Hockey
makes season debut at The Beach
Hockey:
Ice hockey club team starts season with
a game versus USC.
By
Daniel Frias
On-line Forty-Niner
What
would Southern California be without Ice
Hockey? It would be Southern California.
Beach volleyball, water polo, basketball
and surfing. But thanks to ice hockey legend
Wayne Gretzky the winter sport has made
a home here and Long Beach State is no exception.
"To
me it's amazing that we have hockey here
in Southern California," said senior
Drew Farr, a member of LBSU ice hockey club
team. "We go out of state and tell
people we're from SoCal and they're like
'yeah right hockey in SoCal they don't believe
us."
The
LBSU ice hockey club team, which is not
part of intercollegiate sports at CSULB,
competes in the American Collegiate Hockey
Association as a Division II school. The
association is an organization of college/university
affiliated programs devoted to supporting
quality, unity and regulation of four-year
intercollegiate ice hockey programs nationwide.
LBSU
Ice Hockey has been part of this association
for several years and now allows the club
sports team to compete nationally and not
just locally as it did prior to joining.
"It's
a better league," team president and
player Gene Schneider said. "It's more
competitive. It involves more schools. It
gives us a national venue and more teams
for us to play."
The
association was created in 1991 by 13 charter
members whom played hockey and wanted to
legitimize the sport. The organization began
its inaugural year with the 1991-92 season,
and currently has over 250 teams in its
organization. The hockey association is
made up of three divisions and a women's
division that was added in 2000. Division
I has 33 teams while both Division II and
III have 100. The women's division has 20
teams.
LBSU
plays in the second division in the western
region. Some of the teams the hockey club
plays this year include USC, DePual University,
Eastern Washington University, San Jose
State, Weber State and Gonzaga University.
The
team was plagued with injuries last season,
which kept them from being competitive and
they're hoping that's not the case this
season.
"We
had a lot injuries early in the season last
year and that took its toll on us,"
Farr said.
"There
was some games that we should have won we
lost. We couldn't compete like we wanted
to."
"I'm
hoping we can avoid injuries," Schneider
said. "We had several injuries last
year which kept us from making any kind
of run. We mainly want to stay healthy so
we can make a run at nationals."
This
year's squad has a lot of new players, but
former team captain Farr said they still
have a shot at having a good season.
"This
year is looking really good," said
Farr. "Half the team is new guys, but
the talent level on the team has gone up
since last year. I'm anticipating being
ranked top five in the West [region]."
One
of the new guys on the team is Pete Kotowski
a transfer student from St Paul, Minnesota.
Kotowski, who grew up in Southern California
and started playing hockey at the age of
12, is happy to be on the team.
"I'm
excited," CSULB junior electrical engineer
major Kotowski said. "It's a great
opportunity. I'm so glad Long Beach has
a hockey team. It's really cool. It's college
hockey. I never thought I would be playing
any type of college sport."
The
ice hockey club team opens up the season
tonight at 9 p.m. against rival USC at the
Lakewood Glacial Garden Arena and their
expecting it to be good game.
"It's
going to be a physical high scoring game,"
Farr said. "We're going to play good
defense, but there's still going to be a
lot of goals."
"They're
a tough team," Schneider said. "We
split the season series last year and I'm
hoping we can sock it to them tonight and
put on a good show for the fans."
"I'm
hoping we can avoid injuries. We had several
injuries last year which kept us from making
any kind of run. We mainly want to stay
healthy so we can make a run at nationals."
-Gene Schneider, team president and player
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