And the strong get stronger.

The Arizona State University Division I inline team added veteran Jayme Haveman at the semester break and the longtime inline player looks to help strengthen the team that sits in first place in the Western Collegiate Roller Hockey League.

Haveman admitted that his maturation process after high school was lackadaisical, but with Nick Boyarsky and Alex Dodt at the helm of the ASU program, it made his decision to get back into the swing of things that much easier and comfortable.

“I never really got off the floor,” said Haveman. “I have been playing in the American Inline Hockey League with Alex and have been playing competitively in the summer for one of the teams in the Arizona Outcasts program that Nick and Alex coach. It was originally my plan to go to ASU right after high school, but it took me a while to grow up and get out of that just-a-kid-who-graduated stage.”

Boyarsky is thrilled to add more firepower to the Arizona State team.

“The relationship and confidence both parties have in each other is part of what got Jayme to motivate himself at 21 to enroll in college,” said Boyarsky. “This is exactly the scenario that makes Alex and myself such advocates of college roller hockey. It’s another motivator for players of this sport to further their education. The addition of another top-level defensive player makes this less a year about rebuilding and more a year about setting a Final Four goal for nationals.

“It will take the rest of the team stepping up and our goaltending has to stay strong, but it definitely puts us over a symbolic hump.”

Haveman has played inline hockey for the past 17 years now with 12 of those competitively. His younger years were spent with the Rollerplex Panthers, fine-tuning his game playing under Steven Jovic and Justin Sayban for the Panthers 12U team. Nowadays, it’s the Outcasts and ASU.

“Nick and Alex have helped mold me into the player I am today,” noted Haveman. “I can’t thank them enough.”

ASU started to gel as a team towards the second half of first semester, according to Dodt.

“We began the year with a lot of players on the bubble, so the roster was evolving almost every game,” said Dodt. “As we made the final decisions on who made the D-I team and who went down to the D-III team, we’ve started to form an identity as a team and guys are understanding their roles. To separate ourselves from the pack, we have to be a more consistent team. We’ve really only put together two- or three-game stretches of consistent play and we have to be better if we want to go far at nationals this year.”

Like his coaching counterpart, Dodt is chomping at the bit to see Haveman in Arizona State colors.

“Jayme is one of the smartest hockey players I have ever seen,” beamed Dodt. “He controls the tempo of the game whenever he’s on the floor, which is something we are often lacking in. He’s going to be a top defenseman in this league for as long as he’s at ASU.”

“My hope is that I can help strengthen the strong defensive core, plus knowing their special teams systems very well, I feel like I could pop in any spot and know what I’m doing,” added Haveman. “I’m very familiar with the ASU inline program and I know almost every player in the program, having played with most and if not all at some point or another. I think with our defensive core, offensive capabilities and our netminder playing very well this season, we have a great chance to go far nationals.”

Moving forward, it’s all about peaking at the right time.

“We want to get this program back to competing for a national championship,” said Dodt. “Finishing anywhere short of the Final Four at nationals will be very disappointing for this team.”

— Matt Mackinder