ROLL ON: Aficionados of roller hockey call...
ROLL ON: Aficionados of roller hockey call it the fastest growing sport in America. The 2.5 million who enjoy playing it should triple in the next couple of years, say experts at the Newport Beach regional office of the National In-Line Hockey Assn. . . . Much of it will happen in Orange County, they predict. Reason: Its good year-round weather, and the Anaheim Bullfrogs--which average 10,000 fans a game, highest in the country--have sparked greater interest. . . . Says Nadine Brown, editor of the Westminster-based Global Skate magazine: “Roller hockey is booming. You see kids playing everywhere.”
YOUNG CONSULTANTS: Tom Wilder, 33, moved his family from Vermont to Orange County early this year to start a roller hockey skate company. His Santa Ana-based Mission Roller Hockey produces top-of-the-line skates retailing up to $450. . . . Why Orange County? “There’s so much energy coming from the roller hockey scene here,” Wilder says. “We wanted to be a part of it.” . . . Wilder plays the sport with youngsters in his Laguna Niguel neighborhood. “We get the best ideas from kids,” he says.
RIGHT WINGER: Don’t get a crazy notion that roller hockey is for males only. Laura Nicholson, 29, is captain and right wing for the Lady Hawkes, who play amateur hockey at Pioneer Park in Garden Grove. “I’ve gotten a lot of bruises, and throw my back out once in awhile,” but it’s well worth it, she says. . . . Rinks are so jammed, she and her teammates play regularly at 6 a.m. The sport, she says, has “taught me to be more aggressive. You have to really push yourself, you learn not to back down.”
PARSON’S AIDE: Ken Gibo, 39, pastor at Stonebridge Church in Huntington Beach, has built an indoor roller hockey rink on his own nearby business property. His reasons go beyond just giving youngsters a place to play the sport: He’s also trying to get them to come to church. “It’s a way for us to build casual relationships outside the church, to connect with people,” Gibo says. . . . As you might expect from a pastor, he has special rink rules: No swearing, fighting or body slamming.
