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Hockey

It's club level, but players think it's cool

The Wesley Chapel Ice Cats are making inroads for their sport in football country.

By STEVE LEE
Published January 16, 2005

	[Times photos: Chris Zuppa]
	Players wait to take the ice against Jesuit.
	Kyle Cameron, left, celebrates with teammate Phillip Monson after scoring a goal against Jesuit.

WESLEY CHAPEL - The tools of the trade for high school athletes run the gamut. Helmets, bats, gloves, rackets, clubs, you name it.

But no county team has equipment like the Wesley Chapel Ice Cats, who require skates, sticks and pucks.

The club-level hockey team is in its third season and plays on Friday nights at the Brandon Ice Sports Forum. Wesley Chapel is the lone Pasco County team in a league with 10 Hillsborough County teams and one each from Hernando (two-time defending state champion Springstead) and Polk.

As club sports go - girls weightlifting was adopted in 2003 and bowling is next in line - ice hockey teams are a long way from being sanctioned by the Florida High School Athletic Association. And don't look for Ice Cats results on the prep sports pages any time soon.

And no high school sport is costlier than hockey. Equipment costs and league fees exceed $1,000 per player.

Nonetheless, recognition and cost are not factors for these players, some of whom are from Land O'Lakes, Mitchell and River Ridge. For them, all that matters is lacing 'em up to skate, check and score on Friday nights.

"They say it's pretty cool, but they don't know much about it," junior left wing Eavan Hamilton said of his Wesley Chapel classmates. "I'd like (the sport) to be sanctioned, but I'd rather play hockey than nothing."

"I love hockey," said Stephen Halczyn, a freshman on Florida State's club team who was captain of Wesley Chapel's inaugural squad in the 2002-03 season.

Halczyn, who took up hockey as a 9-year-old and has won state championships while playing for Brandon-based travel teams, helped the Ice Cats win their first game that season. He scored the winner in a 5-4 victory over Plant, Wesley Chapel's lone win in a 1-20 campaign.

"It felt really good to finally get that first win," Halczyn said. "It's cool that I was part of something like that."

Added his mother Ilene, the team's manager that season, "I can't forget that. It was miraculous."

With her son playing in youth leagues at Brandon, Ilene pushed for hockey at Wesley Chapel. It took her four years to learn how other parents got the sport adopted at schools in Hillsborough. In 2002, Wesley Chapel principal Andy Frelick and athletic director Annie McGhee okayed a pilot program.

"It was hard to start at first," Ilene said. "My son at that point was a junior, but we didn't give up. We were just very pleased we got the support and got it approved."

"It's a club sport and you want to get kids in as many activities as you can," McGhee said. "They work hard. They've come along since they had their first season."

Wesley Chapel improved dramatically last season, finishing 5-11-4 before losing in the first round of the playoffs to Springstead. The Ice Cats also qualified for the state tournament as one of four teams from the Brandon rink and went 0-1-2 for a sixth-place finish.

"It was wonderful," Wesley Chapel coach Chuck Falbo said of last season's turnaround, adding, "It's even more rewarding this year. You'd be surprised the talent we have. I'd match my kids against anybody."

"We did a lot better the second season," Halczyn recalled. "When we first started out, some of the kids couldn't skate or stop. We did a lot of skating drills before practice to get their skating up (to par)."

Players must master shooting, checking, passing and stickhandling but those pale in comparison to the primary element of hockey - skating ability.

Like most teams, many Ice Cats began playing roller hockey before switching to ice. Among them are Phillip Monson, a Wesley Chapel sophomore who had his first goal and first assist in a 5-4 win over Jesuit on Jan. 7.

"We call him the ballerina, because of the way he tries to stop," said team manager Dale Hamilton, Eavan's father.

Though he attends school in Tallahassee, Halczyn still follows the Ice Cats and offered some advice for the players: "Keep working hard and make sure you go to practice."

[Last modified January 16, 2005, 00:33:22]