Tipped Off
12-11-2005, 01:14 PM
California invasion
Seven players who were members of the California Wave, including the Silvertips' Shane Harper and Jonathan Milhouse, are playing in the Western Hockey League this season.
By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer
EVERETT - Ah, California. The sunshine state. Home of the O.C., beautiful beaches, palm trees ...
... and ice hockey?
Excuse me?
The search for hockey's hottest hotbeds doesn't often lead one to a location where that hotbed tends to melt the surface.
Elizabeth Armstrong / The Herald
The Silvertips' Jonathan Milhouse (left) and Shane Harper were also teammates on the California Wave, a AAA Midget league team in southern California.
Where ice is blended into cocktails, not used as an after-school playground.
Where more climate-friendly sports such as baseball and basketball flourish, while hockey is relegated to paved parking lots and played on in-line skates.
And yet, the Western Hockey League finds itself under siege by an invasion from the south.
California players in the WHL have traditionally been as numerous as snowy days in San Diego. In the rare situation where a Californian did pop up on a roster, they tended to be as much a curiosity as a contributor. Last season a total of just six Californian players dotted WHL rosters.
This season that total has more than doubled.
The primary reason is one team based out of the Los Angeles suburb of Lakewood.
And the Everett Silvertips have been one of the biggest beneficiaries.
The Team
The first time Jonathan Milhouse practiced with the Silvertips, before he had even committed to the team, he put in a healthy dose of overtime.
No, Milhouse wasn't trying to curry favor with the coaches. Following practice, he and Shane Harper grabbed a puck and played one-on-one keepaway for about an hour.
The smiles and banter as they continually attempted to stick handle past one another - and their clear knowledge of each other's favorite moves - made one fact clear:
These guys have played together for a while.
Indeed, it's a group who grew up playing together, of which Harper and Milhouse are a part, who make up the bulk of the California invasion.
The California Wave's 2004-05 AAA Midget team put seven players into the WHL this season as 1989-born rookies. In addition to Harper and Milhouse, they include forwards C.J. Stretch (Kamloops), Colin Long (Kelowna), Ryan Letts (Calgary), Matt Sokol (Medicine Hat) and defenseman Jonathan Blum (Vancouver).
That's more players than California has ever sent to the WHL in one season.
That's more players than any American midget team has ever sent to the WHL in one season.
It's even more 16-year-olds than top Canadian midget teams send to the WHL in one season.
"I have so much pride for all my buddies and me," Harper said. "Canadians say, 'You play hockey down in California?' That's what I love. They don't expect anything of you, so it's cool to prove we can play hockey."
The Wave program has produced other prominent players - 1987-born goaltender Joey Perricone (Moose Jaw), 1988-born defenseman Cameron Cepek (Portland) and 1988-born goaltender Tommy Tartaglione (Vancouver) are currently playing in the WHL.
And 88-born forward Rhett Rakhshani is playing for the U.S. National Team Development Program's U-18 team.
But the 1989 class is special.
The 89 team twice finished as national runners up. It finished second at the USA Hockey Tier I Bantam AAA tournament in 2004. A year later the Wave placed second at the Tier I 16-Under Midget AAA tournament, despite a roster that was on average nearly a full year younger than all its opponents. The Wave also won the prestigious Kamloops International Bantam Ice Hockey Tournament, perhaps the top Bantam tournament in western North America, in 2004.
"Their skill level was great," Silvertips director or player personnel Scott Scoville said. "The California Wave was for a couple of years the best Bantam team in North America."
So how is it that a team based in such sunny climes spawned one of the most prolific crops of rookies ever seen in the WHL?
The Coach
Jack Bowkus was the right man at the right time.
Nine years ago, along with Jeff Turcotte, Bowkus helped form the California Wave with the intention of developing top-level youth hockey in the Los Angeles area.
The creation of the Wave gave players in southern California a top club to play for. In the past, top talents from California tended to relocate to the Midwest at an early age to develop their abilities. The highest-profile example from recent years is forward Bobby Ryan, who moved from Anaheim to Detroit and was selected second overall by the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in the 2005 NHL Draft. The founding of the Wave gave players a viable local option.
The club's creation also coincided with the Gretzky revolution. Wayne Gretzky, considered the greatest hockey player of all time, was traded to the NHL's Los Angeles Kings in 1988, and his time in Los Angeles began an explosion of hockey interest in the area. The Wave were formed just when the players influenced by Gretzky were reaching the age for club hockey.
"Gretzky was the reason I started playing hockey," said Long, echoing the sentiments of his former teammates. "Then when I was a kid in '93, he was probably why I started getting serious."
Those players also arrived with advanced stick skills. With ice availability scarce and expensive, many California players grow up playing roller hockey, a four-on-four game that emphasizes skill over strength.
So when Bowkus became the full-time head coach of the California Wave's 89s in 2002, he had plenty to work with.
"It was a fantastic group of kids to work with," Bowkus said. "They had a tremendous commitment to the game, they were willing to learn and they worked hard."
And most importantly in the context of this story, Bowkus is a WHL alumnus himself.
Bowkus, a Detroit native, was one of the few players to leave the Midwest in favor of the WHL. He spent four seasons as a forward with the Saskatoon Blades from 1984-88, scoring 100 points in his final season.
So he was acutely aware of everything the WHL had to offer.
The WHL was a virtual unknown in California, but Bowkus made sure his players were exposed to the league. In addition to the Kamloops tournament, the Wave played in tournaments in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Medicine Hat, Alberta, and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, where the players were seen by WHL scouts and got an idea of what hockey in Canada is all about.
They also won a lot of games.
"Other teams would think, 'How are we going to lose to a California team,' " Harper recalled. "On the ice we'd get the surfer comments, how we should go surf. Then we'd end up beating them."
And the WHL took notice.
Seven players who were members of the California Wave, including the Silvertips' Shane Harper and Jonathan Milhouse, are playing in the Western Hockey League this season.
By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer
EVERETT - Ah, California. The sunshine state. Home of the O.C., beautiful beaches, palm trees ...
... and ice hockey?
Excuse me?
The search for hockey's hottest hotbeds doesn't often lead one to a location where that hotbed tends to melt the surface.
Elizabeth Armstrong / The Herald
The Silvertips' Jonathan Milhouse (left) and Shane Harper were also teammates on the California Wave, a AAA Midget league team in southern California.
Where ice is blended into cocktails, not used as an after-school playground.
Where more climate-friendly sports such as baseball and basketball flourish, while hockey is relegated to paved parking lots and played on in-line skates.
And yet, the Western Hockey League finds itself under siege by an invasion from the south.
California players in the WHL have traditionally been as numerous as snowy days in San Diego. In the rare situation where a Californian did pop up on a roster, they tended to be as much a curiosity as a contributor. Last season a total of just six Californian players dotted WHL rosters.
This season that total has more than doubled.
The primary reason is one team based out of the Los Angeles suburb of Lakewood.
And the Everett Silvertips have been one of the biggest beneficiaries.
The Team
The first time Jonathan Milhouse practiced with the Silvertips, before he had even committed to the team, he put in a healthy dose of overtime.
No, Milhouse wasn't trying to curry favor with the coaches. Following practice, he and Shane Harper grabbed a puck and played one-on-one keepaway for about an hour.
The smiles and banter as they continually attempted to stick handle past one another - and their clear knowledge of each other's favorite moves - made one fact clear:
These guys have played together for a while.
Indeed, it's a group who grew up playing together, of which Harper and Milhouse are a part, who make up the bulk of the California invasion.
The California Wave's 2004-05 AAA Midget team put seven players into the WHL this season as 1989-born rookies. In addition to Harper and Milhouse, they include forwards C.J. Stretch (Kamloops), Colin Long (Kelowna), Ryan Letts (Calgary), Matt Sokol (Medicine Hat) and defenseman Jonathan Blum (Vancouver).
That's more players than California has ever sent to the WHL in one season.
That's more players than any American midget team has ever sent to the WHL in one season.
It's even more 16-year-olds than top Canadian midget teams send to the WHL in one season.
"I have so much pride for all my buddies and me," Harper said. "Canadians say, 'You play hockey down in California?' That's what I love. They don't expect anything of you, so it's cool to prove we can play hockey."
The Wave program has produced other prominent players - 1987-born goaltender Joey Perricone (Moose Jaw), 1988-born defenseman Cameron Cepek (Portland) and 1988-born goaltender Tommy Tartaglione (Vancouver) are currently playing in the WHL.
And 88-born forward Rhett Rakhshani is playing for the U.S. National Team Development Program's U-18 team.
But the 1989 class is special.
The 89 team twice finished as national runners up. It finished second at the USA Hockey Tier I Bantam AAA tournament in 2004. A year later the Wave placed second at the Tier I 16-Under Midget AAA tournament, despite a roster that was on average nearly a full year younger than all its opponents. The Wave also won the prestigious Kamloops International Bantam Ice Hockey Tournament, perhaps the top Bantam tournament in western North America, in 2004.
"Their skill level was great," Silvertips director or player personnel Scott Scoville said. "The California Wave was for a couple of years the best Bantam team in North America."
So how is it that a team based in such sunny climes spawned one of the most prolific crops of rookies ever seen in the WHL?
The Coach
Jack Bowkus was the right man at the right time.
Nine years ago, along with Jeff Turcotte, Bowkus helped form the California Wave with the intention of developing top-level youth hockey in the Los Angeles area.
The creation of the Wave gave players in southern California a top club to play for. In the past, top talents from California tended to relocate to the Midwest at an early age to develop their abilities. The highest-profile example from recent years is forward Bobby Ryan, who moved from Anaheim to Detroit and was selected second overall by the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in the 2005 NHL Draft. The founding of the Wave gave players a viable local option.
The club's creation also coincided with the Gretzky revolution. Wayne Gretzky, considered the greatest hockey player of all time, was traded to the NHL's Los Angeles Kings in 1988, and his time in Los Angeles began an explosion of hockey interest in the area. The Wave were formed just when the players influenced by Gretzky were reaching the age for club hockey.
"Gretzky was the reason I started playing hockey," said Long, echoing the sentiments of his former teammates. "Then when I was a kid in '93, he was probably why I started getting serious."
Those players also arrived with advanced stick skills. With ice availability scarce and expensive, many California players grow up playing roller hockey, a four-on-four game that emphasizes skill over strength.
So when Bowkus became the full-time head coach of the California Wave's 89s in 2002, he had plenty to work with.
"It was a fantastic group of kids to work with," Bowkus said. "They had a tremendous commitment to the game, they were willing to learn and they worked hard."
And most importantly in the context of this story, Bowkus is a WHL alumnus himself.
Bowkus, a Detroit native, was one of the few players to leave the Midwest in favor of the WHL. He spent four seasons as a forward with the Saskatoon Blades from 1984-88, scoring 100 points in his final season.
So he was acutely aware of everything the WHL had to offer.
The WHL was a virtual unknown in California, but Bowkus made sure his players were exposed to the league. In addition to the Kamloops tournament, the Wave played in tournaments in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Medicine Hat, Alberta, and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, where the players were seen by WHL scouts and got an idea of what hockey in Canada is all about.
They also won a lot of games.
"Other teams would think, 'How are we going to lose to a California team,' " Harper recalled. "On the ice we'd get the surfer comments, how we should go surf. Then we'd end up beating them."
And the WHL took notice.