Gulls Lure Old Hand to Teach Youngsters : Hockey: Former USIU player Darren Lowe returns to San Diego to help fledgling team.

He had become accustomed to harsh winters and snow chains, but former U.S. International player Darren Lowe nonetheless recommitted to a climate that includes Santa Ana winds in February, taking the latest news like an accidental tourist.

“Only five minutes to the beach? That’s great,” said Lowe, delighted to find that the Hard Rock Cafe, his eating haunt, is within walking distance of La Jolla Cove.

Lowe is one of 11 players the San Diego Gulls of the International Hockey League signed before training camp tryouts began a week ago and one of the first General Manager Don Waddell sought. Because Lowe is two-dimensional, a leader on the ice and a teacher off it, landing him was a priority.

“I probably know him better than anyone else in this organization,” said Waddell, Lowe’s coach with the IHL’s Flint (Mich.) Spirits both in 1987-88 and last season. “Sometimes you get athletes who think they’re better than everyone else. With a guy like Darren, he’ll do a lot of public relations for the team, he’ll come ready to play every night, and he’s very willing to help the young guys.”

Lowe had his most productive year to date--53 goals, 64 assists--under Waddell in 1987-88 at Flint. Waddell believed Lowe still had enough good years in him to give a fledgling team something it needed.

But he had to be coaxed to come here. Lowe, a Toronto native, has a degree in education from the University of Toronto and is credentialed to teach high school physical education. When he became a free agent at the end of last season, he received offers to play in Europe and around the International and American hockey leagues but initially decided the only checking he’d be doing would be of test scores in the classroom.

“I was ready to move on,” Lowe said. “In Canada, you can make good money teaching, it’s not like here, where I hear the money’s not always that great. It’s a good profession there.”

And more lucrative than going up against guys considerably younger. Lowe, who turns 30 next month, is no longer an up-and-coming player. No one need remind him he’s not the spry guy who skated for Team Canada in 1983-84, the same year he represented that country in the 1984 Olympics.

“I think I’ll be productive because of my experience,” he said. “But physically, I’m starting to realize that time has taken away something from my game. I’m having to learn ways to compensate. I have to rest more and take care of myself. I need more time to recover.”

Lowe said San Diego can provide an atmosphere to soothe whatever hockey wounds might need attention. He spent 1979-80 here, when he played for the now-defunct U.S. International Gulls--another program he join in its infancy--and knows what grass-roots hockey in Southern California is all about.

“The hockey was great,” he said. “This isn’t a place you’d think there would be hockey, but we had the best team the school ever had.”

But he was as unhappy with the facilities at USIU as he was happy with the hockey and transferred to the University of Toronto, playing junior and university hockey there the next three years.

“If I had a different major, maybe I would have stayed (at USIU),” he said.

Waddell repeats Coach Mike O’Connell critique of Lowe’s game, which he says is aggressive.

“He’s very explosive and has the ability to be a danger from anywhere,” said Waddell, who sees Lowe as a frequent contributor on the power play. “He’s a very good puck-handler and he’s not afraid. He’s willing to take the bumps.”

Luckily, Lowe has been spared those that pioneers had to take 20 years ago, when the first black entered professional hockey. He plays it down, but Lowe still has the distinction of being one of a handful of blacks in pro hockey. Last year, there were five in the NHL, three in the IHL (including Lowe) and one in the AHL.

“I never thought much about it when I was in Canada,” he said. “Toronto was a really multicultural city. They have a little bit of everything there. I noticed it more in the States. The attitude was a little different. But it never seemed to be a real big deal anywhere.”

Not so for the athletes who preceded him, players such as Willie O’Ree, the first black to break into professional hockey when he played two NHL games for Boston in 1958.

“There were more incidents on the ice then there were from the fans,” said O’Ree, 54, a member of the original Gulls who also played with the Hawks and retired from the game in 1980. Because of his color, “racial problems were the only ones I had. It sure wasn’t because I was a wing or I skated too fast.”

O’Ree, who lives in San Diego, is also a native of Canada. He and Lowe said there aren’t more black hockey players because they aren’t exposed to it and because black heroes usually are found in other sports.

“Any other sport is played on a sandlot,” O’Ree said. “Hockey, you have to be on the ice. You have to adapt to it.”

Said Lowe: “You look at your heroes. They’re guys you see play the sports you like to play. In the States, that’s usually baseball and basketball. There’s a good chance, if I was raised in the States, I’d a baseball player.

As suspect as visitors might be to hockey talent in San Diego, Lowe said the image could be beneficial for the Gulls, at least long enough for them to get off to a good start in the league, in which Western Division-rival Phoenix was a first-year franchise in 1989-90.

“Last year, I had a lot of friends (on other teams) who played in Phoenix,” Lowe said. “They treated it like a vacation. When teams come here, if they play three games and lose the first two, coaches probably won’t let them go to the beach.”

But if it weren’t for San Diego’s many attractions--the beach being a significant one--Lowe might be teaching Base Running 101 in the snow.

“I’d have to say,” he said, “Don is a big part of the reason I’m here. If Don was in Albany, I’d have been a little more hesitant to come. It’s a good opportunity and a chance to gain more life experience.”

But Waddell had to sell the idea.

“‘It wasn’t the easiest negotiation I’ve had,” he said with a laugh. “He kept telling me how expensive it was to live in San Diego. He was setting me up for the kill.”