Desika Narayanan was about 13 when he started playing roller hockey in Gainesville in the mid-1990s. A few decades later his youngest son Nikhil is following in his footsteps.
“I went to pick him up [at Parker Elementary School,]” said Narayanan, 43, an associate professor in astronomy at the University of Florida. “I saw all these kids playing hockey [on the basketball court,] and I was like, ‘What?’ I didn’t know this was even going on.”
Nikhil Narayanan, 10, is one of about 40 other children to attend the Gainesville Youth Hockey Learn to Play Free Clinic at Skate Station Funworks. Children ages 6-13 from all different skill types joined to learn hockey essentials, skate in drills, make friends and build a hockey community in the non-traditional hockey market of north central Florida.
For Nikhil, coming to Skate Station Funworks and participating in clinics, practices and his roller hockey league games not only lets him hone his skills as a defenseman, but also allows him to get together with his closest friends.
“They’re all so nice,” he said, “and they made me feel at home.”
Before the first free youth hockey clinic in 2023, options to learn to play hockey in Gainesville were sparse.
“There was nothing in Gainesville, so we were driving to Ocala to play,” Nielsen Folken, 38, a mail carrier in Gainesville, said of his son Desmond, 9.
Desmond said he’s made a lot of friends by coming to the clinics as well as becoming a better hockey player.
“I got better at it,” Desmond said. “I’m probably a better passer.”
Some, like Cash Keenan, 10, attending clinics is a way to stay sharp when it’s not possible to skate on ice every day. Mondays and Tuesdays are his roller hockey days, but Cash’s grandparents make the almost one-and-a-half-hour drive to Jacksonville every weekend so he can play ice hockey.
“He loves it,” said Ruth Zuccarell, 68, Cash’s grandmother and a UF information technology analyst. “I just want him to be happy and be good. As long as he’s good in a sport, it’s very good for him.”
By playing roller hockey in Gainesville and playing ice hockey in Jacksonville on the weekends, it allows Cash to hone his skills as a goaltender and emulate his favorite National Hockey League player.
“My favorite hockey player is John Gibson, [a goaltender for the Anaheim Ducks]” Cash said. “I keep my hands up, keep playing. That’s what he does all the time.”
To help young athletes like Cash play like their favorite superstars, there are about a half dozen north central Florida hockey players who join the youth clinic to help train and foster their love for the game.
“I grew up playing and ended up traveling and having a great time,” said Lewie Schacht, 23, a construction engineering inspector in Gainesville and the organizer of the clinics. “I just want to do the same thing for all the kids.”
Schacht grew up in Gainesville and started playing hockey at Skate Station Funworks when he was about 12 years old. He joined the local Gainesville youth roller hockey league and eventually the local travel team. After his youth playing days finished, the league fell apart, along with the local roller hockey scene, but Schacht said he wanted to bring it back.
“There was a group of kids who played at Veterans Park on Sundays,” Schacht said. “That was our main first batch of kids. And then it grew from there.”
When Schacht brought back the league last October, there were only enough participants for two teams that play only once a week. The clinics started out slow, too. Schacht said about 15 players joined when it first started.
But the league and the clinics soon gained traction. There are now four teams, with practices on Mondays and games on Tuesdays. And for the clinics, Schacht said about 40 joined in the last session.
“Kids talked to their friends at school,” Schacht said, “and other ways words got around to help increase our numbers.”
But Schacht doesn’t just train or coach. He acts as a mentor and friend.
“He got me my first equipment,” said Maxwell McAfee, 13, of Gainesville.
One of hockey’s toughest boundaries is the cost. With equipment, training, travel and other expenses, it can cost thousands of dollars per year to play hockey.
Zuccarell spent around $1,500 on the equipment alone for her grandson.
“He’s only 10, so he’s going to grow out of that,” she said. “We’re going to have to buy him new pads, a new helmet, new gloves, new everything.”
Helping other parents get equipment has helped the hockey community in Gainesville bond. Whether that’s by texting on the hockey group chat about a cheap pair of shin pads at Goodwill or letting players borrow from the equipment closet at Skate Station, the community is always looking for ways to make playing hockey more affordable.
“Skate Station has been doing a fantastic job of keeping the league fees reasonable,” Narayanan said.
But if children or adults are just trying to play a quick pickup game for free, there is only one other rink in town: the outdoor roller hockey rink at Veterans Memorial Park. Narayanan says the rink is a great resource, but parents are concerned for its future. As pickleball gained popularity around Gainesville, many have taken over the rink to play.
“There’s pickleball all over the city,” Narayanan said. “Outdoor hockey is in one place. You need a rink [to play hockey.] For pickleball, you don’t need a rink.”
According to Ed Williams, the capital projects coordinator for the parks and open space department for Alachua County, there are no immediate plans to improve the rink. However, he said there is a need to improve it, and the county is planning a community input session in the next couple of months to determine the biggest needs for the rink.
“If a lot of people are using it for roller hockey, then we don’t necessarily want to take it away,” Williams said.
Narayanan said he wants the city to invest more in the Veterans Memorial Park roller rink and add more roller hockey infrastructure.
“Other cities have huge tournaments,” Narayanan said.
Narayanan says he still has high hopes and aspirations for the further growth of hockey in Gainesville. And not only has this growth allowed a new community to develop, but it also allowed Narayanan to build a stronger connection with his son, Nikhil, by coaching him and teaching him some of the fundamentals of hockey.
“It’s been really awesome,” Narayanan said, “to teach someone’s life lessons through something we both love.”
