David Rice, Times Correspondent
In Print: Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Robbie Mahler, second from left, and Ed Wilke battle for the ball as A.J. Larsen, left, and goaltender Jim Baisley stay alert during a floor hockey game at Veterans Memorial Park in Hudson last week. The Thursday night games are catching on.
From behind the boards, the game looks exactly like any other hockey game, but with one noticeable difference: The players are running.
That's because they're playing floor hockey, also known as dek hockey. The game is popular up North, where it is played during the summers after the ice at public rinks melts. The game is played with a ball instead of a puck, and the rink is as wide as the gym. At Veterans Memorial Park in Hudson, the gym is dedicated to the sport on Thursday nights.
"Dek hockey is actually older than roller hockey," said Peter Bikakis, who participates in the Tampa Bay Ball Hockey League. "Most of the people who know about it come from up North because they grew up playing it in the streets and schoolyards."
Bikakis, of Holiday, has been playing the game for years. He joins several other players at Veterans Memorial Park every Thursday to help promote the sport and to keep fit for his other games.
"They had this here 10 years ago, and I came out then," Bikakis said. "Once they offered it again, I decided to do it again. It's good because we have a little bit of every age group and experience level, so it gives us a chance to have a nice open game. Every week we get someone new who has never played before."
Group members range in age from 14 to 60. Ken Stay, 60, has been playing floor hockey for about three years. Hailing from Minnesota, Stay grew up playing ice hockey, but enjoys the atmosphere of the floor hockey nights in Hudson.
"You've got some real players out here sometimes," Stay said. "It's a really good pickup game. It's a lot more tiring (than ice hockey) 'cause of all the running, but it's fun."
Others, such as Steve Fairbanks, 50, have just started playing with the group and are already hooked.
"I like this because it's competitive, but it's fun," Fairbanks said. "I played this as a kid, and I still play roller hockey, but this is good because everyone is on different skill levels and the game is small enough that everyone gets some time on the ball."
New hockey players are not an unusual sight at the open nights.
"In middle school we played it in gym, but I'd never played it in a game like this," said Daniel Guecia, 14. "I heard about it from a friend, and now that I've been here, I see that it's pretty cool. I'll keep coming back."
Teaching the game to new players and showing others how much fun it is was part of the reason the open floor hockey nights started, according to Bikakis.
"For a lot of people who are scared to ice-skate it's a chance to play," Bikakis said. "We had a kid out here we nicknamed Legs. He'd never played in his life, and then one day, he came out. After that, he decided to join a hockey league. Now he comes back and plays with us and you can see how he has gotten better.
"That's what it's all about."
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Fast facts
Open floor hockey nights
Where: Veterans Memorial Park, 14333 Hicks Road, Hudson.
When: 7 p.m. Thursdays
Note: Games are designed for ages 16 and older, but are open to anybody. Goals are provided by the facility.
To learn more: For more information on the Tampa Bay Ball Hockey League, call Peter Bikakis at (727) 267-2892.
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