There’s No Place Like Home for Girling The Santa Barbara roller standout is enjoying college success in his own backyard


By Phillip Brents C


alifornia’s Central Coast region is quickly


earning itself a name as one of the state’s devel- oping hotbeds for inline hockey. The area boasts three of the top collegiate in- line


hockey programs


in the nation: UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara City College. All three schools sent teams to this month’s National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association (NCRHA) na- tional championship tour- nament in Salt Lake City.


comes from a Biblical source, the name of one of the 12 tribes of Israel - got his first introduction to the game on the black- top at elementary school. “Eventually I decid- ed it might be fun to play actual hockey, so then I got a pair of skates and set to it,” he said. There’s


been looking back.


Gad Girling, a 2011 graduate of Santa Barbara High School, led UC Santa Barbara's Blue B division team in scoring this season.


The region also is home to one of the state’s longest-running high school-specific inline hockey leagues: the Central Coast High School Hockey League (CCHSHL), based in Santa Maria. Why go elsewhere when the region has so much


to offer? Santa Barbara High School graduate Gad


Girling decided to stay “home” to do just that, and he’s reaping success. Girling paced the CCHSHL in scoring during


the 2010-11 season while leading the Santa Bar- bara Chargers to the league’s varsity championship title. Now a freshman at UC Santa Barbara, he’s continued to occupy the seat at the head of the class by leading the school’s B division Blue team in scor- ing.


Making the jump from a modest high school


circuit to one of the nation’s most talent-rich col- legiate programs has been a challenge for Girling, but one he’s managed to meet head-on. “Coming to a new program, I think I’ve done


well by gaining respect through working hard dur- ing the games, as well as the practices, and con- tinuing to push myself,” he said. Girling collected 18 goals and 35 points to earn


the Central Coast prep circuit’s Top Gun Award as a senior in high school.


He led UCSB’s B division Blue squad in scor- ing this season with 21 goals and 27 points in 16 games. He finished 15 points ahead of his nearest teammate in the scoring column and accounted for a third of the team’s 63 goals. Despite his stellar season, UCSB’s Blue B team


finished 4-10-2 - out of the running for this year’s Western Collegiate Roller Hockey League playoffs (the Gauchos’ Division I and Gold B division teams both won regional championships to advance to this month’s NCRHA nationals.) Girling - Gad is actually his full first name and


Girling said the toughest hurdle he faced his first season in college wasn’t measuring up to expectations (which he did anyways by imme- diately producing on the playing court), but sim-


ply starting over in new surroundings. “The biggest challenge for me was and still is


(forming an identity as) a team,” he said. “Because of the large number of freshmen, no one’s known each other that long so the team unity is a bit weak, but it’s getting better. Really, the only way to im- prove upon that is to spend more time together, on and off the rink.” Fitting in on the team wasn’t difficult. He ac-


cepted the role of motivator and set the pace by leading by example.


At 6-foot-2, 160 pounds - Girling played middle blocker for Santa Barbara High School’s boys vol- leyball team his sophomore year - he’s certainly easy to spot on the rink. He’s used his height, in particular, to his advantage.


“I get longer strides and a little bit longer of a


reach than most of the other players,” he said. “But, unfortunately, being light can sometimes be a dis- advantage while fighting for the puck.” He admitted it’s taken time to develop his cur- rent prowess for scoring goals.


“I think the most important factor is practicing


a lot, so I try to skate as much as I can, which is great now that I have a rink (on campus) within walking distance,” he said. “Apart from practic- ing, I’d say just take shots; when you get a decent chance, take it.” Girling’s favorite subjects his first year at UCSB are physics and environmental science. He said UCSB’s on-campus rink played a role in select- ing the school. “I’d always planned to play some sort of hockey


in college, not necessarily in the WCRHL,” he said. “It just made sense to go here along with the great academics, of course.”


How does one calculate the trajectory of a slap shot? Girling has obviously found the answer.


The Half Moon Bay Cougars won the Division 4 North championship to cap the 2011-12 winter season of the Northern California high school league.


More California ice hockey players commit to Division I schools F


our more Californians playing ju- nior hockey this year have com-


mitted to NCAA Division I schools for the coming fall: defensemen Chase Golightly (Robert Morris), Sean O’Rourke (Ferris State) and J.D. Peterson


(Alaska-Fairbanks) a former and


goaltender John Keeney (Alaska- Fairbanks). Golightly,


California


Wave and LA Jr. King from Temecu- la, played this season with the Prince George Spruce Kings of the British Columbia Hockey League; O’Rourke, an Alta Loma native and former Cali- fornia Star, is skating with the Fair-


banks Ice Dogs of the North American Hockey League; Peterson, a former Wave and Jr. King from Orange, is patrolling the blue line for the Tri- City (Neb.) Storm of the United States Hockey League (USHL); and Kee- ney, a Twin Peaks native and former member of the LA Selects, OC Hockey Club and Anaheim Jr. Ducks, stopped pucks for the USHL’s Muskegon Lum- berjacks this season. In addition, defenseman Kyle


Alta Loma’s Sean O’Roarke


Mitsunaga, an Idaho native who played for the LA Selects’ 16U AAA team this season, has committed to St. Cloud State.


no


San Jose’s high school inline circuit prospering


H


igh school roller hockey has been a fixture in San Jose since its January 1997 debut at Rollin’ Ice, when the facility was located at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. Six teams participated that first season; there were 24 teams in four divisions two years later.


The league eventually reached a maximum of 42 teams be- fore the facility relocated to become part of San Jose’s new Sil- ver Creek Sportsplex in 2007.


Interest has remained high. Thirty-seven teams partici- pated in six divisions during the 2011 fall season; the league fielded 38 teams in the same six divisions for the just completed winter season.


“We’re hoping to shoot in the low 40s for the upcoming spring season,” league director Brian Roh said. The Sportsplex record is 42 teams during the 2009 winter


season.


The high school league remains one of the three-rink facili- ty’s more popular programs. There are three dedicated seasons: fall, winter and spring. Skill levels range from travel club-caliber (Division 1) to be- ginner (Divisions 5 and 6). Fall league champions included Pioneer RKD (Division 1),


Sobrato Black (Division 2), Los Gatos Black (Division 3), Sobrato White (Division 4 North), Leigh Black (Division 4 South), West- mont Red (Division 5) and Bellarmine Columbia (Division 6). Winter league champions included Pioneer RKD (Division


I North), Willow Glen Red (Division 1 South), Los Gatos Black (Division 2), Branham Blue (Division 3), the Half Moon Bay Cougars (Division 4 North), Live Oak (Division 4 South), Leigh Green (Division 5) and Mountain View Black (Division 6). San Jose’s Bellarmine College Prep fielded six teams for the latest season that concluded with championship playoffs on March 23-24. Santa Clara’s David Coats called playing in the league the highlight of his high school experience. “There’s nothing I’d rather do on a Saturday night than go out to the rink and play a game of hockey,” he said.


- Phillip Brents


KERDILES, KOULES RANKED BY NHL CENTRAL SCOUTING: Forward Nic Kerdiles, a member of USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program’s Under-18 Team, is listed No. 29 among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting on its final rankings of 2012 draft-eligibles, which were released this month.


Kerdiles’ teammate, forward Miles Koules, is listed No. 201. A former LA Select, Kerdiles, from Irvine, is a Wisconsin re-


cruit. Koules, a Los Angeles native and also a Selects graduate, has committed to North Dakota. For the second year in a row, Kerdiles was named to the U.S. National Under-18 Team that competed at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Under-18 Championship, which ran from April 12-22 in the Czech Republic. This year’s NHL Entry Draft will take place on June 22-23 in


Pittsburgh. RubberHockey .com 29


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