Young RoughRiders break the ice at local high schools

Chicks dig hockey players.

A postgame meet and greet at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena proves it. RoughRiders players are like rock stars in a way, attracting girls like Rush Limbaugh attracts conservative Republicans.

“The football players don't like us too much, though,” says Jeff Costello, laughing.

Costello, 18, of Milwaukee, is in his second season with the Riders. He graduated from Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School this past summer.

That's part of the deal for junior hockey players. These 16-to-20-year-olds move away from home to places like Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Sioux City with the goal of a college scholarship and/or playing professionally.

For the older guys, it's pretty much all hockey all the time, except maybe a class or two at Kirkwood Community College. For younger players, it's more difficult. They have to transition into a high school where, yeah, some female students may like you, but apparently the football team doesn't.

“It definitely has not been a bad experience. Kennedy was great,” Costello says. “They treated all the players with a little extra care if we needed it, because our schedules are so tough.”

Still, he says, “who wouldn't want to graduate back home with all your friends?”

Hockey players are tough, though.

“You've got to adapt to it,” says 17-year-old RoughRiders defenseman Nolan Zajac of Winnipeg, Manitoba. “It is a big change, but it's fun at the same time, too, getting to know different people.”

This is one of the younger teams the RoughRiders have had in their 11 years. Zajac is one of seven players attending Cedar Rapids Washington, with four others at Kennedy.

When players come to town in late August, they meet with school administrators, parents, billet (host) parents, a RoughRiders liaison and head coach and general manager Mark Carlson.

“We discuss what is expected. This is how we're going to operate,” Carlson says. “The kids know that if they don't go to school on a particular day, they can't practice. If their grades are not up to par, they're going to have to sit out games.”

The players get it.

“We're here to play hockey, but at the same time, we know we've got to get good grades,” says RoughRiders defenseman Mac Bennett, 18, a Rhode Islander who attends Kennedy. “Coach stresses that we're at class and we're studying hard, working hard.”

The RoughRiders have 60 regular-season games, 30 on the road. The United States Hockey League stretches from Kearney, Neb., to Youngstown, Ohio, meaning there are a lot of long bus trips.

Most games are on the weekend, but not all. Cedar Rapids had a Tuesday night game this week in Green Bay, with the team getting home at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The first class for some players was 7 a.m. Yes, they were in attendance.

“We'll miss some school, but the teachers are pretty good with you,” says Derek DeBlois, an 18-year-old from Rhode Island attending Kennedy. “They'll let you make it up after school, or they'll help you out other ways. I think they're pretty good to the hockey players.”

Especially Heather Adams. The Washington chemistry and psychology teacher has Zajac and teammates Sam Warning, 17, of Chesterfield, Mo., and Peter Sakaris, 17, of Montreal, in her class, but she has befriended all the Washington RoughRiders.

Sakaris and teammate Michael Parks, 17, of O'Fallon, Mo., live across the street and visit regularly for homework help or to eat her cheesecake.

“People have no idea how much these kids give up to chase a dream that may or may not happen,” Adams said.

Though it's difficult with the considerable hockey obligations, the young RoughRiders are encouraged to embrace their new schools and the people there.

“At first, I didn't know who they were,” says Washington sophomore Emma Azelborn, 16, who has Sakaris and Warning in her chemistry class. “Then we had an assembly (where they were introduced). They're just cool. They talk to everyone.”

Bennett says he tries “to show my face around as much as I can.”

That includes volleyball matches and football games, even though the football players might not like him.