Roller Hockey: St. Joseph grad Gsell represents Team USA at World Championships

Lauren Knego
Courier News and Home News Tribune

St. Joseph (Met.) graduate Gene Gsell has taken his love for the sport of roller hockey all the way to Team USA. 

Gsell, who graduated from St. Joseph in 2002, played lacrosse and ice hockey for the Falcons. At Towson University, he played in Division I for the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association.

Gsell said he started playing ice hockey early, "Since I was four or five, my dad got me on the ice early. I was more of a ice hockey player in the beginning, and from seven or eight I played in travel leagues all the way up until after high school," Gsell said. "Roller hockey started when I moved from Edison to Sayreville, I was nine or 10. My neighbors were playing street hockey outside, and I ended up getting skates to play with them after school."

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Once he started playing roller hockey for Towson, Gsell said he started to meet more people who played in local leagues and started playing at Center Circle in Rahway and with NARCH (North American Roller Hockey Championships).

"That’s where it all started," Gsell said. 

Through AAU Gsell become connected with USA Roller Sports, which is "recognized by the International Roller Sports Federation and the United States Olympic Committee as the National Governing Body of competitive roller sports in the United States, including speed, figure, hockey, roller derby and slalom," according to its website. 

In July, the IGWA Inline Hockey World Games were held in Wroclaw, Poland, and Gsell tried to get a spot on the team. 

"I put in the application two days late, but they said we have an opportunity to play in China in September," Gsell said. 

Gsell agreed to join Team USA to play at the World Roller Games Championships in Nanjing, but "two weeks before Poland, in July, I was contacted that someone is injured and they wanted one of the forwards going to China, if possible, to go to Poland," Gsell said. "They threw it out to the six of us going to China, and so I answered, and they got back to me, and I ended up going."

St. Joseph (Met.) graduate Gene Gsell played for Team USA in both the IGWA Inline Hockey World Games and the World Roller Games this past summer.

Gsell had to scramble to get ready for Poland, and he arrived three days later than his teammates. 

"It was an experience, a good experience for sure that was thrown together last minute. I was caught off guard and was more excited going to Poland, I have family there and it was cool to experience that," he said. "I was nervous because it was the first time I was ever a part of a USA team, I wasn’t on the team originally, so I didn’t know a lot of the guys, maybe one or two. ...  I basically landed and went from the airport straight to the rink and had practice."

In Poland, Team USA finished in fifth place after playing Canada, Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy and Argentina. 

"It was an interesting experience, the whole facility was state of the art. You were treated like a pro athlete," Gsell said. "It was an Olympic size rink, and it was a different puck, so it was a lot to get used to, I took it all in and overall it was a good experience for China, it was a warm up."

Gsell had a couple of weeks off before he traveled to China. He left at the end of August and spent two weeks in Nanjing, but his experience was a lot different than Poland. 

Gsell traveled with the team this time around and knew more of his teammates, so he was able to get the full experience. Team USA finished ninth out of 20 teams, finishing with a 3-2-1 record, with wins against China, Argentina and Sweden. The team lost to Czech Republic and Latvia, and tied Canada, 2-2. 

Sy Patel, a co-coach of the former Oakland Goodlife team in the American Inline Hockey League, was one of the coaches for Team USA in China, and knew Gsell from previous competitions. 

"Gene was one of the more experienced players, he played in Poland and had played internationally a couple of times," Patel said. "Some of the guys I had were not in international competition before and had some newbies, so we made him an assistant captain. Their job for me was to take the young guys and show them how to act and represent the USA at international competition. He did that and represented the USA well."

For Gsell, getting chosen to represent his country not once but twice in one summer was the opportunity of a lifetime. He was offered the chance to not only represent his country, but to travel and play against some of the top hockey players in the world. 

"It was an honor, I felt proud to get the opportunity, I was one of 15 chosen in the whole country," Gsell said. "We tried our hardest and played well, it’s also tough at the same time, all of these other countries play year round and have the opportunity to practice and we kind of get thrown together, in that respect it makes it difficult where we don’t get to train and see each other until we get there. Overall it was the experience of a lifetime and I’m grateful for the opportunity."

Gsell still plays hockey two or three days a week, playing in both local leagues and NARCH, PIHA and IHL, and his experiences in international competition has helped him become a better player. 

"Some of these guys are professional ice hockey players and they get brought in from the national ice hockey team and are playing in roller hockey leagues," Gsell said. "Playing against some of the top players is only going to make you a better player, and it helped me tremendously. Even playing with my own teammates it’s a different experience, it gives you a different view on the game and it goes a long way. I try and take that experience back here and try to bring my game to a better level.

"If I get the opportunity to do it again, I’d love to represent the USA."

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com; on Twitter: @laurenknego