LA Kings support City of Bakersfield's proposal for new roller hockey facility - By N.L. Belardes

Hockey action at Saunders Park, Bakersfield, CA.

Roller hockey in Bakersfield has been on life support for some time. Bob Neath and a handful of others, including the travel team, Team Mower have literally kept the sport breathing over at the 34th Street facility, Rollerama.





In the mid-1990s you could find roller hockey almost anywhere in Bakersfield. It began in garages and on street corners and eventually took over tennis courts on Wilson Road and at Jastro Park. There were even pick-up games in the lot of a Mormon church on Panorama Drive and Fairfax Roads. Roller hockey had infected the masses. Jastro and Calloway Parks eventually built small rinks. Eventually there were sanctioned leagues at Standard Park (Until the league owner ran away with the money), and then the popular Niles rink in the old East Hills Bowling Alley (Many people said the rink was haunted. It's now a marketplace).

Some attribute the surge in Central Valley Roller Hockey to the popularity of the LA Kings as they marketed their team to a Bakersfield audience. Others think it had something to do with minor league ice hockey farm teams like the Bakersfield Oilers and the Bakersfield Fog. Both played at the Civic Auditorium and energized the youth and adults to want to put on skates and grab a hockey stick.


Location for proposed outdoor hockey facility


Similar look and feel to what Bakersfield will build...

I remember professional minor leaguer Mike Butters coming out to the pick-up games at Jastro Park. I was in high heaven when he once called me “tenacious”. Did that mean I was annoying and like a gnat after the puck? I can only hope so.

Butters could literally stand yards away from a goal and say, “My shot only counts if I hit the post.” He would call the post before he show and you’d soon hear a plink as he scored.

Only it was a roller ball back then. Not a puck. Then came glow-in-the-dark balls for late night hockey action. Then roller pucks were popular. You couldn’t hardly shoot those without breaking them. Then more standard roller pucks came into play. They tend to break in cold weather.


Baby Cal of the Bakersfield Condors sizes of a shot


And then shows the hand after missing the net

Yet, the good people of Bakersfield haven’t been playing roller hockey much for several years.

That’s about to change.

Just a few days ago, Dianne Hoover of the City of Bakersfield was joined by people like Bob Neath, Former Condors player Glen Mears, the LA Kings Fan Development Division, and a host of roller hockey supporters, all on hand to celebrate the new roller hockey park going in at Saunders Park.


Dianne Hoover discusses Bakersfield city's involvement

Donated by the Gretzky Center to the city of Bakersfield, this outdoor roller facility will be nothing other than state-of-the-art for roller hockey enthusiasts like myself.

“Don’t listen to people who say this isn’t going to happen,” said Bob Neath during a presentation speech.


Roller Hockey enthusiast Bob Neath talks hockey

I don’t think any of us were on hand to believe otherwise. Roller hockey in Bakersfield again? You bet. It’s a sure fire win, although the city council still has to pass at least one vote.




Noveltown supports hockey, whether on roller or ice.
Don't forget to buy our hockey CD!


Just moments later, a painful shot to the groin.
You gotta love hockey...

I asked Hillary Hodding of the LA Kings Fan Development Program why they were on hand to help. "Five years ago, roller hockey reached a peak. Since then it has been in a decline. We want to help bring it back. Kids need to know there's opportunity in hockey, including college scholarships." Although roller hockey is still a huge sport south of Bakersfield, the Central Valley has become mostly dead to the sport.

But as Hillary indicated. It's time to bring the sport back to where it was five years ago as part of the sports culture of Bakersfield and the Central Valley.


Roller hockey thugs talk about the sport

With the facility already donated, Bakersfield is on the way to providing a rough and tough sport that should begin in the spring of 2008.