With passion and self-sacrifice, the Comets put roller hockey into orbit in Mende

Les seniors des Comets participent à des tournois. – Comets

Around thirty licensees work hard to keep their passion alive. Training takes place twice a week at the Émile-Peytavin technical high school gymnasium.

It is a discipline, certainly, little publicized, but which has followers everywhere in France, starting with Lozère. Since 1999, despite being dormant for six years, between 2013 and 2019, the Comets de Mende, section of Mende roller sports, have put roller hockey into orbit. More accessible than its cousin ice hockey, which requires significant infrastructure that not all cities can afford, it is aimed at a wider audience public, particularly female.

"There are some specificities, specifies Nicolas Papadopoulos, one of the three coaches of the Comets. In roller hockey, we are four players and a goalie, while on ice, there are five plus one. The puck is a little lighter. We have less equipment. In addition, we do not have offside. For me, the two sports are different, as are rugby fifteens and rugby sevens. In roller hockey, as in rugby sevens, there are more spaces, it goes faster, it's more technical. And it looks like handball, with zone attacks, and basketball, with a lot of turnover."

Technical high school training

In Mende, where the race for available slots is raging, the Comets train at the Émile-Peytavin technical high school gymnasium. Seniors exercise on Tuesdays, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., and Saturdays, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.; young people, Saturdays, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. If the room is not approved and the floor is not ideal, Nicolas Papadopoulos remembers an even more precarious time."At the end of the 2000s, we were twice champions of Languedoc-Roussillon. We trained, outside, in parking lots, or even at all. The Montpellier club, with whom we were friends, lent us its gymnasium so that we could play at home. When we went to Alès, which was a bit of a rival, and we told them, after winning, that we only played the matches, without training during the week, it sent a chill…& ;quot;

Introductions to roller hockey

The license at Mende roller sports costs 80 &euro. "We try to make the price as low as possible", confides Nicolas Papadopoulos, the secretary of the association' . People who want to get started with roller hockey can do so simply with a pair of roller skates. At the start, the club lends the equipment. Then, to practice long term, it costs around 200 € to start à equip.

15,000 € for removable balustrades

Currently, the Comets do not participate in any official competition. "Since the merger of the Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées regions, we no longer have a regional championship for our level. It's directly from the Nationale 4, regrets Nicolas Papadopoulos. So the club participates in end-of-season tournaments, like in June, in Colomiers. And dreams of organizing his own. "To be able to accommodate other teams and play matches in front of the public, we would need removable railings. We could imagine blocking a room for a whole weekend, setting them up, leaving them and dismantling them at the end. It's an investment of €15,000, which we would like to make one day." 

In the meantime, with self-sacrifice, the Mendoi hockey players continue to bring their passion to life and share it with anyone who opens the door to their section, with around thirty strong licensed.

I subscribe to read more