Sebastian Elrod saw everything fall into place last season when the Colorado Springs native advanced to junior hockey with the USPHL’s Bold City Battalion.

This season, he’s back for his second season with the Jacksonville, Fla.-based franchise.

“(In 2023), I was looking for a USP team and saw there was a team in Jax,” said Elrod. “I happened to have family in Jax and who wouldn’t want to play in Florida? The thing that stands out the most is probably how close our team is off the ice.

“Last year was one of the most fun years I’ve had on a team level. It was like a family last year. On a personal level, I think I grew as a person so much. It was pretty cool.”

Elrod said he started out years back in roller hockey and the passion grew from there.

“I started by just skating around at Skate City and my first coach Jesse Tuttle asked me if I wanted to play rec,” said Elrod. “I played for the Colorado Rampage my whole life. I had a lot of coaches help me out, honestly. CJ Yoder, Andrew Sherman, Brett Clark, and Mario Puskarich from that program really stood out and helped me more than anyone grow as a person and a player.

“I think I’ll remember playing at Rampage the most and relationships I made from playing there.”

Looking ahead, Elrod has goals that he wants to chase.

“Short-term goal would be to win nattys this year; our team has been a wagon recently,” Elrod said. “Long term is to just get paid to play at some point. That’d be sick.”

Photo provided by Sebastian Elrod

— Matt Mackinder

(October 28, 2024)