Why Hockeyville should come to Arizona

For the first time, Kraft Hockeyville is coming to the United States — and in conjunction with that, I decided to tell my own story. I submitted an entry to make my case for why Hockeyville should make its way to Arizona, and the home of Arizona State Hockey, Oceanside Ice Arena.

"For more on the contest, you can check out krafthockeyville.com — and if you want to submit  your own entry to help out Oceanside, you can go here to submit your own or to read others entries."

Below is my entry into the contest.

Oceanside will always mean a lot to me, it’s where I got my start as a hockey broadcaster calling play by play for Arizona State’s Division 2 ACHA team. When I entered college I wasn’t 100 percent sure which path I wanted to take but when I entered Oceanside for the first time and I put on a headset I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to be an NHL play by play broadcaster.

Every time I head back to the small standing room only rink I get a good feeling and those memories I made up in our little broadcast booth come flooding back. In addition to myself having great memories there at Oceanside there are still plenty of memories to be made in the valley of the sun when it comes to Oceanside Ice Arena.

Late last year it was announced that Arizona State’s hockey program would be joining the NCAA ranks and they call Oceanside their home and will continue to do so in the short term but with the $150,000 grant it might be possible to keep the team for the long term and they can continue to grow their roots they have sewn over their tenure at the one of the oldest rinks in the valley. It started its operation back in 1974, way before the Coyotes came to town and when the Roadrunners were still in their infancy.

Arizona has this stigma of not being a hockey town but when a rink has been around for more than 40 years and its main tenant is a National Champion team, I beg to differ.

If it weren’t for Oceanside I would probably be covering another sport and I sure as heck wouldn’t be playing the sport like I am currently doing and have been doing for a little over a year now. I’ve skated at Oceanside many times and always have a blast doing so but it’s capped off by the wonderful pretzels available at the snack bar located inside the rink which I must consume every time I go like some sort of Voodoo ritual.

The biggest reason why I think Phoenix deserves to be on the big hockey stage is because I feel like hockey is on the verge of exploding here in the desert. The evolution of ASU hockey into an NCAA program would never have happened if hockey wasn’t supposed to succeed here. The Coyotes would have jumped town years ago if hockey wasn’t supposed to succeed here and most of all Oceanside wouldn’t be around if hockey wasn’t supposed to succeed here.

Bringing Hockeyville to America’s sunniest place is a big gamble but if we want hockey to keep growing across the state like it can and it should Hockeyville is the perfect way to do it.

**Editor’s note: This piece was left untouched to keep the entry original and true. We hope you enjoyed!