Summer vocation

Rice puts final touches on busy summer slate

Published: Friday, July 21, 2000

So what did you do this summer?

Chances are, you got some sun, went to the lake, did some yard work and relaxed a little.

Eric Rice traveled the world, played a lot of roller hockey, won a bronze medal and even got a date or two. Not bad for a summer's work.

''So far it's been great,'' said Rice, who played forward for the Cotton Kings in their inaugural season. ''Not everyone gets to play (roller hockey) on a national sports channel.''

Rice played this summer for the X-Press of the Pro Beach Hockey league, an offshoot of roller hockey that takes place on the beaches around Los Angeles. The rules of the game are also altered to allow for more scoring and a faster pace, not to mention more wide-open play in spite of a smaller playing surface. It is also played with a ball rather than a puck, and the surface has ramps at the ends. Basically, it is made for TV and it is televised on ESPN late at night.

The games were taped in late May and early June, and are on TV right now. It's a fun irony, the sport of hockey being played just yards from the Pacific Ocean in front of swimsuit-clad fans more concerned about sunburn than stray pucks.

''It was a great experience and a ton of fun,'' Rice said. ''It's a unique experience in that you're 100 yards from the ocean. There are no showers by the playing areas so you take your stuff off and just dive in the ocean.''

While the players are not well-compensated, Rice said accommodations for the players are accounted for. Plus, the exposure of being on TV each week more than makes up for the lack of funds for the players.

''For four weekends of work our team got $700 a player,'' Rice said. ''If you win (the game) it makes the whole weekend. It would be nice to get more money, but they take care of us well enough that it's worth it. It's so much fun I might do it for free.''

Rice is the only Cotton Kings player in the league, but not the only WPHL player. Goaltender Rob Laurie, who played for the Austin IceBats, also played in PBH this summer.

In fact, Laurie and Rice were in the minority of professional hockey players who played in PBH. Rice said most of the players were inline hockey players from the Los Angeles area and all around southern California. Rice spends his offseasons in Hermosa Beach, so he didn't have far to drive for work.

''Some guys fly in for it, but mostly it's local guys,'' Rice said. ''There's a pretty good core of hockey players in L.A., so the games are pretty good. We all know each other, too.''

Once the PBH season was over, Rice headed off to the Czech Republic for the International Inline Hockey Federation Inline World Cup as a member of Team USA. The team finished third after losing to Finland in a semifinal and beating Germany 6-1 for the bronze medal. It was a disappointment for the Americans, who won last year's gold medal and had designs on winning the top prize again.

''Definitely it was a bummer,'' Rice said. ''We went in there with the hopes of winning it and it didn't work out that way, so what can you do?''

Still, Rice was grateful for the opportunity to see a former Eastern Bloc nation, since he said he had seen a lot of Western Europe. The games were good, too, with the best players in the world assembled in one tournament.

''The bottom line isn't about winning,'' Rice said. ''It's about getting a lot of good countries together and having some fun. We had a good week and enjoyed the Czech Republic. It was good to see a new world.''

Rice is now back in Hermosa Beach getting in shape for the ice hockey season, which begins in mid-October. Whether he will play for the Cotton Kings a second year remains to be seen, but he was high on the prospect of playing in Lubbock for new coach Bill McDonald.

''Hopefully I'll talk to McDonald soon,'' Rice said. ''I'd really like to play for the Cotton Kings again. It was a great town, everyone supported the team, great group of guys, great facility everything was perfect for a guy coming in from out of town.

''I was happy when he (McDonald) called me back and said he wanted to talk to me. It doesn't always happen and when it does, you feel good about how you did the previous season.''

Anyone channel-surfing late at night has probably seen a snippet of Pro Beach Hockey on ESPN. For the record, Rice wears No. 73 for the X-Press. And also for the record, he's been dating the blonde doing the sideline reporting. Yes, he turned the tables on Nicole Ferrera during an interview taped before a game and asked her a question.

''I grabbed the microphone out of her hand and said 'I hear you're single, what do you say we go out?' She said, 'For the first time in my life I'm speechless, yeah, I'll go out.'

''And we still are going out a couple of more times. She's a sweetheart, and I'm glad I did it. I'm not a guy who does that all the time.''

Not bad at all for a long summer's work.

Dave Shelles can be contacted at 766-8743 or at