Okehampton teenager Alex Cole and his teammates are celebrating wins following their successful participation in a major US roller hockey competition.

NARCh, the North American Roller Hockey Championships, (hosted in Irvine, California) returned for the first time since 2019 this year and Alex’s team from the UK, the Desert Rats, aged 14-17, brought home a string of wins. The team won gold in the under 16s category, third in the under 18s group and seventeen-year-old Alex won the best goalkeeper award for his age group.

Roller hockey is similar to ice hockey as a contact sport, however body checking is prohibited, and teamwork, skill and tactical aggression are needed to gain advantage in addition to similar equipment being used. The game is played by two teams, consisting of four skaters and one goalie, on a dry rink divided into two halves by a centre line, with one net at each end of the rink.

Alex’s dad Darryl said: ‘The Desert Rats were the only UK team to participate, with players from all over the country such as Kent, Bradford and the Midlands. Alex was the only player from Devon.

‘The competition is huge, they have age groups starting from eight years old, all the way to men’s and women’s teams too. It’s been ten years since a UK team entered and Alex and his teammates faced competition from other countries who entered too such as France and Spain, not just teams from the US. He’s hoping to enter next year too, along with many other events, but he’ll be part of the under 18s team by then.’

An avid roller hockey player, Alex is now gearing up for his next competitions — the UK national championships, which will be held in Market Drayton on the first weekend of September and the under 19s European Championships, held in Bordon, Hampshire in early October.

Darryl, who also used to play himself, said: ‘Roller hockey is becoming increasingly popular in the UK, there are growing numbers of teams in the South West. Plymouth have a league of four teams and there’s a development league in North Devon. Alex has trained and competed all over the county. He started off playing outfield, then at one game he was scheduled to play in Exeter, the goalkeeper for his team never turned up, so he jumped in their place and has taken it from there. He’s worked really hard to get to where he’s at now. He plays rugby for Okehampton too. He just does it all for fun. We know he’s always doing something as it’s costing us a fortune!’