The Idea

Before they even started to learn how to play hockey, Dave Morgan and Kevin Carpenter planned to have a hockey team. They knew that it wouldn't be something they could do right away, but they kept it in the back of their mind. They started playing as adults in a Zamboni league at Thomas Creek Ice Arena.

After about two years of playing, the opportunity came to play in the 2012 pond hockey tournament in Rochester, NY. Shane Bertou reached out to Morgan to mention the tournament, and asked if they wanted to try to get a team together. Morgan and Carpenter agreed. They formed up Ctrl+Alt+Defeat, and asked a few of their fellow hockey playing friends if they would be interested in playing. Kevin Brolly, Sam Yurick and Alex Mann signed up.

The team started at 6 players - all novices - hoping to just have a great time playing a game together. The team registered for the pond hockey tournament, and they waited. Unfortunately, The weather had different ideas. The tournament was initially postponed due to warm weather. Weeks passed, and eventually the tournament was cancelled. With the tournament cancelled due to lack of frozen surface to skate on, the team looked for another event to participate in. The next possible event was a standard hockey tournament, so the team would need to grow. It was time to ask more friends if they were interested in playing.

The Inferno is Started

The new goal was to be ready for the 2012 Spring Classic, hosted by Thomas Creek Ice Arena. Recruitment began immediately, pulling in friends from the novice hockey classes that Morgan and Carpenter played for. The team grew to be 15 people, adding Blankley, Burst, Climek, Hatta, King, Kull, Linford, McCormick and Offord to the roster. New jerseys were made (based off the BarCamp Rochester logo, a conference that Morgan organizes) and was entered into the tournament under the name the "Rochester Inferno". The primary goal to have fun in the tournament.

There were two tournaments, the first was the traditional Spring Classic, and the second was the Novice Spring Classic. The Inferno registered for the novice tournament, but with not enough teams registered, the tournament was cancelled. Left with a choice to not play, or be forced to move up, the Inferno moved up.

The Inferno's first outing as a teamwas memorable, but not particularly successful. They finished the tournament 0-4, but were able to hold their own against much more difficult opponents. About seven months would pass before the Inferno regrouped for the next season, but, they would start the season the same way they originally started the team, with pond hockey.

Return to Pond Hockey

The organizers of the annual pond hockey tournament opted to move the tournament from the Erie canal to a remote pond near a country club in the hopes that it would be frozen more easily. The Inferno decided early on that they were going to participate this year, but with a larger team, they had to form into smaller teams for the tournament. Officially, the Inferno broke in to two, the Rochester Inferno, and Ctrl+Alt+Defeat. Several Inferno members also participated in the tournament on others teams.

The tournament went well, and every single team that had an Inferno member on it won at least one game. It was also the introduction of the new dark jerseys for the inferno. With the tournament over, many of the Inferno were excited for what was next.

Moving Forward

The team would continue on to play annually in the Spring Classic as well as periodic games at great venues like Blue Cross Arena and Frontier Field against their perennial rivals the Baby Seals Hockey Club and Premature Shooters.

In addition, the team is now focused on league play - which has created an influx of new players. The Inferno plays at the Bill Gray's Regional Iceplex, starting in the I-League, and now in the D- League (of which the Seals and Shooters are also members). The roster continues to grow, change and evolve, but the Inferno continues to burn.