When most organized sports were suspended country-wide at the height of the ongoing health crisis, there were moments when pick-up games of inline hockey (roller hockey) in the roller rink at the Beach 109th Street Playground gave boardwalkers something to cheer about.
“People on the boardwalk would watch us and thank us for playing,” said Broad Channel resident James Carricato, 25, who regularly organizes informal games at the rink. “Multiple times, when the Parks Department or police asked us to stop, the people watching started chanting ‘Let them play!’ I think they needed to watch just as much as we needed to play.”
Although the pickup games defied restrictions placed on hockey as a “high risk” activity, Carricato, a physical education teacher in Brooklyn, said he tried to keep the groups as small as possible and noted that some players wore masks on the outdoor rink where the Rockaway Rockies adult league and youth programs are also housed. “We stopped playing for a bit when lockdown started out of respect for what was going on. A lot of players didn’t want to chance it, but it got to a point where we were going stir-crazy.”
Carricato’s group wasn’t alone. Citywide, notably in Whitestone and Ridgewood, those who typically play ice hockey joined inline players on outdoor roller rinks to keep their skills sharp when ice rinks closed. Local players found alternate ways of entry when the main entrance to the roller rink was locked, only to be chased away once their games started. “We only got shut down if someone called and complained and we would respectfully get off,” Carricato added, “But we got shut down every time we played.”
The Parks Department told The Wave that summer permits have been suspended through August, and that fields, courts, and that on July 6th the rink opened “first come, first serve for socially distanced play.” Via email, they said applications are being considered for the fall season (September 1 –November 30) should organized sports be deemed safe and restrictions lifted.
Bobby Keane, who runs the Rockaway Rockies organization, would rather not operate without a permit. He was in the process of re-launching the youth league, which was on hiatus in 2019, when COVID-19 paused his program of about 150 youngsters. “I was in the middle of my adult league and we had just started the registration for the kids,” said Keane, 42, a Rockaway native. “I shut it all down and I haven’t gotten permission from the Parks Department to resume team sports.”
Rockaway inline hockey advocates are also concerned about a crack in the playing surface that stretches from the center circle down towards Beach 109th street and behind the net. Keane says that he saw the crack starting around 2015 when the rink was rebuilt after Hurricane Sandy. He said he told his contacts at the Parks Department that it should be fixed immediately, but the fissure is now big enough to jeopardize skater safety. While the rink is in otherwise good shape, the growing gash won’t heal itself. “Another year like this and the rink will have to be re-done because a kid could get their skate caught and break an ankle,” Keane said.
Having joined the Rockies program when he was just 6 years old himself, Keane is a keeper of Rockaway’s inline hockey tradition. He has run the Rockies programs for more than a decade while still playing in the adult league himself. Additionally, Keane has worked to bring various events to the Beach 109th Street Playground rink. He is a co-organizer of the Ryan Rudden Memorial Tournament, which honors a former Rockies player killed in a 2002 automobile accident. That event lost a few years because of Hurricane Sandy damage to the rink but was resumed four years ago. In 2017, he partnered with Tournament Cup Series (TCS), which sanctions as many as 30 tournaments nationwide, to produce the Beach Cup, which has drawn youth and adult teams from as far away as Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Chicago. “We had the best roller hockey players in our country playing in Rockaway,” Keane said. “We had kids from the USA inline hockey team come down. It was incredible.”
John Schiavo, a Long Island native, having won a pair of inline world championships and a minor pro ice hockey title, is among the elite players who frequent the Beach Cup. A popular Instagrammer, Schiavo, 26, starred in a YouTube commercial shot at the Beach 109th Street rink for Marsblade, an ice skate to inline skate conversion kit, with more than 102,000 views. He says he discussed possibly bringing a tournament to the boardwalk with his own sponsors. “I skate in Rockaway all the time and it’s like an hour drive from my house,” Schiavo told The Wave. “It’s such a beautiful, scenic rink. There’s really not another place like it for roller hockey in the entire city.”
Keane said District Leader Lew Simon secured the parking lot at Martin De Porres High School for use by Beach Cup players in 2018, but those who regularly drop off children or haul bulky equipment must compete for spots.
TCS President Marc Costanza agrees with Schiavo and said he and Keane are in talks to do another Beach Cup. “Cracks aren’t safe and cause pucks to bounce and roll, which is no fun for players,” Costanza said. “I would definitely consider having my business assume the cost of fixing the surface. It would be a tax write off, but mostly I want to give back to the game.”
The Parks Department said they are aware of the asphalt crack and were determining the best course of action to repair it.
For now, Rockaway’s inline hockey community must wait for COVID-19 restrictions to ease and trust that damage to the playing surface gets repaired. “Hope was what we were giving the people who were cheering us on,” Carricato said. “They saw us playing and figured hopefully things were getting better.”
Update:
On Thursday night, as an earlier version of this story went to press, Keene contacted the The Wave to report that a group of 12 inline players, Carricato included, were chased off the rink by a group of roughly 30 participating in a Zumba class led by Lisa George. Keane said George, as well as district leader Lew Simon, told the group that the Zumba class had a permit and that the Parks Department turned the lights on for the program. Both Keane and Carricato said that the Zumba class used the rink in the past but they were surprised to learn a permit was issued this year.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous that 100 people can jump up and and down dancing inside a hockey rink, but 12 kids can’t play hockey in it,” Keane said in a text message to The Wave.
Simon, a longtime supporter of the Rockies, confirmed that George was the permit holder.
“It was given to Lisa George to start as of last week,” Simon said. “They told her that she can have 50 people with social distance, we only have about 28, and everyone had a mask on including me.”
George confirmed Simon’s account via text messaged and added that she has been a longtime permit holder at the hockey rink.
“MY permit for zumba with social distancing was approved, George said. “(Zumba) is not a contact sport.”
Leave a Reply