Pro Roller Hockey

[Koho is Dead 0]

What kind of picture is on the front page of the newest issue of the HockeyStop, which is a mostly all Ice hockey magazine? Roller Hockey!

The Hockey Stop is a magazine that revolves mostly around St. Louis and Chicago. Mostly Ice hockey is hosted inside but not this time. The bold headline reads "Professional Roller Hockey in Near Future". The 3 page article tells us how a new league is waiting to be built under the PIHA (Professional Inline Hockey Association). There will be a pro league using players from age 18+ and a minor league using players age 16+. They say they dont know how many players it will attract the first year, they need to get the name out there first. The league plans to kick off in the winter of 2006. The way I understood it was there will be 4 locations to try out in the St. Louis area and then there will be other teams from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

There were a few names thrown in that will most likely be playing in the league. One of witch being Pat Maroon, a 18 year old. It was said that he is expected to play in the league. That convinced me that the league will be high competition because Pat Maroon is by far the best player I have ever seen for his age, and one of the better players in Mens Pro.

I'm anxious to see how this turns out, and if they can get it up and running by winter of 2006. This is a huge step in the roller hockey world.

[KYHockey3 0]

it would be awsome if they got a game on tv.

even if it was like a random channel.

its gotta be better then scrabble championships

[kovalchuk71 212]

hey hey hey..those scrabble championships are nail biters!

[opus22 0]

not sure what you mean by "under piha". what your describing is piha, im not sure if thats what you meant. piha is getting its second season going here in colorado.

[Chadd 916]

not sure what you mean by "under piha". what your describing is piha, im not sure if thats what you meant. piha is getting its second season going here in colorado.

That's because CJ moved out there, it was running for a couple seasons before that back here.

I still believe that inline hockey would be best served by associating with the NHL and serving as a "summer filler" much like the WNBA does for the NBA. It would benefit both the NHL and whatever inline league they associate with as well as providing a huge amount of exposure to the inline product. Too bad everyone is more into looking out for themself than the overall good of the sport. Everyone says they want the best for the sport, but they also want to be the ones benefitting from the growth.

[sdcopp 1]

This is from Dave Garland on anothe rmessageboard:

Guys here is an article that will go up on the PIHA site soon...just wanted to share. Hope everyone is doing well.

PIHA- Gateway Division Tryouts Set To Begin Under The Arch

League already receiving press as the buzz spreads around St. Louis!

By David Garland

Director of Marketing/Public Relations Gateway Division

The rumors have finally come to life: There will be a Gateway Division for the Professional Inline Hockey Association this year! Joining the Cincinnati Flying Monkey’s will be four teams from St. Louis and the surrounding area. Each of the four major rinks in St. Louis will have their own PIHA organization and based on the successes of their other inline hockey programs, PIHA will blow up! The Southside Snipers based out of All American in South County are bred from a history of success as owner Rob Ferrara already has a proven track record with his St. Louis Blast youth program who have earned too many national titles to count. Moving out west, the Midwest Tornadoes are being organized by a familiar St. Louis name: Perry Turnbull. A former power forward with the St. Louis Blues and a big name with the St. Louis Vipers, Perry brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the organization. Perhaps one of the biggest natural rivalries will be between the two St. Charles-based organizations which round out the PIHA Gateway Division. Rick Matteson, of the Matteson Triplex, has the largest facility in St. Louis and one of the best facilities in the country which features two full-sized rinks plus a mini-rink in the middle. His organization (St. Louis Rattlers Pro Team and St. Louis Pythons Minor Team) will continue the strides made by his youth program: The St. Louis Cobras. Head east just a few miles from the Triplex and owner Joe Weber and manager Ian Mackie are building a program of their own at the Omni Sportsplex. The River City Whalers (Pro) and River City Stingray (Minor) will make their home at the Sportsplex.

Tryouts for the PIHA Gateway Division begin this weekend. On October 27th, Midwest will be hosting the first tryout from 7PM-10PM CST. October 28th features a tryout at the Matteson Triplex from 11AM-2PM. Sunday morning, October 29th, includes a tryout skate at All American from 10AM-1PM. The final tryout is scheduled for Monday October 30th from 7PM to 10 PM at Omni. The tryout fee is $50 which includes all four tryouts and players can sign up at any of the four rinks. Each of these tryouts is treated as a general tryout for all players interested in the league. Following the tryouts, the innovative Gateway Division will offer a PIHA first: A Draft Party. Free to all drafted players that are selected for one of the four pro and four minor teams, a November 17th party at Midwest will feature appetizers, casino games, and an NHL-style draft.

As the tryout dates edge closer, members of the St. Louis press have already investigated the buzz that is PIHA Gateway. Hockey Stop Magazine, an extremely popular and informative hockey magazine in St. Louis, put PIHA Gateway on the cover of their last issue. In addition, a two-page article featuring Commissioner Ron Beilsten and Perry Turnbull highlighted the issue.

The PIHA Gateway division is ready to take off. Will you be along for the ride?

Questions? Contact pihagateway@gmail.com

[sdcopp 1]

That's because CJ moved out there, it was running for a couple seasons before that back here.

I still believe that inline hockey would be best served by associating with the NHL and serving as a "summer filler" much like the WNBA does for the NBA. It would benefit both the NHL and whatever inline league they associate with as well as providing a huge amount of exposure to the inline product. Too bad everyone is more into looking out for themself than the overall good of the sport. Everyone says they want the best for the sport, but they also want to be the ones benefitting from the growth.

While I agree with you that people tend to lookout for themselves, I can't disagree more about using inline as a filler for ice. The roller sports have been marginalized by the ice sports for as long as I can remember, because the ice participants have always thought lesser of the roller sports. Hockey and Speedskating are glaring examples of this.

Just because different rules sets are used doesn't make it a lesser sport, but don't tell the strictly ice players that even if we are seeing a huge boom in talent levels of crossover players, they'd never accept it. I think Charlie is actually doing a very good job in how he's trying to grow PIHA by region instead of nationally. Getting CJ and Brian to come to Colorado definitely helped, but SIHA already had a huge base of players so it made sense as a natural transition.

I wouldn't count out seeing PIHA games in the future on TV which would be the best exposure period; I believe ISPN may be looking into televising some in the Denver Metro area, and since Comcast is moving south into Colorado Springs and the rest of southern CO, it may start here and expand if other test markets prove viable enough to invest in it.

And before anyone jumps on me for thinking I'm saying that the PIHA pros are equal to NHL pros, I'm not. I'm saying that roller as a sport could very well be on the same level as ice, but because ice is older, has the paychecks and the big show roller has to be able to stand on it's own merits and PIHA is probably the best way to get there. RHI tried and collapsed, but if PIHA's execs learned from that then it could be hopeful that someday roller can be big time on it's own. Look at Arena football for an offshoot of an older sport that has found it's way into the big leagues.

[Chadd 916]

I knew someone would take the "summer filler" thing the wrong way, hence the "". The PIHA around here was marginal at best and a joke more often than not. It is not even remotely close to a professional sport and to call it such is laughable. They need something that is bigger and better funded than what is essentially a collection of local leagues.

[DangleSpud 0]

What ever happened to the Major League Roller Hockey (MLRH)? I played one season for a lousy team in Oakland, CA but the rest of the league was on the east coast. We played one non-division game against a team from New Jersey but that was it. Needless to say the west coast side of the league folded. I must say, to call the leauge "Pro" would be a joke. RHI was the only real good "Pro" roller hockey I had seen.

[sdcopp 1]

I knew someone would take the "summer filler" thing the wrong way, hence the "". The PIHA around here was marginal at best and a joke more often than not. It is not even remotely close to a professional sport and to call it such is laughable. They need something that is bigger and better funded than what is essentially a collection of local leagues.

I agree that funding needs to be there, but how many of today's modern sports started out as seperate regional showings in different affiliations before they got big and grew into single bodies? Like I said, PIHA doesn't have too many guys who are at a pro caliber, and none to my knowledge have played in the NHL. I remember reading something about a few minor-pro ice leagues that CJ played in, and he's the pinnacle of the roller sport.

I think the fact remains that the roller sports are starting to show that they can produce top tiered athletes who later go to ice because that's where the money is, ie Chad Hedrick in speedskating. PIHA is most likely going to be the big shot the sport needs to evolve or the flop that sets it back another 10-15 years like the RHI did. RHI flopped and no "Pro" level league has really been able to get off the ground running for more than a few seasons until now. I hope to see it grow and evolve more into a truly professional caliber, but you have to start somewhere small first and I think PIHA is doing it right for now.

[ViperJQ 0]

I play in the PIHA league and yes, I can say that our top players aren't as good as NHL players. However, the talent is increasing every year. Each season there are new teams and new divisions being created. The word is spreading and there has been a lot of interest from what i hear. I can honestly see the league continueing to grow and hopefully become the one true pro roller league in America.

This year alone there are four divisions

Canadian

6 teams from Alberta

Gateway

4 teams from Missouri and 1 from Cincinatti

Mason Dixon

5 teams from PA and 1 from Virginia

East

2 teams from Jersey

2 from Connecticut

2 from Massachusetts

1 from Philly

Rocky Mountain

5 teams from Colorado

In my opinion 27 teams after 4 or so years isn't bad. I could definitely see this league moving to the west coast where a lot of the "star players" are located. I don't know what direction the league is heading, but i'm glad to be part of it.

The new website has just been created and isn't fully up to date yet, but the address is

www.thepiha.com

[nummer55 10]

It is all about what you mean by 'pro'. In Europe every country has it's own league, operated by a national governing body. The teams are getting better every year, and so is the organization. The clubs (since all teams here are part of clubs) attract more sponsors, which causes the teams to be able to slowly pay the players for some expenses. In Italy, Spain en French some players already get some salary and sometimes housing and/or a car. This year the European Championships of the IISHF were broadcasted on the Swiss television.

You can't just start a pro league in an instance. It has to grow, starting with a lot of volunteering, growing into a professional sport. As the professionalism grows, sponsorships increase, and then as a result players can get paid (and that in my believe makes something 'pro').

What PIHA does (organizing leagues in different divisions) should be something a national governing has to do. But hey, even the national organizations are not on one level with each other. The sport has to become one on the highest level, before anything fundamental will happen at the lowest end of the sport (the regional leagues).

Just my European view on things

[Chadd 916]

What PIHA does (organizing leagues in different divisions) should be something a national governing has to do. But hey, even the national organizations are not on one level with each other. The sport has to become one on the highest level, before anything fundamental will happen at the lowest end of the sport (the regional leagues).

Just my European view on things 

Everyone wants to be the governing body in the US. It splits up the talent so much that progress is very slow.

[nummer55 10]

Is there any effort being made in combining these bodies?

[Chadd 916]

Is there any effort being made in combining these bodies?

The problem is that if you combine them, they have to share power. That's a deal-breaker right there.

[sdcopp 1]

Is there any effort being made in combining these bodies?

The problem is that if you combine them, they have to share power. That's a deal-breaker right there.

Exactly, we technically have two national teams from the US because even at the top levels we have two bodies governing. USARS and USA Hockey have had the talks for a long time, that never accomplish anything. Neither side wants to budge for the sake of the sport. Again, I think PIHA can be very influential if it's grown and developed properly because they will have the weighted opinion if they are drawing in the premiere players and top talents and being the forerunners in the sport.

[Chadd 916]

No pro league should be directly involved with youth development. If the PIHA wants to be a pro league, they should stay out of that part of the sport and stick to their core business. Getting involved in the turf wars between USARS, USAH, Narch, Torhs, etc... isn't going to help anyone.

[hooshockey77 0]

This year alone there are four divisions

Mason Dixon

5 teams from PA and 1 from Virginia

I live in Va and have never heard of a pro team from here. Where do they play?

[ViperJQ 0]

They are called the Richmond Rollin Robins and they play out of the Shooters Indoor Sportsplex. Last year was their first year and they show signs of being a good team in the future.

Richmond Rollin Robins

[sdcopp 1]

No pro league should be directly involved with youth development. If the PIHA wants to be a pro league, they should stay out of that part of the sport and stick to their core business. Getting involved in the turf wars between USARS, USAH, Narch, Torhs, etc... isn't going to help anyone.

I wasn't even talking the youth programs, I was talking about the mens teams that play internationally and are our "Team USA's". We have two of those, which seems a little schizophrenic, but it's because we have the two 800 lb gorillas in USARS and USAH who can't agree on who's running things for the national level. Here's a wiki excerpt about it:

In October 2001, USA Hockey, the national governing body of ice hockey in the United States, challenged USARS jurisdiction of roller hockey; however, the United States Olympic Committee continues to reaffirm the charter of roller sports, eligible in the summer Olympics, to USA Roller Sports. In the meantime, USA Hockey formed a separate branch called USA Hockey InLine that is also promoting hockey events, but is unable to send a national team to a world championship event sanctioned by FIRS. In retaliation, USA Roller Sports aligned itself with the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) to help with growth and legitimacy of its hockey programs.

and despite the FIRS mandate about USAH, they still maintain tryouts for a national team that is representative of the USA. PIHA should maintain itself as a seperate entity and non-amatuer, but it's still in the grassroots level growing so it might be a while until that happens. In the end it will have to happen to legitimize the sport at a pro level

[jon93 0]

i play with a couple PIHA players at pickup(josh leas & Something??? rohrbock?)they are very talented but nothing compared to thhe NHL. ive followed the league in its 2nnd year. compared to what it was it has really grown

[nummer55 10]

When FIRS gets roller hockey into the Olympics (they are close with speed skating...) I know on which team all the top athletes want to be. The exposure of an Olympic sport is huge, and will be broad casted world wide.

[Koho is Dead 0]

Do you know if the teams require the players to live in the certain area? (zip codes)

Because I know of a few players around my area, and we dont have a rink hosting a team, these players said they would have loved to go try out for a team like that but had no clue it was going on.

Maybe the teams should have done a little more advertising for their tryouts.

[MDE3 0]

You can get most information on Inline Hockey Central, which is a dedicated site to inline hockey. Most Piha Teams post announcements and tryout dates there.

[opus22 0]

its not "real" pro. im playing in my second season of piha, and ive played mlrh in the past. the top guys on each of the colorado teams are guys who have played narch pro, or narch d1 and things such as that. the older guys i know that play have experience in ice to a pretty high level such as ncaa and us juniors. this year is definitely going to better than last, every team has at least 4 or 5 guys that of the above caliber, some teams have as many as 8-12 of that ability. the rest of the guys are players who would be the best players in your local gold or advanced league.

in a nutshell its the best roller "league" ive ever been apart of, and ive been in a few. a pro tourney might be better, but thats about it. people can mock it, but few people who do can step up and do it - around here in CO anyway. i cant speak of the other divisions.

as for the governing bodies of the sport, its true its a joke. the reason they dont combine is the exact reason chadd said - they dont want to be together. they use it as a money maker, and none of them are truly looking out for the sport. combining with tourneys would be a bad i dea as all tourneys come and go, not to mention different tourneys associate with different governing bodies.

people shouldnt get hung up on the whole "pro" title, no one who plays in this league thinks they're a "pro" hockey player - its just the most competitive roller i can find, and for that its worth it to me. i agree with scopp that roller should try to seperate itself from ice as much as possible, it gets treated like a red headed stepchild by usa hockey. the differences should be embraced, and it should just be accepted that there will likely never be a pro roller on a level anywhere near the level of ice. this piha shouldnt be dismiised though, it is developing quickly (around here anyway) into a surprisingly high level of roller.