It's Not 'The Cup', But It Still Runneth Over

If a person lives and has children in Florida, perhaps the last thing in the world you would expect them to do is play hockey.

No, that is not a misprint. Springstead High School has an ice hockey team that won the unofficial amateur state title.

In late March, Coach Jim Fisher led his club team to the St. Petersburg Times Forum in Tampa to play for the crown. They won the game 8-5 as they defeated a team comrised of players from Tarpon Springs and Dunedin for their fourth title in the last seven years.

"The Florida State High School Activities Association doesn't recognize ice hockey as a sanctioned sport, so the title we won was really for the club championship of the state," said Fisher.

Springstead's "team" is like many teams in the state that are made up of combined rosters of a number of schools.

For Springstead, Fisher draws players from Springstead, Nature Coast Technical, Central and Lecanto High Schools.

One hurdle after another

Fisher says an ice hockey team in Florida presents a bundle of challenges.

"When I was a kid, we played the games on ponds and rivers and played it all winter," recalled Fisher. "Here in Florida, most of the kids on my team first played roller hockey before trying ice hockey."

Another problem facing an ice hockey team, along with the hot weather, is the cost of equipment and ice time.

"It costs between $300 to $500 an hour for ice time," said the Springstead club coach. "The kids usually buy their equipment either from the rinks or on-line because not many sports stores in Florida carry ice skates or hockey sticks."

The Springstead front lines consist of Justin Jimenez, Joey Puricelli and Ryan Nelson as the first forward unit.

On the second line is David Cross, Bruce Federico and Tyler Glass and its third unit consists of Dominic Esposito, David Cabrera and Anthony Novik.

The Springstead defense is made up of Angelo Arcadipane, Ryan Millett, Mike Pelletier, Steven Gagg and David Rivera while Nick Serra is the number one goalie backed up by Mitch Govin.

In the playoffs this year, Springstead beat Riverview (9-2), Wesley Chapel (8-1), River Ridge (5-2), Tampa-Pinellas (7-5) before solving Tarpon Springs-Dunedin (8-5) in the finals.

In that game, Puricelli and Jimenez each scored four goals while the Eagles held off a five-on-three power play in the third period to win.

When asked what was the toughest part of being an ice hockey coach in Florida, Fisher laughed.

"The toughest part is when the player's girl friends are in the stands," smiled Fisher. "No, really the toughest part is keeping them focused. Two years ago in the final, we played Sickles-Gaither in the finals and we had already beaten them twice that year. But for some reason, the kids thought it would be an easy game and we ended up losing it 2-0, the first time we had ever been shutout."

The finer points

With the cost of ice and equipment so high, Fisher says he has a problem having enough time to teach his kids the finer points of the game.

"Most of them play roller-hockey first," said Fisher. "But I think you can pick up some bad habits from that. Like there is no offside so you have to pound things into them a little because the two games are totally different."

Fisher says next season will start with practices in August with the regular season beginning in February. Both practice and games take place at the Tampa Bay Ice Skating Academy in Oldsmar.

If anyone is interested in joining the team, Fisher can be contacted at (352) 585-1959.