Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 29, 1994 TAG: 9401310274
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
For a fleeting moment, it appeared as if the hockey club from Radford University had found home ice.
In a field just outside of town, a few team members gathered on a pond frozen solid by several days of subzero temperatures. The mercury poked into the 20s on this particular sunny Sunday afternoon. It was hockey weather.
"This feels better than playing in a rink," said Dave Maxey,who grew up in Roanoke. "This is the way they do it up north, I guess."
Six of the players skated on the pond the day before, when the high topped out at an invigorating 7 degrees.
When you're on a club team that scrounges for money, when you have to pay your own league dues and supply your own equipment, and when it costs your team $165 to practice for 11/2 hours at the Roanoke Civic Center, a few hours of free skating in any temperature is a day well-spent.
"Free ice is hard to come by," said Travis Beattie, one of the Radford players. The hockey players went through some drills, slapping wrist shots at the portable goal they had set up on one end of the pond. It was a perfect day for hockey.
That is, until the landowner showed up - with a sheriff's deputy - and chased everyone away.
The team packed up its gear and checked out another pond just a mile up the road. The ice looked solid, but when the players walked out for a better look, the pond groaned with ominous cracking sounds. The team hit the road again.
"It's just another obstacle," said team captain Tom Benizio, a guy who hooked up with Roanoke Rampage minor league team for a week last year. "We'll find another place."
When it's frozen, the duck pond at Virginia Tech is a fine place to skate. Recently, Tech's hockey team - officially known as the Ice Hockey Club of Virginia Tech - skated there for the first time in years.
"I've been here three years, and this is the first time [the duck pond] has been frozen enough to skate," said Michael Grossman, president of Tech's club.
There are major differences between the hockey clubs at Tech and Radford - Tech has had a team for about eight years and competes in a league of major-college hockey clubs while Radford's team is 3 years old and plays in a Roanoke-based league - but both clubs face similar challenges.
The biggest problem is a lack of practice ice. Ice hockey isn't exactly the national pastime in the New River Valley. There are no youth leagues or adult leagues in the area. The nearest indoor ice is in Roanoke, where the Roanoke Civic Center is the home of the city's first-year minor league hockey team, the Express.
When the Tech and Radford clubs want to use the Civic Center ice, they often do so at odd hours, usually after an Express game, long after thousands of hockey fans have filed out of the building.
Games often start later than 10:45 p.m. and midnight practices are common.
``It's 3 o'clock [in the morning] getting home, then we've got 8 o'clock classes,'' said Tech coach John Bishop, a 16-year veteran of the sport. ``It gets hectic at times, but these guys want to play hockey.''
Tech's club is a member of the Southern Collegiate Hockey Association, a league that includes Tech, Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Liberty, George Mason and Old Dominion in the northern division, and Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia State, Emory, South Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky in the southern division.
As a club sport, Tech receives little financial help from the school. The 15 players shell out $75 for club dues to help with the estimated $8,000 in operating expenses.
Two other hockey clubs skate under the Virginia Tech name, although neither is associated with the school or the Ice Hockey Club of Virginia Tech. Those teams play in the Western Virginia Collegiate Hockey League, which includes Radford, Virginia Military Institute, Washington and Lee, Roanoke College, and three Roanoke men's-league teams.
Radford's hockey club consists of 15 players and 60 nonplaying members, all of whom chip in $5 for dues. Radford hopes one day to have the financial resources and player personnel to move up to the SCHA.
"We need more money to be competitive," said Benizio, whose club is receiving some sponsorship help from local businesses.
While all the players on Tech's and Radford's teams are male, women play important roles on both clubs. Debbie Parks, an avid Pittsburgh Penguins fans, handles public relations for Tech's top club. Stephanie Reinhardt and Kelly Lathrop are managers for Radford, which means they apply athletic tape to extra hockey sticks, wash uniform jerseys and towels, treat minor injuries and keep water bottles filled.
Like the guys, the women just want to stay close to the sport.
``One day, I'll see my husband on Oprah or Phil saying, `My wife is addicted to hockey,''' said Parks.
After more than three hours of searching for the perfect spot, finding it, and being chased away, Radford's crusade for ice ended at a secluded, snow-covered pond somewhere in the Jefferson National Forest.
"I had to buy a shovel to get rid of all the snow," said Benizio.
The team skated until nearly sundown.
"Some of the guys might think this is a big hassle," said Beattie, but "they're willing to make the sacrifice. We'll do anything to play."
Coming up for Virginia Tech and Radford hockey clubs:
Virginia Tech
Today, George Mason, 11:30 p.m.
Sunday, George Mason, 12:15 p.m.o
Radford
Today, Virginia Tech ``B'' team, 1:30 p.m.
All games are free and will be played at the Roanoke Civic Center.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***