Fun tidbit about roller hockey history in SoCal...
For those familiar with now defunct T.I.D.E.S. roller hockey in house league, which originated on the blacktop playground of Lincoln elementary school in Redondo Beach (used border patrols as boards) and moved to a nicer outdoor facility at Adams Middle School in Redondo, a small tournament team was formed called the Tidal Waves.
In order to fund our tournament expenses, travel costs, and jerseys the parents would run a "snack shack" at our rink during in-house game weekends and cook up tri-tip sandwiches, philly cheesesteaks, etc and sell drinks/candy. It was a great family atmosphere.
The Tidal Waves team was made up of various players from the '90-'92 birth year, and probably saw about 15-20 players come through during the 3 years in existence. We played in various tournaments, never were the best team, or even in the highest division usually, and basically only played roller until 2000 after Toyota Sports Center was built. Back then there were no birth year teams, the cut off was September (?), so the team had to split for ice classifications and played mite/squirt ice hockey.
Of that group of 15-20 roller players there were some pretty decent skaters to come out of there:
Beau Bennett - NHL and D1 Denver University
Max Edson - D1 Air Force Academy
Jason Torf - D1 Air Force Academy
Wade Bennett - D1 Denver University
Brett Beebe -D1 Western Michigan University
Gudger Gentzler - D1 Colgate University
Tyler Maxwell - WHL
Not sure what the roller hockey landscape looks like today, but it offered a fun, competitive, and AFFORDABLE alternative to ice hockey in the late 90s/early '00s. Wherever you are, just get better and enjoy coming to the rink every day and things will work themselves out. More practice, more private lessons and more games doesn't always mean more success.
Remember....It's supposed to be fun, not every piece of hockey needs to be dissected into whether it is good or bad for development
Pictures below:
1) Tidal Waves members at the Bennett home in 1998
2) Same group (minus 1) at the Bennett house in 2016 on Beau's day with the Stanley Cup