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Posted: February 08, 2008 3:57PM; Updated: September 15, 2008 9:24AM

Maybe they’re the boys who you watched playing with sticks and pucks in the street growing up. Maybe one’s a former teammate who’s graduated. Perhaps another is a friend, a relative, a student or a competitor. Any way you look at them, they’re good examples of local kids who kept with it and now are ambassadors of the sport at the collegiate level.

 

Returning to the old home rink at the 949 Roller Hockey Center in Irvine for a weekend of collegiate roller hockey competition beginning Saturday are the names and faces many of you will know. If you don’t know them, this weekend is a great opportunity to visit the rink and observe as the Western Collegiate Roller Hockey League (WCRHL) puts on a show to demonstrate to the hockey community and to high school players that next level of competition.

 

The weekend-long event begins with pucks dropping for 19 colleges and universities at 8 a.m. on Saturday, and the action continues through Sunday afternoon. The marquis All Star event on Saturday for Division II/B is scheduled for 4 p.m., and the Division I/III All Stars for 7 p.m.

 

All Stars in the Division I/III feature former high school standouts Captain Ryan Burrows of Esperanza, and goalie Jeff Aoki of Fountain Valley high school, both of whom represent Long Beach State. Ryan Burrows, along with Charlie Middletown of UC Irvine, were also recently named to the Division I first team All-American mid-season list by the Independent Rankings Committee (IRC), an independent roller hockey ranking group.

 

“We are finally starting to get some college recognition out west with the play of some of our players and some of our stronger teams,” says Long Beach State coach Bill Burrows.

 

Burrows, also a long-time coach in the Esperanza high school club program that competes in the IHF league, stressed the importance of the high school league program as players mature and graduate to play college level hockey.

 

“My Long Beach team has nine players that previously played in high school, seven in the IHF and two from San Diego,” said Burrows. The San Diego Metropolitan league is the only section in the CIF to grant sanction to the sport of roller hockey.  

 

The proud father of Ryan Burrows, Burrows senior busts his buttons when speaking of his son, and rightly so.

 

“I’m very proud of how he has played at the college level, and I believe that both the IHF and his many years of club hockey helped pave the way,” he says.

 

Schools competing in the WCRHL’s All Star weekend include: Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Chapman, Chico State, Claremont, CSU Monterey Bay, CSU San Bernardino, Evergreen, Long Beach State, Sonoma State, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, Univ. of San Diego, UNLV, and USC. The schedule for the weekend games can be viewed online at the WCRHL’s website at wcrhl.com; simply click on the All Star Weekend event calendar. Admission to the event is free.

 

Youth and high school players alike in attendance will have a unique opportunity to witness first hand just how far they can move up in this sport over this weekend. Perhaps they’ll even meet some new role models and start setting goals for their future. Or maybe they’ll just cheer on their former teammates and friends while having some good fun watching top level college roller hockey competition.

 

Whatever your reasons, please join in by welcoming the return of our IHF alums and cheer them on – again!

 

If you are the proud parent or relative or know of an IHF alumni who has moved onto collegiate roller hockey in the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association (NCRHA) or one its conferences, please contact the IHF (ihf-hockey.org) and let them know by sending their name, current school team and former high school to add to this list. A roster of current WCRHL players is available at their website or at their sister conferences across the country.

  

Established in 2003 and headquartered in Torrance, California, the Western Collegiate Roller Hockey League (WCRHL) is a conference of the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association (NCRHA). With over nearly 200 teams and 2,500 players nationwide, the NCRHA is the governing body of collegiate roller hockey in the United States.

 

Established in 1998 in Orange County, California, the Interscholastic Hockey Federation (IHF) organization proudly serves nearly 700 student athletes from 29 high school clubs and 56 teams in four skill divisions in its current 2007-08 season. Participating IHF high school clubs also include the 2006 and 2007 AAU Varsity National Champions.