Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 22, 1993 TAG: 9307220573
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JOHN A. MONTGOMERY SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
You're a 16-year-old boy, an outstanding ice hockey player, with the last name of "Gold."
You're selected to attend a weeklong national hockey camp, open only to the sport's elite, conducted at the United States Olympic Training Center at Lake Placid, N.Y.
You receive individualized instruction from a renowned coaching staff. You body-check and face-off with the country's best players. You skate on the very rink where the United States Olympic team knocked off the Soviet Union in a historic, inspirational triumph on its way to winning the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Most parents and teen-agers would agree: It certainly beats sleeping 'til noon and hanging out at the mall.
For Dan Gold, a rising junior at Cave Spring High School, the experience may even shape his educational and career ambitions.
Gold participated in the USA Hockey National 16 Camp June 21-28. Although 260 players attended the camp, only nine came from the Southeastern United States.
"It was great, really exciting . . . the best experience I've had in hockey," Gold said.
Gold has been playing ice hockey about six years. ("I started playing street hockey in my driveway," he said.)
Gold stands 5-foot-9 and weighs a solid 165 pounds. He has a very firm handshake and can bench press 240 pounds. He is an aggressive player who thrived on defense until his coaches realized he also has a knack for putting the puck into the net.
"Dan's always had tremendous upper-body strength," Gold's mother, Sandy Gold, said. "He was climbing trees and flagpoles when he was just a child." The offspring of naturally athletic parents, Gold also developed into a strong skater.
This past season, Gold starred for the Roanoke Valley Rebels bantam division (14- and 15-year-olds). His impressive scoring statistics (70 goals and 38 assists in 21 games) were a major factor in his selection to the camp.
Roanoke played its home games at the LancerLot in Vinton and away games at several North Carolina sites. The LancerLot collapsed after March's heavy snowfall; until the camp, Gold had not been on ice since the season ended. "There's just not much ice around Roanoke this time of year," he said.
"That was the first thing I noticed about the camp," Gold said. "I asked a player from the North when he last skated and he said, `Saturday.' He asked me and I said, `March.'
"He said, `March?!' "
In spite of geographical disadvantages, Gold said, "I held my own with the other players."
A right-winger by trade, Gold scored a goal during one of his team's games. "And a bonus was my checking," he said with a grin.
Sixty-eight of the 260 players were chosen to advance to the next level, the Select 16 Festival in Colorado Springs at the end of this month. Gold was not one of the 68.
"I'm not disappointed that I didn't make it," Gold said. "I didn't expect to. But I definitely wasn't the worst player there."
Gold said his coach at Lake Placid suggested that he consider enrolling in a prep school to further hone his talents. The hockey competition would be much stronger and the availability of ice would not be a problem.
Sandy Gold and Gold's father, Walter Gold, are mulling this option. They realize prep school could greatly enhance Gold's opportunity to earn a hockey scholarship to college.
"I've already got one son leaving me this year," Sandy Gold said. Ben Gold, 18, recently graduated from Cave Spring and will enroll at Elon College this fall.
"I'm not sure I'm ready for the other one to go, too."
"I'm not sure, either," Gold said. "I'm getting ready to enter the last two years of high school - one of the best times of your life.
"I'd like to spend it with my friends."
by CNB