Wildcats find long trips melt players' interest

~ The local hockey team has disbanded after more than a decade of competition.

Four hours in the car proved the SEMO Wildcats ice hockey team's stiffest competition.

The team disbanded after its latest season because local interest dwindled. Part of the reason for shrinking participation was players had to travel two hours each way to practice on ice in St. Louis.

"You have to be pretty dedicated," said Chris Orta, who played for the Wildcats. "I mean every weekend you can't have anything going on Friday night so you get a good night's sleep. You need Saturday and Sunday all to yourself to be up in St. Louis to even play."

The Wildcats, a team comprised of players in grades eight through 12, competed for about 13 years, coach Ral Wheeler said.

Lack of a home rink in the area proved too much to overcome. Orta said the dearth of ice time showed during games.

"It's very tough to be able to compete," he said. "We kept up most of the time, but they outplayed us. They had more knowledge of the game."

The absence of a rink nearby created another problem. Fewer children were choosing to play hockey because they couldn't watch it in person unless their parents made a lengthy drive.

"It's hard to keep a young kid's attention and focused on an hour of ice hockey, much less two hours of dragging him up there to practice for an hour and keep his attention for that whole hour," Wheeler said. "It's hard unless they can sit and see it and go and skate during extra free time by themselves."

The team secured sponsorship to help defray the cost, getting it down to about $350 per player. That still wasn't enough to lure players to the rink.

"That's the hardest part of it, I think, is getting the attention of the kids to want to play the sport when there is no exposure to it here," Wheeler said.

A number of former Wildcats players will continue to play hockey, but will enter a draft pool in St. Louis to determine their team, Wheeler said. Orta is one of the players who plans to continue lacing up his skates.

"I love the sport," he said. "I've been playing since I was about 4 years old, so about 13 years now. My dad has been coaching youth for a while and it's going to be my senior year, so I might as well to finish."