Their Idea of Heaven Is When It Freezes Over : Beginners, Expert Transplants Helping Local Hockey Grow

It was 9 o’clock on a Sunday night, and Dean Wilson was watching a hockey game at the San Diego Ice Arena.

Wilson was taking a breather after playing two games, and he was hoping to find a spot on one of the teams that would take the ice for the final match of the evening.

Wilson, who graduated from Granite Hills High School this year, is a hockey junkie. He plays as many games as he can, bouncing from team to team, playing for anyone who needs an extra stick.

He is not alone. More than 200 players compete on teams in four leagues at the San Diego Ice Arena during the summer. And arena officials are finding that leagues for beginners are as popular as those for advanced players.

Wilson plays as often as he can because he wants to play hockey in college. There is no high school hockey in San Diego, nor even a top-notch junior program, and a player has to hustle to get enough notice to be offered an athletic scholarship.

So Wilson has to go elsewhere.

“You have to go to Los Angeles to get any (junior) competition,” he said.

Or Canada.

Wilson, who goes to Canada every couple of years to attend hockey camps, will leave for Vancouver, British Columbia, next week to try out for a Junior A team. If he makes it, his room and board will be paid by the team and, if he is good enough, he might attract a college scholarship.

With the growth of ice hockey in San Diego, players such as Wilson might have more opportunities to play.

“You know how it is, everybody wants you to play football,” Wilson said. “Football players are in (in high school). But I didn’t want that. I’d rather be here playing hockey.”

Which is what he usually does. Wilson is a member of a small but dedicated bunch who refuse to consider that they live in a climate more conducive to beach volleyball than sliding around with a puck on a sheet of ice.

And the bunch is getting bigger.

Gary Andreassi has worked at various rinks in San Diego since 1979, and he has been organizing competitive leagues at the San Diego Ice Arena since United States International University dropped its hockey program and its lease on the arena this past spring.

“We were getting a lot of people out at pickup sessions,” Andreassi said. “So we got together a non-check league, and around the same time we started pickup sessions for beginners. Then we started the beginning league in June.”

Canadian-born Andreassi, 27, was reintroduced to hockey by accident. Few people, even transplants, know there is ice hockey in San Diego. Andreassi’s story is typical.

“My dad saw some guy in a McDonald’s wearing a hockey uniform when I was 12, and he asked me if I wanted to play,” Andreassi said. “So I’ve been playing off and on ever since.”

But it’s not just the transplanted players who are filling up the leagues that play Friday through Sunday nights at the ice arena.

People who have never played hockey before and might barely be able to skate are taking 10-week beginners’ courses. Andreassi said there are 21 teams playing in four leagues.

“I’ve got a couple of doctors and a banker,” Andreassi said of the beginning class he teaches. “I got one guy who is 60, and I have a couple ladies on the teams. One is a technical writer for a medical firm.

“I ran into a guy last night, and he wants to play. He could barely speak English.”

That’s OK, because some of the beginners can barely skate.

“Some have skated less than three months,” Andreassi said. “It’s kind of comical to watch them. It makes their night if they touch the puck once. If they score a goal, they get a smile you can’t believe.

“These guys are so enthusiastic. I enjoy the beginners because they want to have fun.”

The advanced players take the game a little more seriously. During the summer months, the rink has A and B non-check leagues, and in the winter, there is an advanced full-check league with seven or eight teams.

Most of the advanced players grew up in the Midwest or East.

“The typical story is that people move here, and their reaction is, ‘Wow, there’s ice in California,’ ” Andreassi said. “Then they get out here and are startled at the level of competition. We get a lot of Navy people and Marines. And a lot of transplants.”

Reggie Grigsby is a transplant. Grigsby, a sergeant in the Oceanside Police Department, recently rediscovered hockey after not playing for 10 years.

Grigsby started playing when he was 7 years old.

“I got tired of the same old weightlifting, running routine,” said Grigsby, the league’s only black player. “I always wanted to get back into the sport. Get a little contact out of it.”

Grigsby is fortunate in that the Police Officers Athletic Federation pays part of his fees. Players such as Scott Bush are not as lucky.

When Bush isn’t floating around the ice, he is flying jets for the Navy. Ice time for a league season is about $150, or roughly $10 a game. Other expenses include as much as $300 for equipment, which can include $125 for skates alone. Each stick costs $15 to $20.

“Before I got married I played every night,” said Bush, who is from New Haven, Conn. “But my wife put a stop to that.”

Still, Bush gets out on the ice as much as he can.

“It’s something that gets in your blood,” Bush said. “It’s something you can’t get enough of.”