Pro hockey in this town got you praying for another lockout? Give these guys a shot.
By Rose Martelli
Photograph by Pete Newcomb
Even with that midseason surge, the conversation-starter “So, how ’bout those Blues?” hasn’t had much of a ring to it as of late. But here’s an opener that’s bound to prick up some ears: “So, how ’bout those Southside Snipers?”
You may very well receive a “Huh?” in return, so here’s the story: This past winter, the Professional Inline Hockey Association—think NHL minus the ice skates and Zamboni—came to town in a big way. Having originated in 2002 in just a few Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states and Colorado, the PIHA expanded last December with not one but five franchises in the brand-new Gateway Division, all but one of which are in the St. Louis region: the Snipers, the Midwest Tornadoes, the River City Whalers and the St. Louis Pythons. (A Cincinnati team rounds out the division.) At press time, the teams were deadlocked, which is another way of saying that the Gateway Division’s competition is as fierce as the Blues’ play is flaccid.
Regular-season action (32 games per team) concludes next month, followed by nationwide playoffs that run through Memorial Day weekend. PIHA rules allow for only five players, including a goalie, per team. Unlike in the NHL, checking (and its close cousin, fighting) is not allowed, but offside violations are—all the better to ensure high-scoring games.
Those tweaks to standard NHL rules—along with a “two double-headers per night” format and between-game fan contests—are an attempt to fire up the fan base, and they seem to be working: Season tickets this year sold out and then some.
The Gateway Division is the brainchild of 2006 Washington University graduate David Garland, an inline player since childhood whose first job title out of college—PIHA board member/Gateway Division director of marketing and public relations/Snipers goalie—is enough to test the margins of the average business card. Which part is hardest? “Sometimes I think the day job is harder, because I have to put on a suit and wear so many hats in representing the league,” Garland says, “but then I wake up the morning after a double-header with all these aches and bruises, and I think that’s the harder job.”
