Out of This World


Space Coast Iceplex provides quality skating, hockey opportunities in Brevard County By Chris Errington


R


ick Ninko started with a need and an idea. Most importantly, he had a plan. As has been the case so often with the roots of Florida hockey, it took the help of an outsider – more accurately, a northerner – to fully develop the idea of bringing the sport to one of its most non-traditional states. For Ninko, this took place in what’s termed Flor-


ida’s “Space Coast.” Ninko, a Michigan native, saw a need for local hockey players and set about mak- ing sure it was fulfilled. After helping organize local adults to commute from the Cocoa Beach area to an Orlando rink – a 60-mile drive each way – once per week for opportunities to play the sport beginning in 1992, Ninko decided the time was ripe for locals to have a rink of their own. So began what’s become the Space Coast Iceplex’s


15-year run as one of the state’s most successful ice skating rinks. Still, Ninko is quick to remind that hockey is not all


that the Iceplex is about. “We are not a hockey a rink,” Ninko said. “We are


a recreational ice skating facility. Our income stream comes from a very well-established figure skat- ing program, as well as competitive and recreation hockey. We skate thousands of skaters every week, just at general skating times. “To try to survive on just hockey, it just wouldn’t happen. Hockey players aren’t going to get on the ice at 5:45 a.m. like figure skaters.” After moving to the Space Coast, a region on the eastern-central coast of Florida, encompassing all of Brevard County and most notable for being the home of Cape Canaveral, site of the Kennedy Space Center and the Space Shuttle launches that concluded earlier this year, Ninko had a hunger to continue enjoying the sport of hockey. But like so many of the younger players that had played in northern states before likewise making the move south, he found his op- tions limited. So starting in 1996, after hearing word that an investment group was planning to build a rink in nearby Rockledge and having a background in how hockey leagues formulate, Ninko and a group of interested locals formed the Brevard Amateur Ice Hockey Association (BAIHA). Its mission was, and still is, to develop hockey from a grass-roots level and quickly Ninko, the association’s president, began driv-


Members of the Space Coast Hurricanes take time out of a recent practice session. Top from left - Donovan Pranzoni (Bantam), Mason Ayres (16U), Cole Prospero (Bantam). Bottom from left - Paul Rigolini (Bantam), Jackson Kinney (Bantam), Matt Ayres (Bantam). Photo/Space Coast Iceplex


Bantam skaters Matt Ayres (black jersey) and Cole Prospero (white jersey) jockey for position during a recant Space Coast Hurricanes practice at the Space Coast Iceplex. Photo/Space Coast Iceplex


ing future players to the Orlando Ice Palace. “We wanted to be read when the rink opened,”


Ninko said. “That meant we had to have children who could skate. If we had to drive 60 miles, we were going to drive 60 miles. That’s just how it was going to have to be if we wanted to hit the ground running when the rink opened.” The timing couldn’t have been better. With


Florida’s first NHL team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, beginning play during the 1992-93 season and the Florida Panthers joining the league just a year later, state interest in the sport received a monumental boost. Ninko soon found that the sudden explosion of rink development throughout the state and interest in the game wasn’t solely limited to northerners who’d moved to Florida looking for warmer climates or who had moved for employment opportunities. “With all due respect, in 1996, hockey was still in a


very growing position,” said Ninko. “The boom really occurred from 1996-99.We had a lot of guys work- ing and living in this area that’d come from the north and there was a lot of interest from them concerning hockey in this area. But we also found that there were a lot of people who’d been here for a while that were interested in playing, so we knew we were onto some- thing.”


“What people like about hockey is that it’s a controlled envi- ronment. They never get rained out and games always start on time. Then they can go to the bar and enjoy a beer and talk about what heroes they are.”


6 Sticking to its core values of developing hockey


from the ground up, the Iceplex has a multitude of youth leagues ranging from an “Intro to Hockey” through a “50 and Over” league. The Iceplex has also seen its share of successful teams. The Space Coast Hurricanes won the 2007 USA Hockey Tier II Junior C national championship and another squad won the 2010 USA Hockey Tier II Adult over 50 national title. Still, for all its success bringing hockey to an area


that’s steadily grown from 250,000 to 400,000 resi- dents and then developing players from beginners to national champions, Ninko said economics will always dictate the Iceplex’s present and future, especially now during the country’s economic downturn. That was especially true in 2001 when the BAIHA had to merge the Iceplex’s sister facilities in Orlando and Daytona Beach into the one Rockledge facility. “It just became too difficult to manage with the facili- ties so far apart,” Ninko said. “To make sure we could keep the doors open, we had to consolidate.” The single-sheet Iceplex was designed to expand to a second ice surface and there are nearly five acres surrounding the rink on which to expand. Still, for now, Ninko said that with banks unwilling to pro- vide the $2 million loan needed to expand and need- ing every available skater using the facility to turn a profit, the status quo will remain for a while. That means the multitude of hockey players and teams who call the Iceplex home as well as ice skat- ers and a program called “Tim’s Kids,” which recently developed programs for the mentally and physically challenged, including a competitive sled hockey pro- gram, will still be the rink’s main inhabitants. For Ninko, who just recently retired as the associa- tion’s president, that’s just fine. “Our goal has been to introduce as many kids to


ice hockey as possible,” he said. “That’s the way it has been and the way it should always stay. We want to make sure our kids have a place to play hockey or ice skate and know that they don’t have to take their talents north to have an opportunity to do it. “There are a lot of great places in Florida for them to be successful on the ice, so we want to make sure they know they can do that right here.”


Mason Ayres of the Space Coast Hurricanes 16U team is one of many players who skate at the Space Coast Iceplex as a member of the Space Coast Hurricanes youth program. Photo/Space Coast Iceplex


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