Cork’s growing Wolfpack rolls on despite lack of funding

Around the time D3: The Mighty Ducks hit the cinemas, the idea of a Cork inline hockey club became a reality for Victor O’Brien and his friends.

It was 1996 and the concept of inline hockey — often referred to as roller hockey — was eccentric, to say the least.

However, The Mighty Ducks franchise had become popular, roller skates were trendy, and a higher percentage of north Americans than was the norm started studying in UCC.

A new medical graduate programme was being rolled out and numbers from the States and Canada hitting these shores escalated. The overseas influx ensured inline hockey became a more routine pastime in pockets of the Douglas, Glasheen, and UCC areas and shops began to stock the sport’s equipment.

O’Brien and a group of his friends, enthused by the curiosity of the game locally, decided to form a club which they originally called Cork Rebels.

Twenty-two years later, the club presently boasts a stock of teams including an Elite League outfit in which three operators are Irish senior men’s internationals — Richie Barry, Derek Mullin, and Odhran Bancroft.

Rebranded in 2010 to Cork Wolfpack, the club is thriving despite the necessity of being a self-funded project.

We have been consistently competing out of Cork since 1996,” O’Brien explains. “We went through an evolutionary period and eight years ago got involved with Cork On Ice to bring junior ice hockey to Cork.

“We renamed it Cork Wolfpack to coincide with the rebirth of the club.

“It was Cork On Ice, though, that gave us the platform to really grow as we developed junior sides to later supplement our adult teams.

Social media, more recently, has enabled us to expand further. Now we have teams at U10, U12, U14, and U18 as well as our Elite League and League 2 adult sides.

O’Brien coaches the U18 team, acts as assistant to Ken Moussat with their Elite unit, and also coaches the Irish U18 group.

That is a heavy workload. Yet, between himself, club chairperson Jason Tessier, Hugh Bancroft, and the rest of the committee, Cork Wolfpack is in rude health.

The Elite team began their new Inline Hockey Ireland campaign with losses against Kilkenny Storm and Midland Thunder.

There are eight teams in the division and they play the second round of fixtures on October 7.

Members of the Cork Wolfpack U18’s and elite squads in training.

Unlike the majority of team sports, men and women are welcome to compete in unison in all club competitions globally.

“We have Laura O’Sullivan playing with our U18s. The game is more about technique than physicality,” O’Brien stated.

Club matches are played in Longford Rink or the equivalent in Portadown, Armagh.

Due to there being just two inline hockey rinks on the island, the teams converge on one of the two venues and play two matches on a weekend to reduce costs for the players.

We have been fortunate in that we have won national league and cup titles, but it isn’t easy for the players to retain their commitment, especially as the teams are self-funded,” O’Brien said.

“Just last July we had Richie Barry, Derek Mullin, and Odhran Bancroft, still eligible for U18, playing with Ireland in the World Championships in Italy at senior level.

“But again, those players had to fund that trip themselves as Sport Ireland are yet to recognise inline hockey. Despite that, our club players have gone on to play professionally in Spain.

“There are 26 teams competing in the national senior leagues and the standard has really improved.

It is up to the players, though, to pay for all of the costs involved. Now, sometimes you might get sponsorship of a couple of hundred euros here and there which we really appreciate, but we know we can’t count on sponsorship.

“Even though that is the situation at the moment, we are still competing in events like The Sparta Cup in Barcelona which we sent our Elite team to a couple of years ago.”

The club season runs from September to May. The Dublin-based Pelicans are setting an exacting standard in the Elite League but O’Brien is confident Cork Wolfpack can soon bridge the gap and is proud of the club’s continuous progress.

Nacho Ponzoa of the Cork Wolfpack U18 squad trains at Little Island.

“We train in Little Island Sports Complex, been there 15 or 16 years now. Ideally, we would be able to host Elite-level games but the rink isn’t long enough. We are looking for a bigger venue but again, people are nervous of the use of the puck on the floor even though the floor never needed changing in Little Island.

“Our short-term aim, though, is to grow the club with an emphasis on developing our junior teams.

“It isn’t easy to keep going, but we have great people involved in what is a healthy club.”