CLARION — Cortand Altimus couldn't play ice hockey at Seneca Valley.

It conflicted with football.

So he did the next best thing.

“I played inline hockey at Seneca and played a lot of dek hockey, too,” Altimus said. “I was ready to transition to ice hockey, but the time schedule there didn't work with football.”

Once he decided to attend Clarion University, his football career was over. The 2016 SV graduate figured his inline hockey career might go on hiatus as well.

“Then I heard about an inline hockey club on campus through Facebook and decided to play,” Altimus said.

As a college freshman, he quickly found out the inline hockey program at Clarion was not as successful or popular as the program he was part of in high school.

The Clarion team had only nine players — not all students — and played in an adult league in Grove City.

“We wanted to play against other schools in a collegiate league,” Altimus said. “Our team back then, in the situation we were in ... It wasn't going to last.”

The president of the Clarion inline team dropped off after that season. Seth Kaminski, a New Castle resident and a good friend of Altimus, became president of the organization and Altimus became vice president.

Together, they helped turn around the fortunes of Clarion inline hockey.

This is an excerpt — read the full story in Sunday's Butler Eagle.