Along the way, those of us who wanted hockey twelve months a year but weren’t inclined to be inside a rink during the summer needed an alternative. 
We found it in a low-tech version of the winter game that used portable nets, wooden stick shafts with plastic blades and a tennis ball. It could be played on any hard surface: streets, basketball courts, tennis courts and more (in our case it was the street in front of our home).
Forty years later, the game we called street hockey has gained a popularity that reaches well beyond its beginnings. Ball hockey (or deck hockey as it is known in some quarters or street in
“It’s bigger than everybody knows,” player and tournament organizer Matt Garry said in a recent phone interview. “I talk to people all over the world that play ball hockey on pretty much a weekly basis.”
Garry has been playing ball hockey since he was a kid. His love of the sport, along with his likes and dislikes about tournaments, prompted him to start the Sunshine Shoot-Out and Tampa Shoot-Out near his home in the
“I had been traveling to tournaments for many, many, many years – going to about seven a year. One of the big ones we used to go to was the NHL Breakout in the beginning and then we started going to regular tournaments,” Garry said. “I’ve seen a lot of pros and a lot of cons. The cons are what kind of bothered me and a lot of the guys would gripe about a lot of things. So I started thinking let me take all of the negative stuff out of the events and start running my own events, give more than other people do and give back to the sport I’ve been playing my entire life. Five years ago I started these two events and now they sell out. They’re phenomenal.”
If you’ve never seen, ball hockey, check out this video clip…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=283myYggm_M
So what is it about ball hockey that has propelled its popularity both in
“You’d have to play the sport to really figure it out but the exercise you get and the same intensity that you’d get playing any other type of hockey,” he said. “Believe it or not, for a lot of people it is a lot cheaper than having to buy skates and all the other stuff that goes with it. There’s a lot of good features to it.”
There is also the fact that unlike ice hockey, ball hockey can be played just about anywhere there is a surface where a ball can roll and nets can be put up, allowing it to catch on from the streets of Massachusetts (according to Garry, Boston was where it all began) to those in places like Florida and Southern California.
“I would say that the Northern states have the bulk of the teams, places like
Everywhere is right. Starting with
Garry’s Sunshine Shootout has several divisions: Open which is split into “A” and “B” divisions; Recreational; Masters for players 35 and older; a women’s division and a new co-ed division for mixed gender teams. The open division generally has the better, more skilled players while the recreational division is geared toward who are less skilled but still can play. For the sake of scheduling (and his own sanity), Garry limited the total number of teams to 32 with entry being on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Garry goes to great lengths to make the event professional. He foots the bill for officials from around the country to come in and work the games. They keep control of the no-checking rules as well as acting just like ice hockey officials do, calling penalties and making sure that the game is played cleanly.
“My refs are actually the best refs in my opinion in the country. They get flown in. None of them are from the home rink,” he said. “They get housed. They get food taken care of. Everything is there for them because they do the best job.”
Garry is also very involved with helping the teams and players get to New Port Richey. Through his background in travel agency work, he has been able to line up deals on hotel accommodations at local hotels, taking some of the financial strain off the players.
Although the division winners are the ones who leave with trophies, no one who plays in the Sunshine Shootout or the Tampa Shootout leaves empty handed. Thanks to corporate sponsors like the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team and others, each participant takes home a memento of the tournament, something that Garry is very proud of.
“They (the Lightning) don’t give money which is OK. They give me stuff (merchandise) for everyone that attends my events so I actually have something that every single player gets when they come to my event,” he said. “They give me stuff for giveaways as well.”
Both the Sunshine Shootout and the Tampa Shootout are free of charge to come and watch so if you have a chance, stop on by SportsZone2 in New Port Richey. Players and teams that are interested in future tournaments can contact Matt Garry at mgarry3@tampabay.rr.com .
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.