Growing roller hockey and College roller hockey

[hockeymonkey44]

Colorado High School Inline Hockey League (CHSIHL) is doing something I think is pretty cool. They are doing a "radio" show over the internet about how to grow roller hockey. It seems to me (at least in Colorado) that the high school leagues are making great progress while the collegiate league growth and respect is stagnant. Take a listen....

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Colorado-Inline-Now/2009/06/18/State-of-Inline-Hockey-in-Colorado-and-across-the-countrydoes-anyone-know-

[minutemen]

nice post. If the sport is going to grow we need high School and strong in house youth programs (not tournament teams) to make this a sport. In the grand scheme of other sports unfortunately roller hockey is a recreation not a sport. This is great news that things are building in CO. Stuff like radio shows, post online games (like the AIHL is doing) and local public broadcast would be huge for the sport. Kids eat stuff like this up and most do as well. One final thing is people have to work together and build programs. Most may not like this comment but we need one national office that handles tournaments, nationals, etc. That is something that will be hard, but for know parents, coaches and rink owners have to work hard to make things happen. Do not expect people to come you have to make them want to play.

[zipyaj]

A special THANK YOU to BlogTalkRadio host Eddie Delgado of the Colorado High School Inline Hockey League (www.chsiha.org) and guest speaker Kevin Smith (Tour Outcasts and Horizon HS Huskies of Scottsdale, AZ) for inviting me to share with them in their insights and commentary during last evening's online broadcast on Colorado Inline Now ( http://www.blogtalkradio.com/search/colorado-inline-now/ ). Their topic, The Media - Where Are They?, touched on pertinent issues to our sport and its promotion with the aim of unification and growth.

Listen up at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Colorado-Inline-Now/2009/06/25/The-Mediawhere-are-they- .

Eddie and co-host Kevin Birka do their broadcast each week attempting to reach their Colorado audience and others around the globe. Guests have even included IHC guru Richard Graham in their grassroots efforts to help promote the sport.

And as Kevin Smith so eloquently stated last evening, "Pointing fingers at others is not going to get us anywhere. We've got to do this ourselves."

Thanks Guys!