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News & Views... About
High School Roller Hockey
playing with classmates for
the school colors and mascot is an important part of the roller hockey
experience growing up.
by Jay Piz
Roller Hockey Fights for Sanctioning - You're Not Alone!
28-Dec-2007 Inline hockey teams and high school clubs across California
and the country have a common struggle with recognition. In this context, a
Monte Vista High School (Danville, CA) student speaks out and an empathetic
reply.
Dear Kai and All High School Roller Hockey Players;
The challenges of recognition for your sport are great, but you are not alone!
Consider if you will, California is the hotbed of roller hockey from its very
conception. It has, by far, the greatest number of participants than many states
combined. Your challenges in confronting the school district or even the CIF
with a few hundred signatures may seem to you to be a big effort in your sphere.
However, the universe of high school roller hockey is much, much larger
statewide. We're talking about thousands!
Your enthusiasm in this cause is to be applauded and encouraged. However, before
tipping your lance at a larger windmill, consider the many high school programs
across this state who share in this cause and similar. One example is the San
Diego Metropolitan League which has already received CIF sanction - this before
a CIF rule change barred others from same. In addition, there are the many
unaligned associations, leagues and teams across the state who also have
expressed similar interests and have even taken their own respective,
independent passes at the CIF only to be easily shot down like so many flies.
Strength comes in numbers... Consider a unified front of a statewide congress
representing high school roller hockey; players, coaches, parents and
supporters. Not too dissimilar than the recent CIF approval for Lacrosse, roller
hockey fans need solidarity to invoke effective action to obtain CIF sanction
and the recognition that California high school roller hockey players deserve!
Thus, I issue to you a call to action; organize and rally your peers to a common
cause! If YOU want to be recognized before you graduate (and hopefully move on
to Collegiate roller hockey [www.wcrhl.com]), take action now!
You are not alone. There are individuals and organizations who precede you and
share in your cause. They are willing to help and to organize. You only need to
reach out to them and to help enjoin your own community in a common cause.
Obstacles can be overcome!
I include myself into the growing list of California high school roller hockey
supporters willing to assist in the above regards. As a member of the Board of
Directors of the Orange County, CA-based Interscholastic Hockey Federation (IHF)
www.IHF-HOCKEY.org representing over 50 high school teams and over 600 student
athletes, I invite you and your peers to join in this worthy cause.
In the meanwhile, Wear Your Colors Proud!
Respectfully,
~ Jay Piz
IHF Director, Media Relations & Statistics
Submitted on Fri, 12/28/2007
Monte Vista High School - Sports.
Submitted by Kai Kang on Wed, 11/21/2007
Fans would have seen the peeling jersey numbers, the drooping 6s, the cut-off
8s, and the uniforms sometimes two sizes too big hanging off the roller hockey
team’s players. Fans would have seen it, had their been any fans. The stands
were full, but only with supporters of the opposition. The goals were greeted,
not by eager MVHS students and teachers, but the team members themselves and a
few parents. But it made no difference that night, hand-me-down jerseys
a-fluttering, the roller hockey team’s shooters blitzed down the rink, with
the voice of Brian Beggs, a volunteer coach, screaming at their backs. Out
pacing their smartly dressed opponents, they poured in one, two, then seven
goals in all.
Notice the absence of “MV” in the team’s title. That’s because the
district views roller hockey as a club. For this reason, the team must be
careful to not associate themselves with MVHS.
For the past 10 years, Roller Hockey at MVHS, like other high schools in the
district, has been played at Rollin’ Ice, a private rink and league in San
Jose, as a club sport. The players pay for their own rink time and private
insurance. Though they sport MVHS jerseys, their team can not officially
represent the school in the rink. The team doesn’t associate lack of support
with their game play, but that doesn’t mean recognition wouldn’t be
appreciated.
“There are some parts of team building, where they just don’t have a
sanctioned team’s commodity,” photography teacher and advisor Brian Chow
said, “They can’t be recognized for their wins on the announcements, even
when they go to championships. They can’t hold practice on campus. They
don’t have their friends cheering them on.”
This year though, the players on the team seek to change that. In addition to
putting their efforts into training for their Friday matches, they now strive to
attain sanction for their sport. Towards this end, the roller hockey contacted
Fremont and other high schools in the district with club teams in hopes of
showing a unified front in the fight to become sanctioned. A process, which is
complicated at best, according to dean of students Travis Hambleton, to whom the
team will present their petition.
“Club status, you have it, boom,” he said snapping his finger, “but it’s
an overwhelming process to start a new sport, you’d need to demonstrate from
the league’s stand, a considerable amount of interest from students, parents,
and the community.”
In order for the team to be sanctioned, roller hockey as a sport must first be
approved by the California Interscholastic Federation, which governs high school
sports. Even then, the individual league, Santa Clara District League, in the
case of MVHS, may not choose to take up the sport, due to issues with funding
and Title IX, a federal law which mandates equal amounts of boys and girls teams
at a school. These challenges have rebuffed attempts to sanction roller hockey
in the past, according to FUHSD coordinator of human resources Jason
Crutchfield,
“In Cupertino [High School] and Fremont [High School] for example,” he said,
“what would happen was a group of kids would ask ‘wouldn’t it be cool if
we could play as a team?’ but when they realize all the requirements, they
stop pursuing the issue. The students who asked me about it never made an
organized movement to make roller hockey a sport.”
Whether or not the current attempt to sanction roller hockey will be successful
remains to be seen. But the movement is becoming organized fast. As of Nov.
17th, the team had already collected over 460 signatures of their 1000 signature
goal, and enlisted the help of their counterparts at Fremont High School. When
asked about how they viewed hardships ahead, the team members did not seem too
deterred by the prospect of future challenges.
“We’ll try our hardest for sure,” said goalie and junior Kunal Nagpal,
expressing the sentiments of the team, “but if it’s not enough, then so be
it. We’re still having the time of our lives.”
source:
http://63.117.206.217/node/139
http://63.117.206.217/node/139#comment-122
Note: These links are no longer active as of Feb. 2011
About Jay Piz.
A veteran marketing professional, writer, and youth sports advocate, Jay Piz is passionate about scholastic
roller hockey. An emeritus member of the IHF Board of Directors as of March
2011, Piz served as board president of the Interscholastic Hockey Federation (IHF) in Southern
California from 2008-'11 and began his volunteer service on the IHF Board in
2005 representing Irvine's Northwood Timberwolves High School Roller Hockey
Club. Piz also served as Co-Chair with the AAU's National Scholastic Hockey
Committee and as an Event Co-Chair for the Give Blood Play Hockey Inline Hockey
Charity Tournament (GBPH) since its inception in 2007. Piz began his
involvement with youth roller hockey in 1995. The views expressed are his
own.
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