Clinic Attains Goal of Sticking Around - Ice hockey: Jack White helps the sport secure a foothold in L. A. by dedicating himself to the teaching of fundamentals.

A few years ago, an unruly youngster was disrupting an ice hockey clinic that Jack White and hockey great Gordie Howe were conducting. White drew a cartoon of Howe spearing the smart-mouthed teen-ager with a hockey stick and posted it on a nearby wall.

There were no further disturbances.

White’s clinics can be a little unconventional.

But conducting hockey clinics in Los Angeles is a rather unconventional line of work.

In 1974, White, a Studio City resident, developed Hockey Basics, a program designed for youngsters. The clinics incorporated skating drills, puck control and stickhandling maneuvers.

When White’s clinic began, he worked with 15 children. Today, the clinics are three days a week year-round, and White has 50 to 75 students a session at either Van Nuys Iceland, the Ice Capades Chalet in North Hollywood or the Pasadena Ice Skating Center. The clinics are no longer just for youngsters. Some participants are aged 50 and older.

“When I started Hockey Basics, it was primarily to develop Eric (LeMarque, his stepson),” White, 48, said. “It’s amazing to see what it’s become.”

LeMarque, a West Hills resident, was drafted by the Boston Bruins in 1987 and will report to their training camp this summer. Los Angeles residents Chris Nelson and Robert Mendel, also Hockey Basics graduates, were drafted by the Quebec Nordiques and the New Jersey Devils, respectively. Other former students are playing at the collegiate level on scholarship.

“The idea behind Hockey Basics is that we wanted to make hockey interesting here,” White said. “There was nothing like it when we started.”

The program remains unusual in California because it is strictly a practice session designed to complement a competitive amateur program.

Bruce Busher, a member of Cal State Northridge’s club hockey team, has been White’s student for 11 years.

“He’s the only one out here who teaches the fundamental skills necessary to play hockey competitively,” Busher said. “Everything he teaches you is something you’ll eventually use.”

In one drill, students place their sticks upside down on the ice and twirl them around, attempting to skate around the stick once before it falls.

“Quick feet are the name of the game,” White said.

But White insists that his students also develop their own drills.

“We want everyone to be creative on the ice,” White said. “It makes the hockey more interesting.”

White, who teaches with the help of Danny Moriarty, also has been assisted by Kings forward Dave Taylor and former star defensemen Bobby Orr and Keith Magnuson.

“He really cares about what he’s doing,” said Howe, who often appears at the clinics. “It’s nice to see someone with that much commitment in Los Angeles.

“White is a glue. Gretz (Wayne Gretzky) got the excitement going, and now it’s up to a guy like Jack to make it stick,” Howe said.

Since Gretzky was traded to the Kings from Edmonton in August, 1988, attendance at White’s clinics has nearly tripled.

“No doubt about it,” White said, “Gretzky is the messiah.”

But for 14 years before the Great One migrated south, White was on the ice with anyone who wanted to play hockey.

“I once had a teacher tell me that in life, everything you do is 10% talent and 90% hard work. I tell the kids that,” said White, who played professional hockey for a minor-league team in Dallas.

White, who formerly worked as a studio cartoonist with Hanna Barbera, left the studios to dedicate himself to amateur hockey.

He is the head coach of the UCLA club hockey team, coaches National Novice Hockey Assn. teams for adults, plays with the Celebrity All-Star team that plays exhibitions against NHL alumni throughout the Unites States and Canada, and works as a technical adviser for many film companies. He said that working with Michael Keaton on Keaton’s hockey film, “Touch and Go,” was one of his hockey highlights.

But he enjoys working with anyone involved in hockey.

“Jack is really unselfish,” said actor Alan Thicke, who plays on the Celebrity All-Star team. “He spends time with anyone if they truly want to learn.”

John Mickler, director of amateur scouting for the Buffalo Sabres, assisted White one week.

“Jack gets the maximum use out of an hour and a half. What he accomplishes in one clinic is what is normally accomplished in five or six normal team practices,” Mickler said.

Sam Kuzyk, 10, is a regular at White’s clinics. Donald Kuzyk, Sam’s father, said: “Someone said that the only thing wrong with Jack is that he yells sometimes. But would you whisper if you had 50 kids smacking their sticks on the ice?”

Jack White might not speak softly, but he always carries his hockey stick.