A fantastic asset here in Fort Collins, CO are the various outdoor roller hockey rinks. Lucky for us the best rink is less than ten minutes from the house. Fossil Creek Park has a lot to offer, an outdoor hockey rink complete with nets, benches, boards and a nearby water fountain. Saturday mornings belong to a tight group of friends. Generally this group consists of hockey dads and their boys. Oh, we have one hockey mom too, Jan Baby is there and always brings her a game. Ask anybody who tries to beat her. This a a venue where the coaches get schooled by their kids. Consider coaches Brian George, Shane Chipp and Flash Buddy who seem to be getting driven into the boards by the likes of Tim George (heavy hitter), out skated by Jason Chipp, and out scored by Max Alexander. His dad still thinks all those posts he hits are flukes.

There are no membership requirements other than to show up with a stick and a pair of skates. Players begin arriving as early as eight to beat the summer heat and play through the noon hour.  So come on out and enjoy the fruits of Fort Collins. It’s hockey eh?!

Many teams complain of suffering after the Christmas break. January blues? I get that. It is at this time of our season that I find myself pushing to keep the effort high. Generally I sell January as the time to prepare for the next hockey goal or hockey season. The second year bantams will be looking toward high school hockey. Many rec players will be wanting to make the jump to competitive, and competitive a’s will want to make aa, no?

I take the time to explain how all sports, all successful athletes use the summer to strengthen, add new skills polish up and make new goals. It starts in January!

I  hear stories on a somewhat regular basis that the ice coach doesn’t like roller, and in some cases even refuses to allow players to play.

I’m not insinuating that these players mentioned do not have extensive ice back grounds as well, but I am saying that they’ll also tell you that not only did roller not hurt their game, it helped it.

Summer roller hockey has been a great avenue for players who need to polish up on stick handling, play making. Those slow sport courts and heavy soft urethane wheels will build a players sprint up ice muscles. Just ask Paul Stastny. Paul played roller  hockey growing up in St. Louis, MO and most recently played on the TMD (Team Mad Dogs) Teams in 05. BTW, the guy on the right is Paul Statsny.

Who Plays Roller Hockey?

Brad Boyes (St. Louis Blues)
Paul Stastny (Colorado Avalanche)
Sam Gagner (Edmonton Oilers)
Ales Hemsky (Edomnton Oilers)
Mike Comrie (New York Islanders)
Rick Di Pietro (New York Islanders)
Mike Van Ryn (Florida Panthers)
David Booth (Florida Panthers)
Devin Setoguchi (San Jose Sharks)
Dominik Hasek (Detroit Red Wings)
Gilbert Brule (Columbus Blue Jackets)
T.J. Hensick (Colorado Avalanche)

Son makes his father proud…
While Max and I stayed home Zac and his mom Jan Baby escaped the 95 degree Fort Collins heat by heading to San Jose, CA for the 2008 National Roller Hockey Championship Finals. Zac plays defense fot the OD’s Dare Devils whom managed to get themselves into the AA Gold level. The team as a whole had a disappointing showing going 1 for four. Zac, however, stood out of the crowd when it came to the skills competition where he entered the speed skating. Zac finished 4th place out of the fifty competitors entered in the contest. Considering the venu was hosting a national championship event I think I can rightly swell with pride.

Note: View and or Download a full size team photo.

View: NARCh photos by Sean Cohelan

by Melissa Alcorn

What a great weekend of hockey!! While we didn’t come home with medals or trophy’s we saw some great competition and played some tough teams. It was great to hear from the State Wars director how impressive our teams talent is coming from a small area of Northern Colorado, your kids worked hard to get that recognition. Thanks to all of our parents who had early morning drives this weekend and tired kids this morning, with out your support our players wouldn’t be such great kids. Thanks also to our coaches and team managers who took off early from work or school and who spent lots of time on the benches and the bleachers this weekend, Thank You for all your time!

Here is the weekend wrap up:

Our U10 Team had a rough start, with 5 skaters on Friday against one of the toughest teams in the tournament, but kept playing hard all weekend. We are very proud of their 4th place finish in the 1997 age group and they should be too considering that 90% of the team are 1998’s and that the last game against the Scorpions was a tie and that team took first place in the tournament. Way to go!!!

Final standings:

1st-Florida Scorpions; 2nd -Colorado Black Bears; 3rd-St. Louis Cobras; 4th -OD’s DareDevils;

Our U12 1995 team also had mostly 1996 age players in the 1995 age group and took a very respectable 3rd place, loosing their playoff game to the Crash Dummies who took home 1st place in the tournament.

Final Standings:

1st-Crash Dummies; 2nd-Wolverines; 3rd-OD’s DareDevils;

The U14 teams played some tough competition in the 1994 and 1993 divisions. The 1994 team had two tie games and a win over the St. Louis Cobra’s. Their playoff game against the Cobra’s was a heartbreaking overtime loss and was the game to watch in the 1994 division. The Cobra’s went on the win the Championship with a mercy over the Wolverines leaving the DareDevils 1994 team with 3rd place. The 1993 team played hard in their playoff game loosing to the Pazimps who took second in the Championship game, leaving the 1993 team with 5th place. The competition for this age group looks fierce this year and the U14’s are looking forward to playing some of these teams again.

Final Standings 1994:

1st-St. Louis Cobras; 2nd-Wolverines; 3rd- OD’s DareDevils

Final Standings 1993:

1st-Wolverines; 2nd-Pazimps; 3rd-CO Wild; 4th-Mustangs; 5th OD’s DareDevils

Be sure to check out the photo’s and articles about the Winter Wars tournament on the State Wars web page, there are some about our DareDevils.

Thanks again for being such great parents.

Zac was one of the forty players selected to the Colorado High School All Stars teams. His selection was based upon his performance for the Preston Jr. High School PSD Lightning team. Zac competed in the Speed Skating event against the forty other all stars. Players skated two at a time separated by half a rink distance. Zac finished with the lowest overall time to win the 2007 CHSIHL Top Speed Skater award.

View the video