When These Women Skate, It’s Not Exactly Ice Capades

In her line of work, it’s not prudent for Jamie Lee Curtis to risk life and limb away from the set. The actress’ body is not only the subject of various industry insurance policies, but when making a movie, she is often required to sign waivers pledging not to engage in dangerous forms of sport.

Curtis, however, is more than willing to help other women enter the fray, and does so by sponsoring the Chix With Stix in-line roller hockey team, which competes in a fledgling women’s roller hockey league at the Ice Chalet in Panorama City.

Last year, during their first season, Chix With Stix eliminated several predominantly men’s teams en route to winning a coed novice league at Ralph Foy Park in Burbank.

“Everyone comes to the games and looks good and smells good and then we play some mean hockey,” said team member Margaret Lux, a 31-year old finance manager from West Hollywood.

Said teammate Sheri Salinas, a 35-year old Internet web site designer from Burbank: “We’re all very feminine, we’re not bruisers. But, grrr, you get out there and those male hormones kick in.”

The team, which has a roster of 10 women from 20 to 40, grew out of coed pickup games, first in Santa Monica’s beachfront parking lots and then on basketball courts at a North Hollywood park.

When many of the men involved in the gatherings drifted away to organized leagues, the women decided to form their own team.

One of those women was Laurel Chaney, Curtis’ personal assistant. When Chaney mentioned her new team, Curtis immediately asked if she and her daughter, 11-year old Annie Guest, could sponsor the team.

“Theirs is the kind of endeavor that needs support,” Curtis said. “I get asked for money all the time in politics or the environment or education. But you don’t always feel a personal connection to those things. This is proactive and positive and it makes a tiny difference to a group of women.”

In order to overcome a lack of technical skill during their first season, team members attended weekly cram sessions to absorb the sport. The three- to four-hour meetings were run by co-Coaches Brad Schmidt and Jimmy Markus, who play in Burbank’s men’s roller hockey leagues.

“They’d kick our [butts],” Chaney said of the coaches’ sessions, which included a skills clinic, practice and a lengthy scrimmage. “But they took a bunch of girls who didn’t even know how to handle a stick and had us play as a team.”

Schmidt, 45, a former college ice hockey player, was impressed with the players’ improvement.

“Most guys who play roller hockey have had some experience and you can’t teach them anything, even if they could benefit from learning some technique,” Schmidt said. “But the women don’t come in with any preconceived notions of having technique, so they want to learn everything.”

Chix With Stix earned the novice league’s final playoff berth and upset an undefeated team of men in a semifinal. Before the championship game, team members received roses and inspirational cards from Curtis, who was vacationing in the Pacific Northwest.

“It was their big game,” Curtis said. “We went to bed really anxious to learn if they’d won.”

Chaney and her teammates woke Curtis at midnight with a celebratory phone call.

Despite that victory and two other league titles that have followed, the Chix With Stix say they still encounter resistance when playing against men.

“It’s still tough, they hate being beat by women,” Chaney said. “We had four girls on the coed team I play on now and a couple don’t come anymore because they’re sick of the attitudes.”

Hoping to increase women’s participation in their sport, Chix With Stix this year decided to join the new women’s league at Ice Chalet.

Competition has not been as fierce as in the Burbank park league, but Chaney said she believes more women will join the indoor league as they become aware of it and of the women’s skills clinic offered at the rink.

“Girls are much more intimidated by starting out,” Chaney said. “It takes me 20 to 30 minutes longer to convince a girl to try it than a guy. But I really think a lot more will come out soon.”

Said Salinas: “I’d encourage anyone who’s willing to play to go for it because it’s all ages and you don’t have to be an excellent player.

“But be ready to come home bruised sometimes. My husband made me buy all the [protective] equipment so the neighbors wouldn’t think he beat me.”