They’re not the Anaheim Ducks, but they might be having more fun.
Weeknights, sometimes as late as 11:15 p.m., men and women lace up their skates and chase a puck around the ice, risking bumps, cuts and bruises, all in the name of a heck of a good time.
“It’s the most fun in the world,” said Bill Blanning, captain of an adult league hockey team that plays at Aliso Viejo Ice Palace. “You have to focus so intensely that you shut everything off for an hour.”
Blanning, vice president of global media relations for Irvine-based Broadcom Corp., plays on a team named for the chipmaker. It’s one of the few company-named teams.
At least half of the players work at Broadcom, though the team isn’t sponsored by the chipmaker.
Love of hockey runs deep at the Irvine-based company. Cofounder Henry Samueli and his wife, Susan, own the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks, who practice at Anaheim Ice, the county’s largest ice complex, with two rinks.
Players
Unlike golf, hockey is more of an everyman’s sport.
Hockey players here come from the ranks of Black & Decker Corp.’s Lake Forest operation, the local offices of Honeywell International Inc., Aliso Viejo-based Qdos Inc.’s DeskSite and BandCon in Costa Mesa. There are plenty of blue collar players, including police officers and firefighters.
A few women play in the county’s adult hockey leagues. The Broadcom team has a woman goalie.
Broadcom’s team is made up of players of varying ages and ranks within the chipmaker. There aren’t any senior executives on the team, according to Blanning. There are a couple of vice presidents.
“It’s really a melting pot,” he said.
Teams play year-round at several rinks in OC and in Lakewood and Riverside.
Most of the county’s rinks are in North County, including Orange County Ice Palace in Yorba Linda and KHS Ice Arena in Anaheim.
Rinks charge $300 to $550 per session, the season runs for a few months.
The bulk of a rink’s revenue comes from youth hockey leagues,leaving adult leagues to play late on weeknights.
Hockey is a commitment. Gear, which rivals that of a professional football player, costs $300 to $3,000. Goalies need the most gear and spend the most money.
Two stores cater to the county’s hockey players: Monkey Sports Inc.’s MonkeySports Superstore in Santa Ana and Anaheim’s HockeyGiant, part of San Diego’s Sports Giant LLC.
Used gear can be had at stores such as Play it Again Sports, part of Winmark Corp. That’s where Blanning said he bought all his gear about 10 years ago for about $300.
Fast Pace
Hockey players often cite the game’s fast pace, physicality and camaraderie as the reasons they play.
“We play rough, but it’s non-checking,” Blanning said. “We can’t slam people.”
But hockey isn’t for the faint of heart.
Scot Ross, chief financial officer for Internet services provider BandCon, dislocated a shoulder and tore his rotator cuff during a game.
Hockey players say the game forges strong bonds.
“Golfing buddies are one group,” said Richard Gillam, chief executive of DeskSite, an online video advertising company. “Hockey buddies are lifelong friends.”
Gillam plays on a team called the Bruins,part of an advanced league,at Aliso Viejo Ice Palace.
“Everybody plays to win in hockey,” he said. “The team you’re playing against wants to knock you around. It’s up to you to protect each other and defend each other and to win the game together.”
Business
Once a professional pairs figure skater, Gillam mixes hockey and business.
He met BandCon’s Ross, who was born in Canada and is a lifelong athlete, playing on the same hockey team.
Their partnership now extends beyond the ice.
Gillam’s DeskSite was in need of a new Internet service provider.
BandCon sells Internet space to companies that use a lot of it, such as Los Angeles-based MySpace.com, part of News Corp., and Atlanta’s The Weather Channel Interactive Inc.
Ross introduced Gillam to BandCon’s chief executive, Ari Benowitz. Now BandCon is DeskSite’s provider.
Because they play together and have business dealings, they say they feel answerable to each other.
“There is a higher sense of responsibility to perform better,” Gillam said.
Another player manages a college fund for Ross’s kids.
“I watched how he handled himself on the ice,” Ross said. “I knew his character. I didn’t have to go shopping for the right guy.”
Another hockey connection: The NHL is a client of both BandCon and DeskSite.
Hockey is a smaller, niche sport compared to football, basketball or baseball.
“It sets you apart from most people,” said Brad Sherrick, director of the adult hockey league for Orange County Ice Palace in Yorba Linda. “Everybody can play golf. But everybody can’t play ice hockey.”
Orange County Ice Palace, built in an old Ralphs grocery store, has four adult hockey leagues with 22 teams and 310 players.
It draws players from as far as Oceanside.
Foothold
Hockey took hold in OC when Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in the late 1980s, Sherrick said.
“This whole area went crazy,” Sherrick said. “He’s called The Great One for a reason.”
Gretzky helped found roller hockey in OC, he said.
In 1993, Walt Disney Co. started the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim hockey team, which now goes by the Anaheim Ducks.
Around that time, Aliso Viejo Ice Palace opened, giving South County players a closer place to play.
Hockey is bigger than you might think in OC, said Justin Baribault, who manages Monkey Sports.
Many here are transplants who grew up playing hockey on the East Coast, the Midwest or in Canada, Baribault said.
Blanning, who grew up in Boston, has been on skates since he was a kid. He humbly adds that’s no indication of his skating ability.
Ice rinks and hockey stores have seen fewer startup players during the recession. But regular players still are at it.
“Once you learn to play the sport, you do it for a lifetime,” Baribault said. “It’s a sport that people are passionate about.”
