The Penn State roller hockey club is teaming with State College this summer to offer inline hockey to members.

Starting June 11, the YMCA will make use of its recently built outdoor hockey rink by serving as host for its first inline hockey leagues for youths and adults.

"We've built a real nice state-of-the-art inline rink, so we're trying to go out and create some relationships here and put together some programs," said Scott Mitchell, the YMCA's sports and wellness director.

In order to do that, Mitchell has recruited Penn State roller hockey club officer and former club president Bryan Ollendyke.

Mitchell said Ollendyke's experience running the intramural leagues at Penn State will help him organize the YMCA leagues and youth programs he has planned.

The leagues will be broken down by age, he said. The youth league will be divided by grades one through four, five through seven, and nine through 12. There will also be an adult league for players 18 and older.

Ollendyke and other members of the club plan to dedicate their time this summer to help the new leagues get off the ground.

"We would be contributing people in the form of players for the league, refs for games, and scorekeepers," Ollendyke said.

"Anyone who plays in the IM leagues has been encouraged to help out in any of those three aspects if they can or want to."

In addition to the competitive leagues, the club players will teach at a YMCA clinic for grades one through four that will begin on July 9 and end on July 13.

"Club players will help walk kids of all skill levels through the fundamentals of roller hockey and work with the kids individually to give them help with what they need," Ollendyke said.

In addition to the exposure these new local leagues will give the team, there are also other perks.

In exchange for helping the YMCA, the team will be allowed to use
the new rink as its main practice facility.

In previous seasons, the club, which competes in the Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association, traveled an hour to Williamsport in order to practice.

"The local YMCA rink would allow us to hopefully gain even greater interest than we've had in the past, as well as allow for us to practice more nights a week without having to drive hours on end," Ollendyke said.

With the start of league play more than a month away, Mitchell is hoping people will use the rink for pick-up games once it is resurfaced in a couple of weeks. He said interest will grow once people notice the rink and the club's involvement.

"We're able to create a nice relationship with them where they're going to get something out of it and the YMCA will get something out of it as well," Mitchell said.