CALLER-TIMES INTERACTIVE: NEWS
Fri 31-Jul-1998
Sticks and Skates; New team inspires youngsters to learn of slap shots, hat tricks
(Lining up for hockey)
By JAVIER BECERRA
Caller-Times
For decades, ice hockey was a forgotten part of Cory Goller's life, evident only in the 1973 Bobby Orr signature equipment he kept in a box in his closet.
When officials announced last year that Corpus Christi would get the Western Professional Hockey League's 13th professional ice hockey franchise, it gave the 43-year-old local hockey enthusiast hope that he may soon be back on the ice.
``I feel like I've been reborn,'' said Goller, a process technician at CITGO refinery. ``Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd ever play again - especially in South Texas.''
But other communities have shown that when pro hockey arrives, amateurs follow.
In Dallas, home to the Stars since 1993, ice hockey has been a school-sanctioned sport since 1996, said Dan Ryan, building manager at the Dr Pepper StarCenter. In two years, the program has grown from four varsity squads to 20, and eight junior varsity teams.
There are also 30 senior adult ice hockey teams and 30 or 40 youth teams. In all, about 2,000 people play ice hockey in Dallas. Three years ago there were 600, Ryan said.
Although Corpus Christi's IceRays have yet to play a game, the team's players have been teaching youths all about slap shots, hat tricks and power plays.
The IceRays have conducted more than 20 roller hockey clinics - all free. Some of the events have attracted as many as 100 skaters, without any serious advertising, IceRays coach Taylor Hall said.
``It's all by word of mouth,'' Hall said. ``(The clinics) haven't been advertised. Kids that have come out before keep telling other kids they know, and we get a ton of them.''
Joey Botello, 11, a South Park Middle School seventh-grader, has been in-line skating for about a year. But he had never had a stick in his hand until going to a roller hockey clinic.
Although Joey was skating from goal to goal on a rink on the upper level of a parking garage and not on a sheet of ice, he said, the clinics are a chance to come out and play hockey with real pro hockey players.
``It's pretty bad,'' he said.
Joey and classmate Arnold Gutierrez, 12, said a city-sponsored roller hockey league would attract a lot of players. Joey also said the Corpus Christi Independent School District should implement a roller hockey program.
Ryan said roller hockey is where Dallas developed at least half of its recreational ice hockey players.
Ryan said he saw the same growth in interest in Wichita, Kan., as a member of the Central Hockey League's Thunder organization.
``They didn't have any hockey before that, no ice rink or anything,'' said Ryan, 29. ``In the team's fourth year, the community built a rink, and now they have 300 or 400 kids playing ice hockey. None of that would have happened if the team wasn't there.''
Corpus Christi has made some attempts at organized roller hockey.
Cityskates owners Joe and Elkie Minervini have for the last two years attempted to sponsor a youth roller hockey league, but have abandoned the idea because of a lack of numbers.
Elkie Minervini said the public's level of interest definitely will rise when the IceRays begin playing, but will decline dramatically within the year.
``Hockey just isn't the sport down here,'' said Elkie Minervini, who in May had just two youths sign up for the summer roller hockey league. ``We get lots and lots of phone calls, but when the time comes to sign up, they don't show.''
Last year, Calallen youth hockey coach Robert Smith arranged for a roller hockey pickup tournament at Memorial Coliseum in hopes of having additional events there. None materialized.
Goller, who first became a hockey fan during his last two years of high school in Boston, home of the NHL's Boston Bruins, thinks having a pro team will make all the difference.
Goller is a member of the Corpus Christi Rattlers roller hockey club, a group of about 20-25 ``hard core players'' between 20 and 40 years old that meets four times a week and plays pickup games on a make-shift rink behind the Corpus Christi Christian Fellowship, 6002 S. Staples St.
His sons C.J., 13, and Zach, 10, both play Little League baseball and occasionally play roller hockey with their father and the Rattlers. But Goller wants a youth league where both his sons can play.
Should the Corpus Christi IceRays' inaugural season, which opens Oct. 13, be a success, Hall and Goller said the city's youths may want to trade their aluminum bats and baseballs for fiberglass hockey sticks and pucks.
``Every kid has the opportunity to roller blade outside any time, it's just a matter of getting a hockey stick in their hands,'' Hall said. ``It (surge in interest) happened in Dallas and Phoenix, and Corpus Christi will be no different.''
Hall said an initial surge in interest by the community could result in a city league roller hockey program with at least 300 youths within the year, which ideally would need several years to develop into something larger.
Goller acknowledged that creating a youth hockey league would be a slow process but said the interest the IceRays have raised in the last year is enough to form a small league with four to six teams.
``This is such a new sport, and I don't see it exploding overnight. Even kids soccer is still growing,'' Goller said. ``But I don't see why we couldn't get a league with at least four or six teams now. By this time next year, though, there's going to be a league. Kids are going to be saying, `Hey dad, I'm not gonna play baseball, I want to play hockey.' ''
Steve Cherwonak, director of media services and scheduling for the Western Professional Hockey League, said that in five years, once the IceRays have developed a solid base of youth roller hockey players, their fundamentals could be put to use on the ice.
``It's a huge benefit for a 12- to 14-year-old kid to know how to play the game before they play on ice,'' Cherwonak said. ``It's not too long before some 6-foot-3, 215-pound kids are going to grow up wanting to play for the Dallas Stars instead of the Dallas Cowboys.''
Staff writer Javier Becerra can be reached at 886-3734 or by e-mail at becerraj@scripps.com.