Student hockey league lacing up

High school students with a competitive spirit can try out Saturday for a new hockey league.

By MATTIAS KAREN

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 23, 2000

OLDSMAR -- As many teenagers head to the beach this weekend to work on their tans, others will strap on their ice skates.

The Tampa Bay Skating Academy plans to hold tryouts Saturday for Palm Harbor University High School and Tarpon Springs High School students interested in competing in a new ice hockey league in North Pinellas.

Students who make the teams will play with classmates from their schools. Students from East Lake and Countryside high schools tried out last weekend and will make up the other two teams. A fifth independent team may be created if enough students from other schools show up Saturday.

The teams will not use the school names because none of the four schools have sanctioned hockey programs, said Christy Macholz, director of sales and marketing for the Tampa Bay Skating Academy.

Still, Macholz said there is enough interest in the area to form the league.

"High school hockey is coming," she said. "Just because it's not sanctioned doesn't mean it's not going to happen."

The four teams in the new league would start playing against one another in a sort of pilot program in about two weeks, said Jim Macholz, Christy's husband and the coach of the soon-to-be Tarpon Springs team. The teams would play a game per week during a 10-week period, he said.

If the league is successful, it may join forces with similar leagues in Brandon and elsewhere in Florida to form a larger league of about 20 teams, Jim Macholz said.

The ultimate goal is to introduce ice hockey as a fully sanctioned high school sport, he said, although that is probably at least five years away.

"We've got to prove to the schools that there is enough kids that want to play hockey for the schools to warrant them funding," he said.

High school hockey in Florida took off about two years ago, with the creation of the Florida Scholastic Hockey League, which today has close to 20 teams in other areas of the state. Since then, other leagues also have sprung up.

Christy Macholz said close to 30 students from East Lake and more than 20 Countryside students showed up for last weekend's tryouts. Between 16 and 20 make the teams, she said.

Saturday's tryouts will be at Tampa Bay Skating Academy, 255 Lake Forest Blvd., between 4:45 and 7 p.m. Students should show up about 3:45 p.m. to be ready to go by the time tryouts start, Macholz said.

Mattias Karen can be reached at (727) 445-4243 or at northpin@sptimes.com.

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