COVER STORY : RINK RATS : Ice Hockey Becomes the Sport for All Seasons Among Hundreds of Kids Who Join Leagues

It’s a little odd to hear Sam May say he’s a midget. When the 16-year-old ice hockey goalie puts on his heavily padded jersey, pants, chest and knee protectors and a hel met that looks safe enough to use when riding a motorcycle, he’s close to six feet tall and as big as the tractorlike Zamboni machine that smooths the ice during breaks.

A member of the California Golden Bears Youth Hockey Club’s midget team, made up of 16- and 17-year-olds, he moves off the ice at Pickwick Arena in Burbank with a grace you wouldn’t expect of someone his size. May has been a rink rat since he was small, always hanging around the ice rink, face pressed up against the glass, trying to get as close to the action as possible. “I love this game,” he said, after a tough practice blocking shots. “I love to stop the puck.”

May isn’t the only one who loves the game. In an area of the country devoid of ice and cold weather usually associated with the sport, hockey is drawing a crowd of young people. The Southern California Amateur Hockey Assn., the sport’s local governing body, estimates that enrollments at local clubs is up 20% over last year, and 50% over 1989. About 3,000 boys and girls ages of 6 to 17 are involved in 14 clubs throughout Southern California.

Locally, about 600 youths play in organized hockey at three different rinks. The West Valley Wolves play at the new Iceoplex arena in North Hills, the Golden Bears are based at the Pickwick Arena in Burbank, and the Flames of the Valley Hockey Development Center in North Hollywood skate at the Ice Capades Chalet in North Hollywood.

“Until Wayne Gretzky came to the Los Angeles Kings, I don’t think people gave much thought to ice hockey in Southern California,” Auburn Taylor, the commissioner of the amateur association, said of Gretzky’s arrival in L.A. in 1988. “He made the sport look new and exciting, which got kids interested in it.”

“I think the main reason for the popularity of youth ice hockey is the popularity of street hockey,” said John Libby, vice president of the California Golden Bears. “The kids get these inexpensive roller-blades, a stick, and some equipment and they’re out there playing. They’re learning how to control the puck and how the game works. We find that the kids who come to us after playing street hockey develop good skating skills and pick up the game fairly quickly.”

Taylor believes that hockey is attracting better athletes locally, as evidenced by the good fortune in April of a team of 16- and 17-year-olds chosen from clubs within the amateur hockey association. The Southern California team beat its peers from parts of the United States where ice hockey is as common as skateboarding is here to win a national championship in the midget class in Peoria, Ill.

Clubs are organized first according to age. Mini-mites are 6 and younger, mites are 7 to 9, squirts 10 and 11, peewees 12 and 13, bantams 14 and 15, and midgets 16 and 17. Within each age class are three teams organized on ability. The B team is best, followed by the C+ and C teams.

The clubs then play each other by age group in a 22-game season that starts in September and continues through March, with a playoff series that goes through April.

“It’s organized so that the children are pretty evenly matched for competitiveness and safety. You don’t want a bunch of big kids charging into some little guys,” Libby said.

“It’s set up so that even if a child’s skating isn’t great and they’re not very knowledgeable about the game, they can play and develop their skills,” he said.

Sam May, a junior at Burroughs High School in Burbank, has been playing ice hockey since he was 8, after getting interested in it by watching games on TV. His desire to play rubbed off on his family. Eventually his father, Mike, got involved. He’s now president of the Golden Bears.

Sam’s sister, Kathy, 14, joined the Golden Bears at age 9. Their mother, Nancy May, is the registrar for the club.

“It isn’t easy getting the kids to and from practices and games all the time, but it’s fun. That’s the main thing,” Nancy said.

The addition this year of the West Valley Wolves reflects the growing local interest in youth hockey.

“We had about 1,000 kids interested in the club, and only about 200 spots are open on a first-come, first-served basis,” said Larry Bruyere, president of the Wolves. “It’s unfortunate that we can’t accommodate more players.”

Bruyere, who has coached youth hockey for 15 years with the Golden Bears and the Flames, sees more evidence of the sport’s popularity every time he’s near the ice. “You see these rink rats watching games and getting out there during public skating sessions all the time. They don’t have the stick skills yet, but they’re working on skating and they’re hoping one day to be out there playing.”

On a recent afternoon, Bryan Tell, 12, had his father, Mike, drive him to Iceoplex from their Santa Clarita home so Bryan could take part in an informal workout at the rink. “I’d like to play center, because centers are the ones who score,” Bryan said.

“He’s never been on the ice before,” said Mike, who drives Bryan on the 50-mile round-trip at least once a week. “He’s been involved in a roller-blade hockey league and wanted to give this a try.”

“I had a hard time learning how to skate,” said Steve Van Sandt, 10, of Van Nuys, who skated at Iceoplex during a recent public session and hopes to be on the Wolves this season. “But after three or four times, I got good at it. I can skate, and now I can play.”

“It’s better than roller-blade hockey,” said Erik Cambell, 9, of North Hollywood, a rink rat who rides his bike occasionally to the nearby Ice Capades Chalet to skate or watch the Valley Flames practice. “You go faster and you hit the puck harder. My parents were going to let me join last year but they said it costs a lot, so this season I’ll be joining a club.”

One of the main drawbacks to having a child involved in ice hockey is the cost.

“It’s an expensive sport, there’s no question about that,” said Bruyere, whose club offers discounts for families who pay their season dues in advance (instead of monthly) and for more than one child involved in hockey.

Because of rink rental fees, which range from $225 to $250 per hour, monthly dues for the clubs hover around $100 per child during the seven-month season. During summer, rental fees for practices and scrimmages are divided among the participants and average $10 to $15 per skater per session. Equipment generally costs $250 to $500, and includes shoulder and hip pads, shin guards, elbow pads, a helmet with a cage or face plate and a mouthpiece.

To help with the high costs of keeping the rats on ice, the clubs try to cut expenses. “We do whatever we can to cut costs, to keep the kids we have involved,” said Roni White, who, along with her husband, Jack, runs the Flames club, at the Ice Capades Chalet in North Hollywood.

“For families that can’t afford to have their children in hockey, we have a scholarship program that’s been very successful,” Libby said. “We also have extra equipment available for those who need it.”

The sport also requires a lot of time. “Ice time is always at a premium at every rink, so we often have to have practices at 5 a.m.,” said Jay Orendorff, whose 15-year-old grandson plays on one of the Golden Bears bantam teams.

Those who watch the Kings or other teams in the National Hockey League know that violence is part of the professional game. In youth hockey, however, the rules against hitting, slashing or spearing are strict. Near the end of a midget game this past season, one player got mad at another and knocked or “checked” him into the boards surrounding the ice. In the pros, he’d have to sit out for a couple of minutes. But in youth hockey rules, he was suspended from his team’s next game.

“He was one of the best players on the team, and the next game was against one of the best teams in the league,” said one parent. “He was crushed, and his mother and father left the rink in tears.”

“The regulations are too tough to be out there hitting people,” White said. “You can get kicked out for too many violations.”

Most parents are reassured about safety once they see a game. “These kids have so much padding, and the rules are set up to keep them from getting hurt,” Orendorff said.

“The hockey players who I see generally haven’t suffered any serious injuries,” said George Thomas, a physical therapist with Indian Hills Physical Therapy Clinic in Mission Hills. “Since youth hockey is organized into different skill levels, you’ll find that the kids generally don’t generate enough speed or power to cause injury. Plus, because your feet slide out from under you, you don’t see the severe knee or ankle problems that occur in a sport like football, where the shoe grips into the turf with cleats.”

At least one player on the Golden Bears suffered the kind of injury that required arthroscopic surgery. “It happened in the first few minutes of the first game of the season,” said Kathy May, Sam’s sister. Kathy injured her knee when she was charged by an opponent while looking to score. “It hurt a little, but I didn’t miss a game the whole season,” she said proudly.

The clubs encourage girls to try out for the sport. “I’ve seen problems where the daughter wants to play hockey and the father’s all for it but the mother wants her to figure skate, because that’s what you usually see girls do,” White said. “But if the child is interested in hockey, the best thing is to let them try it. My husband is Canadian, and my daughter has a dream to one day be the first female goalie in the Olympics for Team Canada.”

“It’s really a sport for dreamers; you never get too old to play,” Libby said. “Kids might play Little League, then when they get older they’ll join a softball league. They might play basketball in school, then they’ll play in pickup games at a park. But with hockey, you can go to a rink at midnight and see a game between two clubs made up of 50-year-olds. It seems as though once you play it, you’re hooked. You’ve always got to hang around the rink.”

WHERE TO GO

Youth hockey: For information about youth hockey, contact:

The California Golden Bears, (818) 954-8639

The Flames of the Valley Hockey Development Center, (818) 506-0055

The West Valley Wolves, (818) 892-3523.