The team plays its games late at night and on weekends, has to have fundraisers to raise money for their road trips and practices when most normal people would rather be sleeping.

The Washington men's club hockey team is not your average team.

It plays in the Pac-8, not the Pac-10, and the squad has to pay for its own road trips and uniforms. The practices are at 11 p.m. on weekdays, but they do not mind. The players are excited that they get to play a game they love while going to school.

Sophomore forward Tyler Durrell was actually surprised upon his arrival at the UW that there even was a hockey team.

"I'm amazed at how developed the league is ... how competitive it actually is," he said.

Just being able to play the game, which they grew up playing but at which they were not quite skilled enough to warrant a scholarship to a Division I program, is enough for the team's members. Yet when you throw in the relationships that they develop through the game, there is a sense that they are very lucky to just have the opportunity.

The men's club hockey team plays in the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II West Region, which has 31 teams. Within the division are four conferences, and the Huskies play in the Pac-8. ACHA Division II hockey has 120 teams nationally, spread across four regions.

As the hockey team states on its website, "The Program is about achieving goals, on and off the ice; it is about becoming a stronger person by balancing school, sport and personal lives; it is about taking on and overcoming challenges; and it is about working together as a team, learning from each other and growing together."

The players not only realize this, they embrace it.

In addition to hitting opponents on the ice, the members of the team hit the books just as hard, in part because it is important to the coaching staff.

Coach David Kell insists academics are the top priority for his players. Ultimately, playing the game of hockey is a luxury with which these student-athletes are rewarded, but make no mistake about it: They are here to get a degree.

A full load of credits combined with participating in a club sport can be pretty daunting when it comes to time commitments, but the players are able to find the time.

In addition to eight hours of time on the ice each week, these student-athletes go through a couple hours of dry-land training and, depending on the individual, up to four hours a week in the gym. This does not even include game time. On any given week, the Huskies will play three games.

"We treat ourselves just as if we were an NCAA Division I program," Kell said. "If we don't take ourselves seriously then no one else will."

One of the major factors that allows the players to handle this time commitment throughout the season — excluding their obvious love of the game — is the relationships they develop over the course of the year with their teammates.

Senior Yoshito Kosai says his main job as captain of the team "is to keep the team chemistry together," which it seems he has done. Forward Adam Senta believes it's the best part of playing.

"I think the best quality of the team is the friendships that we have formed ... definitely the group aspect," Senta said.

That camaraderie helps the team remain focused and upbeat through this year's tough start to their season.

"We're off to kind of a slow start this year, as we've played all the best teams in the league already and have just had a rough schedule," Kosai said. "These next few games will tell us what kind of team we have."

As a team, though, the Huskies could get a little better defensively.

"I think we're more offensive-minded, but lately we've been trying to get better defensively," Kosai said. "The new rules, though, have made the game more offensive-minded."

In an effort to keep the game mirroring professional hockey, the ACHA recently echoed the NHL's rule changes. Many of the players expressed discontent with the new rules, but Kell was a little bit more optimistic about them.

"Personally, I think in the short term [the rule changes] hurt us, but in the long term they're good for the game ... I kinda like them," said Kell.

The players are not as convinced.

The changes, such as eliminating icing, off-sides and illegal two-line passes, have created more penalties for the Husky players. The reason the rule changes were made in the NHL was to make the game more exciting in order to draw larger audiences to the television set. However, in club hockey the game isn't about drawing viewers. The players have had to adapt to a game that isn't allowing them to be very physical anymore.

That is not coming across very well to the minds of the players.

"Penalties are way more constant, and I'm getting way more penalties than I ever have," said Durrell.

However, long after all the bruises, cuts, dislocations and broken bones have disappeared, the friendships from this team will endure.

Ultimately, they play because of their childhood love for hockey but also because it gives them something tangible to hold on to long after the game has passed them by.

Reporter Anthony Dion: sports@thedaily.washington.edu