Hockey is surging and slashing in the Sunshine State
Greg McGrath
Photos by Jason Kaufman

Mention ice hockey to a typical Floridian, and you will likely get a clueless shrug in response. And the idea of playing ice hockey in Florida? Yeah, maybe when hell freezes over. But with two NHL teams, one International Hockey League team, four collegiate teams and ice rinks popping up quicker than palm trees, Florida is freezing over. From Miami to Pensacola, kids are trading in their gloves and cleats for sticks and skates.

Hockey has even arrived in Gainesville, thanks to some hockey-literate students and an encouraging sports clubs director. Although the nearest ice rink in Jacksonville is almost 100 miles away, the Gator Ice Hockey Club is about to start its third year in the College Hockey South, a conference within the American Collegiate Hockey Association.

The team was quickly put together after Jake LaJoie walked into the office of Gwain Davis with visions of Gators on ice. He was not taken lightly by Davis, club sports director for the University of Florida. Instead, Davis laughed, pointed to a poster of a women's ice hockey team on his wall and said it was about time somebody asked.

"Jake figured there were a lot of transplants like himself from up north that wanted to play," said Davis, 44, a transplant himself, originally from Chicago. Before coming to UF in January of 1995, Davis was director of club sports at the University of Minnesota, where college hockey is king. "We had to start from scratch, like starting our own franchise. We didn't even know if there was a league or any other teams around. And pretty much out of thin air, we started getting names, and then we had a team."

Davis, who worked closely with the men's and women's ice hockey clubs while at UM, is not surprised by hockey's ascension at UF or throughout the state. He said Lajoie's founding of the hockey team was something he knew would happen. And he couldn't be happier with the results.

"It's been fun for me to be around them. For me, as a sports club director, it's the ultimate sport to get involved in," Davis said. "Hockey is a special sport, and when you have a team you can follow easily, it gets in your blood. It's been amazing."

UF is just one of four Florida schools in its nine-team conference. The University of South Florida and the University of Central Florida have also put together their own teams, with Florida State University being the new kid on the block this year. The UF vs. FSU rivalry can now be settled on an unfamiliar surface: ice.

Davis points out that college hockey clubs, most of which play in the ACHA, easily outnumber NCAA hockey teams. While most of the clubs exist at schools with varsity hockey teams, club teams are forming all across the country in places just as unlikely as Florida. At the University of Arizona, the hockey club shares an arena with the national champion basketball team. Not to be outdone by its basketball counterparts, the Arizona hockey team sells 10,000 seats a game.

But it takes time for a team to solidify. This is true at UF as well.

"We weren't all that good our first year," said UF team president Matt Littell, a 20-year old engineering junior born in Pittsburgh. " But then sometime in January we had a team meeting, and we hashed it all out. We've only lost once since then, and that was in the playoffs."

Not bad for a team just turning three, though the players are anything but hockey novices. LaJoie, who graduated from UF after the first season, is a New York City native and life-long hockey player. He left behind a veteran team, which can only have 20 men on its traveling roster, all of whom must be UF students or faculty. Of the roster players and the 10 or so hopefuls who only practice with the team, few are actually native Floridians.

Most of the players on the team have at least high school hockey experience. Some have played for college varsity squads, including Merrimack graduate and team captain Doug Williamson. The forward has led the conference in scoring the past two years. Littell, who went to high school in Orlando, never saw ice time until he got to Gainesville.

"I wanted to play roller hockey, but I saw a flyer at the rec center, and I figured I'd go try out," said Littell, a defenseman. "I didn't know what to expect, to be honest."

What he did expect as club president was a lot of work. Since the team is a club team and not a varsity team, the players have to find ways to support themselves, along with sponsor money. Canadian equipment manufacturer CCM and Hockey Outfitters, a new equipment outlet here in Gainesville, are the team's sponsors.

Since the team has no ice to play on in Gainesville, they have to travel to Tampa or Jacksonville just to practice. Plans to build an Iceplex in Gainesville have stalled, leaving the Gators as the only team in their conference without home ice. So the team travels a hundred miles each weekend for practice and home games. Ice time and hotel costs can add up quickly, said Littell, who spends as much as 30 hours a week handling the team's plans and expenditures.

"We have to pay for the ice time ourselves, even for the games, and the late or early practice times allow us to rent the place cheaper," said Littell, whose team practices every Friday evening and early Saturday morning, except on game weekends. "Every guy on the team probably has spent five to six hundred bucks to do this. We've had guys sell blood."

The team used to travel every Friday to Jacksonville for midnight practice, followed by hockey at dawn the following morning. The price was right, but the ice conditions in Jacksonville were not. This season, the team has found a new home in Tampa at the Ice Sports Forum. How's the ice there? Just ask anyone on the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning. They practice there, too.

But the team needs to practice often, so they tie on roller blades and hit the concrete. There's a roller-hockey court behind the tennis courts at Broward Hall, and the hockey team shows up at least once a week to skate around. Unfortunately, the goalies can't practice in their gear because the concrete will ruin their leather pads. And play is often stopped when the red puck gets stuck in the fence or lost under someone's bag. The players, of course, are less than enthusiastic about roller practice.

"It sucks. There is no other way to describe it," said Littell.

But practice makes perfect. Well, at least it makes you better.

"We gotta keep up with the other teams since we're the only team without home ice, though playing on concrete is a lot different," said coach John Cullen.

Cullen, 25, is the new head coach. He's from Mississauga, a small town outside Toronto, to work on his doctorate. His decision to come to Gainesville was by no means hockey-influenced.

"I figured I'd leave it behind in Canada," Cullen said. "All I brought were my skates, just in case."

With all the growth and excitement surrounding hockey, Davis hopes the team can build a fan base. Though the game tickets are a bargain at $2, the long drive to Tampa or Jacksonville scares away most would-be fans, Littell added. If the team opens the '99 season in Gainesville, possibly with a conference championship banner to hang in the rafters of the new Iceplex, Littell is sure that the place will be packed with hockey fans.

While several firms have expressed interest in funding an ice rink, none have come through. Investors purchased land a few years ago but never broke ground. But Davis said that new plans may be the brightest hopes yet. The Fun League Group, a Tampa-based group of seasoned hockey investors, are looking to buy land behind the post office on 34th Street. They plan to build a double rink, which would provide a home for the UF lacrosse club and even indoor soccer. Davis even sees a speed skating team in the future.

"Our goal is to break ground in January and have it all in operation by August," Davis said, adding that the rink would make its money from recreational use by Gainesville residents of all ages. "I've said that in '96, '97 and '98. But it's going to have to happen soon."

Of course, no one is more excited about the prospect of a Gainesville ice rink than the members of the UF ice hockey club.

"I won't believe it until I see it. There's no other way you can look at it," Littell said. "But it sure would be nice to be able to skate right here."

Ice hockey? In Gainesville? As Florida continues to warm up to ice hockey, anything is possible. Except maybe snow.