumni tournament for the league we played in while enrolled at Binghamton [the Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association]," Hart said. "Once I saw the post, I immediately knew I wanted to get a team together. From there, I reached out to as many former players as I could, whether I had played with them or not, and eventually was able to get enough guys to field a team."
In May, Binghamton competed in the Division 2AAA Tournament, playing in a round robin
against SUNY Cortland, Hofstra University, Towson University and Rutgers University.
Binghamton advanced to the playoff round before being eliminated by Hofstra.
"The tournament was four on four, plus a goalie, We only had seven players, so we really only had one sub for offense and one for defense. It was fairly warm in the rink, so it was tough to play entire games with that few players," Hart said. "Our team showed a lot of heart to grind out at least one win. I think we played fairly well considering some of our players haven't played in years. I can't speak for everyone, but it seems everyone wants to compete again next year, assuming it fits their schedules. I'm hoping we can get some more players next time around and perhaps we can make it a bit farther."
"It was wild to face off against guys I had played with for so many years," Spano said. "I didn't know they went to Hofstra or Towson, and then here they are at this tournament. I set up the club team back in 1996, and it had been so long since I played as Binghamton. To come back and play as Binghamton again, it's really cool and it's something I'm proud of."