New Season, New Format

After a short hiatus, the San Antonio Roller Hockey League will be making its triumphant return tonight at Farichild Park in downtown San Antonio.  With the new season comes a new format and some new rule changes, so pay attention!

Schedule:
Games will continue to be played 3v3; however, rosters have been expanded.  Last season, we had an entire team vanish, so we are packing the teams this season to make sure we always have enough skaters to keep the games going.  With the new 3-team format, we will be running double-headers every week.  This will afford every team 8 games in a shortened 6-week season.

Playoffs:
Playoffs will be similar to how we had to adjust last season.  The top team is automatically in the finals against the winner of the 2v3 game.  The winner of that game essentially has double-header duty.  All three teams will be looking to get out to a good start and hold that top spot as early as possible.

Jerseys:
Each team will be responsible for bringing a white and a dark jersey to the games.  If you have the double header, you will be rocking the home whites.  Please make sure that your jerseys are different enough so that one won’t be confused for another.  If you are wearing darks, do not bring a light gray shirt.  Make it dark.

Game Format:
Games will played in 3 12-minute periods.  Because of the extra change and extra roster sizes, between period intermissions will be limited to 2 minutes so the games can move along smoothly.  If the ref is ready to start, the ref has the authority to start the clock to get the game moving.

Home/Away:
Along with jerseys, home and away teams will be differentiated by which”bench” they claim.  The home team will take the right bench (when facing the rink), and the away team will take the left bench.  Because the rink has “personality”, we want to make sure every team gets to take advantage of or defend against those traits in the rink and equal number of times.  The schedule will be set to allow all teams an equal number of home and away games.

Penalties:
Due to the larger roster sizes, rather than losing a player for an infraction, the team on the power play will gain a skater.  When the penalty expires, if a goal has not been scored, both teams will skate 4v4 until the next whistle.  Once play stops, the teams will revert to 3v3.

In the case of matching penalties, the game will remain at 3v3.  The offending players cannot rejoin the game until their penalty time expires.

In the case of coinciding penalties to one team, on the first infraction, the team on the power play will play with a 4v3 advantage.  If a second infraction occurs on the penalty killing team, the power play team will play with a 4v2 advantage until all penalties expire.

No team shall ever have more than 4 skaters (unless the situation calls for 4 skaters and the goalie is pulled) and no team shall ever fall to fewer than 2 skaters.

Timeouts:
Timeouts remain at one per team.  Timeouts will be 1 minute in length.  If the ref is ready to drop the puck and the ref deems one team stalling for a longer break, the ref may assess a bench minor to the offending team.

Rules Reminders:
There are a few rules that players need to be reminded of.  These are house rules and designed with the interest of safety of all players in mind.

High Sticks:
Keep the sticks low.  Do not swing your stick at a puck that is high in the air.  Try not to raise your stick straight up in the air to call for a pass.  If the ref catches it and there are no other skaters around, he can let it slide at his discretion.  However, if there are other skaters in the vicinity (ref’s discretion), the ref may call for a high stick.  The first offense is a faceoff in the offending player’s defensive zone.  Subsequent offenses can result in penalties at the ref’s discretion.  This rule is in place because we have a few weaker skaters and several without shields or cages.  It’s strictly a safety call.

Puck out of Play:
If the puck is considered out of play by means of the on-rink oddities (under boards, stuck in holes, through one of the holes on the bench side – things you won’t find anywhere else), faceoffs will revert to center.  If the puck is shot out of play or deflected over the fence/boards, it is treated like a normal puck out of play.  The faceoff should either take place in the defensive zone for any puck out of play off a defensive player or at center if an offensive player was the last to touch the puck.

Scorekeeper:
The scorekeeper is an official and may be consulted by the ref(s) to make a judgment call.  If the ref(s) are unable to come to a clear decision on a given play, the scorekeeper may make the call if the ref(s) request the scorekeeper to do so.

Hand Pass:
The only time a hand pass is legal is when a player uses his hand to guide the puck to a teammate in their defensive half.  If the puck crosses the center line after the hand pass is initiated but before the teammate touches the puck, it will be called a hand pass.  All hand passes must start AND stop in the defensive half. All infractions will result in a faceoff in the offending teams defensive zone.

We will add more rules as they come up.  I just can’t think of any more.

Spring 2021 SARHL Teams

River Walkers

Andrew Minerd (C)
Robert Robles (A)
Israel Rodriguez
Travis Laveault
Greg Artzberger
Ryan Gilbert (A)
Abdiel Amador
Jimmy Durham
Chris Read
Taylor Newton (G)