SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Roller Hockey

2005-06 CIF/Metro Conference Report
Roller hockey, family-style, at Skate San Diego

By Phillip Brents
Posted Jan. 18, 2006

Like so many San Diego County residents, Joe Noris came here from the cold and decided to stay. But there’s something he brought with him from his native Denver to remind him of the cold: his love for hockey. That has translated into a business venture as well as two children currently playing high school roller hockey in the South Bay.

Noris, 54, is entering his fifth year as owner of the skating business at the Skate San Diego roller rink in National City. While his days as a professional in the National Hockey League and World Hockey Association during the 1970s are mere memories today, he continues to skate regularly in the rink’s adult house leagues, though on wheels now instead of blades, as many as three times each week.

The rink, located at 700 East 24th St., is also home to the CIF/Metro Conference, which utilizes the landmark 55-year-old facility four nights each week for high school games. Noris’ two children, Natalie and Johnny, compete for La Jolla High School, which is included as a member of the Mesa League this season after participating as a member of the South Bay League two seasons ago.

Noris serves as a co-head coach for the Vikings, thus making the sport a special family affair.

“The game always has been a family thing with us,” said Natalie, a senior. “My dad was always here, so (by playing roller hockey) that got me a little extra time to spend with him.”

The Vikings are celebrating their fourth year of existence this season and third as a member of the CIF/Metro Conference. The elder Noris was instrumental in getting the puck rolling, so to speak, when La Jolla made its debut as a club team in the San Diego County High School Roller Hockey Conference four years ago. The San Diego County High School Roller Hockey Conference, which is entering its 11th season this year, served as a genesis for several long-standing CIF/Metro Conference teams as well.

The National City rink has serviced both high school-aged leagues over the course of their existence.

Johnny, a sophomore, has become one of the top scorers in the game. He had eight goals and one assist in La Jolla’s come-from-behind 12-7 Mesa League victory against Eastlake on Wednesday after recording nine points on six goals and three assists in Tuesday’s 12-0 league victory against Sweetwater. He had 10 points on seven goals and three assists in an 11-10 Mesa League loss to defending league champion Bonita Vista on Jan. 12.

The younger Noris has collected 41 goals and 11 assists for 51 points to lead the CIF/Metro Conference in scoring in the Vikings’ 5-6 start.

Though statistics could not immediately be located, Johnny believes he has scored between 15 and 20 points in one game and as many as 10 goals in one game.

“He’s a far better scorer than I ever was, more accurate,” assessed the elder Noris, who was a third-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins (the 32nd player selected overall) in the 1971 NHL Amateur Draft and played in 55 NHL games before closing out his pro career in the WHA, then an upstart rival to the established NHL.

Joe Noris appeared in 198 regular season WHA games, scoring 72 goals and 116 assists for 188 points with 60 penalty minutes. He scored four goals and five assists for nine points in 18 playoff games — all with the San Diego Mariners, for whom he played for two seasons (1975-77).

It was while playing for the Mariners that he met his wife Deborah.

“The only other thing I can say about Johnny is that I if had discovered surfing as a young boy like he did at nine or 10, I probably would have quit ice hockey, too,” Joe quipped.

Noris, who said he was in Pacific Beach trading hockey tickets for surf boards the second day after arriving in San Diego, played three seasons in the WHA, appearing in 45 games for the Birmingham Bulls in 1977-78 after the Mariners ceased operations. Hockey once again brought him back to San Diego, this time as a member of the San Diego Hawks of the Pacific Hockey League where he was reunited with several former Mariners teammates, as well as the region’s hockey legend, Willie O’Ree, the first African-American to play in the NHL.

O’Ree, who was honored at last Saturday’s Old Timer’s Hockey Weekend game at the ipayOne Center at the Sports Arena by the current San Diego Gulls of the ECHL, skated for the original incarnation of the Gulls (1966-74) in the long-defunct Western Hockey League. Noris and O’Ree were teammates briefly when Noris was sent here on minor league assignment (the Gulls were the AAA affiliate of Pittsburgh then) during the 1972-73 season. In 25 games with the Gulls that season, Noris, then 21, scored three goals and 13 assists for 16 points. (That same season, O’Ree —16 years Noris’ senior —totaled 56 points in 68 games between the Gulls and the New Haven Nighthawks of the American Hockey League.)

During his final season as a pro, Noris racked up 27 goals and 77 assists for 104 points in 58 games to lead the Hawks in scoring while O’Ree, then an ageless 43, scored 21 goals and 25 assists for 46 points in 53 games to rank in a tie for sixth in team scoring.

After the Hawks and the PHL folded, Noris took up permanent residence in “America’s Finest City” where he discovered a new game — roller hockey.

The elder Noris served as president of the San Diego Barracudas of Roller Hockey International — a team that entertained fans for four seasons at the then San Diego Sports Arena. The Barracudas’ last season was in 1996. Noris has devoted his time to operating the skating business at Skate San Diego since then, as well as playing competitive adult roller hockey with the San Diego Sprung Hosers at the 35-and-older level, winning four national championships.

The Hosers will be in Phoenix this weekend competing in the annual NARCh Winternationals. The team finished second last year after winning the title the year before.
Family and hockey remain inseparable, it seems.

“It’s nice to be out there with my brother. We seem to understand each other when we’re out there,” said Natalie, who ranks among the smattering of female players in the coed sport.

Johnny began playing ice hockey age 4 and turned to roller hockey at age 7. The accessibility of the National City rink has helped particularly in his development in the latter sport.

“During the off-season from CIF, I play here as much as three times each week and then I play travel team hockey (on a youth team, the San Diego Sprung Hosers). I usually play for my dad’s team. We get along good out there. He’s always feeding me the puck. We are always tuned into each other — the same with my sister,” Johnny said.

The younger Noris earned an ice hockey state championship with the La Jolla Jaguars a few years ago and helped the Hosers place third and fifth at the NARCh finals, considered the largest and most competitive amateur roller hockey championship tournament on the planet.

The game remains one to enjoy, rather than stake out a career, however, for the Viking sophomore skater. “It’s a fun game for me. I never had the dedication my father had,” Johnny said.

While being able to watch his children compete in their high school sport of choice from the workplace carries its share of emotional benefits for Joe, the two Noris siblings are finding there are other benefits as well. With the elder Noris suited up and ready to take the court for an adult game after the final of three high school games on Wednesday, Natalie had one question for her father, “Dad, can I borrow some money?”

With family, some things never change, even at the rink.