SURF’S UP : Former Pros and Division I Players Are Rebuilding Area Hockey Interest

In 1973, Hollywood offered “Soylent Green,” a futuristic movie depicting life in a terrarium-like environment.

Sandy Fitzpatrick, coach of the San Diego Surf Hockey Club, can relate.

“San Diego plays what I call a greenhouse type of hockey,” Fitzpatrick said, referring to the natural surroundings that keep ice hockey in a survival mode.

Surf Hockey is the latest attempt to resurrect the sport in San Diego, where people prefer their surf with sand and sun rather than sticks and sweaters. The Surf, a pro-amateur Senior A division team, is made up of 23 former Division I college and professional players and plays in the Pacific Southwest Hockey League.

Fitzpatrick understands that a median temperature of 68 degrees isn’t helpful to the cause. “Here, obviously, baseball is the No. 1 sport,” he said. “It’s a natural with the weather.”

The Surf also must face the reality that San Diego has no professional team--how much this area will benefit from the Los Angeles Kings’ acquisition of Wayne Gretzky won’t be known for years.

“A pro team helps to maintain interest in a sport,” said Fitzpatrick, a native of Canada. “San Diego has a major league baseball team. In Canada, it’s same idea, only the sport is hockey. There it’s a national pastime.”

History, too, offers sober warnings.

Last April, when U.S. International University dropped its Division I hockey program, San Diego lost its latest link to a sport with which it has had a tumultuous relationship.

From 1966 to 1979, the city tried and failed to maintain the Gulls of the Western Hockey League, the Mariners of the World Hockey Assn., the Hawks of the Pacific Hockey League and the Sharks of the Pacific Southwest League. But their demise wasn’t strictly for lack of interest, Fitzpatrick said.

“It’s tough around here,” he said, “but there’s a lot involved with the loss of a franchise.”

Fitzpatrick turned professional when he was 16 and moved to San Diego when he was traded to Gulls, for whom he played from 1969 to 1974.

“The Gulls had a good following,” he said. But in 1974, the Mariners came, and the Gulls went. “There was a love affair with the Gulls that didn’t show though with the Mariners. The Gulls were more of a novelty, they really reached out to the community in a different way. There was the feeling that the Mariners ran the Gulls out of town.”

The Surf--Fitzpatrick picked the name (“I thought it was a natural.”)--came into being when Michael Kirby, the new owner of the San Diego Ice Arena, decided to field a team.

Kirby took over the rink last February. Tricia Shafer, Kirby’s daughter and the arena’s general manager, came with him.

“When we came,” Shafer said, “USIU had their program here, and when they folded, we just wanted to fill the void.”

The rink’s summer senior league attracts approximately 200 skaters, and Shafer wanted to feed their hockey appetites. “We realized,” Shafer said, “there was a big interest and a hard-core following of hockey fans.”

Shafer says Kirby has invested about $70,000. “Their travel expenses, equipment, uniforms and ice time are all paid for,” she said, “but they aren’t paid to play.”

Last summer, Shafer asked John Bjeldanes, the president of San Diego’s youth hockey program, to help organize the effort to start a pro-amateur team.

“John had ties to the community and did lots of the legwork,” Shafer said. Bjeldanes asked Fitzpatrick to be the coach, a selection that pleased Shafer. “Sandy had an excellent reputation,” she said.

Former USIU player Rob Watson, a goalie from Toronto, was so excited about the opportunity to stay in San Diego and play for the Surf that he used up the last year of his post-graduate training visa to stay.

“It’s the reason I stay,” said Watson, the girls’ softball coach at San Dieguito High School and also coach of a midget hockey team at the rink. “It was sad to see the USIU program fold, and this was an opportunity to play again. I enjoy the higher level of competition.”

The Surf plays at a level that is competitive but fun.

“It’s fairly low-key,” Fitzpatrick said, “but it can get pretty competitive. Tempers still flare. They’ll drop their sticks and duke it out. If they weren’t competitive, they never would have reached this level.”

Jim Malwitz has played hockey since he was 3 and played for the University of Minnesota and the Indianapolis Checkers of the International League. He has only been in San Diego for 2 years but said the Surf’s level of play surprised him.

“I didn’t think it would be as competitive as it is,” he said. “These guys go out hard, they love to play.”

Watson, 25, said that this type of amateur hockey is different from Division I or NHL play.

“It’s a slower game,” Watson said, “but people use their minds.”

M.F. Schurman, 30, son-in-law of former Mariners Coach Ron Ingram, retired from the pros in 1984, the victim of a hockey-related knee injury; he played with Hartford of the NHL in 1979-80 and with New Jersey in 1982-83. He finds Senior A hockey a challenge, but also a relief from the vigors of the pros.

“It’s nice, because in college or the pros, it’s do or die. Here, your hidden talent comes out more because you’re not afraid to try things, you play a little looser. You don’t have to worry about, ‘Will I be here tomorrow?’ ”

Schurman planned to join the Surf as a coach, but he didn’t have to rub sticks together to get the competitive embers started.

“Gradually,” Schurman said, “the desire to play came back. It’s a inbreed thing. I decided I missed it.”

In its first season, the Surf is riding the crest of 10-0-1 record that has everyone, from general manager to coach to players, in a high spirits. Saturday at the arena, the Surf defeated defending league champion Fresno, 10-4, then tied the visitors, 4-4, on Sunday. This Saturday and Sunday, the Surf plays host to the Los Angeles-based California Hawks at 4:30.

“Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but we’re the best team in the league by far, talent-wise,” Schurman said.

Said Fitzpatrick: “I was surprised at how strong we ended up being, not as far as their hockey background, but how they played together as a team. As we got going, we started playing together so well.”

Management is also pleased.

“We were concerned with putting together a quality team,” Shafer said. “People out here are more spoiled when it comes to sports team. They like winning teams.”

There are 12 players on Fitzpatrick’s roster of 27 who played at USIU and chose, for educational or eligibility reasons, to remain in San Diego. Two others are Amateur Hockey League veterans and one did a tour in the National Hockey League. The remaining players are Division I tough.

“I got lucky,” said Fitzpatrick, who had to trim from a tryout crowd of 40. “I tripped across some guys who wanted to play and could play at this level.”

Fitzpatrick said it would take 2 or 3 years for the team to catch on and become established in San Diego, and team members would like to see that happen.

“I’d like to see organized hockey catch on,” Watson said. “If (San Diegans) see a better brand of hockey, it’s going to catch on.”

Said Fitzpatrick: “The attitude here is, how many people even care about hockey? We’re hoping we’ll be able to get the word out and continue next season what we’ve already started. Everyone I talk to has their fingers crossed.”

Schurman, too, hopes the Surf will stay. “I’m past the point where I’m used to playing in front of 10,000 or 20,000 people, but I would like to see more people come out and watch us. The people who do come keep coming back.”

Shafer said approximately 600-700 attend games and that in the future, Kirby might try and get an NHL-affiliated minor league team here.

Malwitz said he sees no reason hockey can’t succeed in San Diego. “With Gretzky coming out here, kids that are 5-15 years old now are watching him. He’s having a definite impact. I don’t see anything holding it back.”

Added Watson: “If people get involved in watching the Kings and get kids and more coaches involved, it’s going to catch on.”