Web Site Gives Fans Chance to Catch Up

Joe Popp, a 23-year-old former computer student at Cypress College, decided to become his own source of information about roller hockey, particularly the Bullfrogs.

He has built a web site providing information on the Bullfrogs complete with statistics, box scores and personal comments.

“The league page isn’t kept up-to-date very well and the Bullfrog page, which was OK last year, isn’t being used this year,” he said.

Popp, who calls his page the Unofficial Bullfrog Page, is one of many roller hockey fans who have established web sites.

The newsgroup Plaidworks (https://www.roller-hockey-intl@plaidworks.com), is free and lets fans send game results and tell others about the game.

And after requests by regular contributors, RHI now posts its standings and statistics on Plaidworks. They’re not always the latest or most up to date, but at least they provide more than most local media outlets around the country do.

Some of the contributions to Plaidworks have been important.

For instance, readers learned about a brawl in a game between Minnesota and Ottawa. They discovered that owners of the Long Island Jawz announced they would be folding at the end of the season. A game between San Jose and Oklahoma in Tulsa was postponed, according to one posting on the site, because Tulsa officials put soda water instead of soda syrup on the concrete playing surface by mistake. Sticky soda syrup is commonly used to make the wheels of in-line skates grip the surface better.

Finally, a newsgroup contributor was the first to report that goalkeepers Mark Cavallin of Oakland and Joe Bonvie of San Jose would not have to sit out their next games, contrary to league rules, after they were tossed out of a game for fighting each other. Both were allowed to choose when they would sit out and that enabled Cavallin to play July 17 and post a 9-8 shootout victory over the Bullfrogs.

Although he has no connection with roller hockey newsgroups, Popp thinks they, and pages like his, reach audiences that other media don’t.

“They really show how each individual team is supported,” he said. “There’s a really good following for this league and this shows that roller hockey will continue to grow and be a force.”

The Unofficial Bullfrog Page can be reached at https://home.earthlink.net/cyke/bullfrogs/index.html.

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The trade of injured Darren Banks, once a mainstay of the Bullfrog defense, to the Long Island Jawz raised a few eyebrows.

The Bullfrogs got future considerations and a sixth-round pick in the 1997 draft, but the Jawz announced in mid-July that they are folding at the end of the season because of a dispute with the NHL’s New York Islanders over the right to sell advertisements on dasher boards controlled by the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum. When talks failed, the Jawz sued the Islanders, but a judge threw out the lawsuit on July 10 and shortly thereafter Jawz owners threw in the towel.

Bullfrog owner Maury Silver said he believes the Jawz will move to Boston next year rather than fold. He said he expects RHI to honor the deal either way because Jawz owners also own the New Jersey Rockin’ Rollers.

Bullfrog Coach Grant Sonier identified injured Jawz winger Ronnie Pasco as the player he wants to complete the trade.

Meanwhile, Banks, 30, hasn’t played in a month. He never got up to full strength after an extended season with the Las Vegas Thunder of the International Hockey League, where he strained a groin muscle. Banks, a notorious enforcer, had 46 penalty minutes with the Bullfrogs while playing sparingly in nine games.

Chris McSorley, Banks’ coach with the Thunder, is the director of player personnel for the Jawz, a position he held with the Bullfrogs until this season. McSorley coached the Bullfrogs to the first RHI title in 1993 and did the same with the Buffalo Stampede in 1994.

The Jawz are in a tight race with Orlando and Empire State for the top spot in the Atlantic Division.

Banks is the second enforcer traded by the Bullfrogs. In May they sent Daniel Shank to Orlando for the rights to Glenn Stewart and future considerations.

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The NHL, in conjunction with the International Ice Hockey Federation, is sponsoring the first In-Line Hockey World Championships beginning Sunday and running through Aug. 10 in St. Paul, Minn. Twelve nations, including the United States, will be represented.

The NHL’s participation has drawn some interest because of its talks with RHI leaders about some type of merger. Three teams in RHI are affiliated with, or owned by, NHL teams and Calgary is expected to have a team next year that will be the property of the Flames.

In a prepared statement in regard to the World Championships, Steve Solomon, NHL senior vice president and chief operating officer, did little to quell rumors that have made for good chatter on the Internet.

“As we continue our efforts to promote the game of hockey at all levels and in all forms, we are pleased to be working with the IIHF to establish this inaugural World Championship and build awareness of the in-line version of the game,” he said. “The natural synergy between in-line hockey and ice hockey will facilitate the growth and popularity of hockey on a global scale.”