Local students who enjoy playing inline hockey can now play for their school’s team, as the Lake Orion Guided Activities Program (GAP) at Lake Orion High School is sponsoring an inline hockey league.
The league is “play-to-play,” and is directed by Ken Helms, a Lake Orion resident who is also the director of the Rochester Skate Center (the Lake Orion teams’ home rink), and was recently named director of the Michigan Inline Hockey Association (MIHA).
Helms said his new position forced him to step down as head coach for the Lake Orion varsity team, although he can still remain director of the league.
“I contacted (GAP coordinator) Ben Gerdeman about a year ago, and we talked about setting up a Lake Orion team,” he said. “I couldn’t do a lot at that time because my son was in eighth grade.”
Once Helms’ son Jonathon, a member of the varsity team, became a freshman at LOHS, Helms helped set the league there in motion.
The Lake Orion Varsity and Junior Varsity teams play away games at the Skate Plex in Sterling Heights, where a league had already began under the direction of the MIHA. The Dragons play other inline hockey teams from school districts across the area.
“Next year they’ll only play in Rochester because we’ll have enough teams there for a West Division,” Helms said. “Some schools have multiple teams and that’s the beauty of having a club over a sport…we don’t have to worry about cuts, all the kids can play.”
Lake Orion players aren’t required to have a lot of inline hockey experience to play on a team and both boys and girls are welcome in the league.
“We had a good turnout for this year’s team…we had enough for two and a half teams. Next season it looks like we’ll have four,” said Helms.
This year’s varsity team has 10 players: Larry Bobbitt, Anthony Rossi (goalie), Jonathon Helms, Dominic Lombardo, Jim Kipila, Adam Haddad, Corey Burns, Adam Krefski, Brad Walker and P.J. Patton. The team is coached by Dominic Lombardo and Rocky Walker.
The JV team is: Robert Parcus, Kyle Anderson, Ben Lewis, Jeremy Martin, Kyle McDonald, Bill Schroeder, Justin Sparkman, Dan Stemmer, Joel Butterfield, Brian Kenyon, David Barstead, Trevor Dery and Emily Kane (goalie). The JV team is coached by Chet Lewis.
The teams currently play games twice a week, at the Skate Plex on Mondays and at Rochester Skate Center on Wednesdays at 6 p.m.
Helms said starting the league has taken a lot of hard work, but that he’s had a lot of support and volunteering from parents and also from his wife, Lisa Helms.
“She took on a great deal of things,” he said.
Helms has also gotten a lot of support from his coaches.
“With all their help, we were able to put it all together,” he said. “(The players) realized this season there would be a lot of growing pains. I’m very happy with the kids we have out there.”
Helms said a major focus of the program in the near future will be fundraising. The league was able to purchase jerseys for both teams, which are the kids’ to keep.
“But we’ve created a very good base for the program to grow off of,” he said.
The Dragons will play 14 games this season, with games currently scheduled through December.
“We play seven weeks, then we have our play offs,” said Helms. “Then through the winter we will play 10 games, playing once a week.”
The preseason practice schedule was pretty full, but Helms said that will change as they get into the regular season.
“We can’t ask them to practice a lot and play two games a week,” he said. “We’ll sit down and find the best time for them to practice.
“We’re just not targeting the kids who are good (players), we want all the kids,” Helms continued. “We don’t want them to feel uncomfortable (if they are inexperienced)…we’ll find a team to put you on that makes you feel comfortable.”
For more information on the Lake Orion Inline Hockey League, contact Ken Helms at (248) 453-0020. The Rochester Skate Center is located at 1700 S. Livernois Road in Rochester.