It's buddies and boards for DeBlois, Bennett

CEDAR RAPIDS - They're not going to start another East Coast-West Coast feud.

Mac Bennett and Derek DeBlois freely admit the scene in California and Hawaii is superior to their native Rhode Island. It's more like they hang four instead of 10, if you will.

 But that doesn't stop the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders teammates from grabbing their surfboards during the summer and hitting the water. Waves are waves.

“We both love surfing,” Bennett said. “On the East Coast, the waves don't get that big. But whenever we get hurricanes, it can get nice. So that's what we do in the summertime. If there's no waves, then we'll golf. But if there's waves, we'll surf.”

Ah, yes, it's the well-known hockey player-surfer combination.

“We don't really hang out on the beach much unless there really are waves,” said DeBlois, who also has played a lot of lacrosse. “Some of the guys that just surf, you see them everywhere in board shorts and stuff. But we play hockey, so we're skating half the time and in the water when we can be.”

Rhode Island is kind of the California of the East Coast when it comes to surfing. At least that's what DeBlois says.

Now the hockey thing seems a little more plausible. Providence College and Brown University have college teams, and you may have heard of NHL players like Bryan Berard, Brian Boucher and Keith Carney.

They're Rhode Islanders.

In fact, Mac Bennett's grandfather, Harvey Bennett, and uncles Curt, Bill and Harvey Jr. all played in the NHL. Mac's father, Jim, also played professionally.

One of Jim Bennett's teammates at Brown was Steve DeBlois, Derek's father. It's no exaggeration to say Mac Bennett and Derek DeBlois have grown up together.

With the exception of a couple of years, they've grown up playing hockey together, too. That includes junior, obviously, and at Michigan, where they've both committed.

“I can't even remember the first time I met him,” Bennett said. “We were tiny.”

“Growing up, we were always around each other. Then we became best friends,” DeBlois said. “It's been awesome having someone there with you every step of the way. Especially when you're coming into a new environment like this. It's great to have someone there, and it's obviously awesome to have your best friend there.”

The boys are first-year RoughRiders who came to town from Hotchkiss Prep School in Connecticut. A puck-moving defenseman, Bennett was drafted in the third round last summer by the NHL's Montreal Canadiens and his adviser is hockey legend-turned agent Bobby Orr.

DeBlois is a skilled winger who can play with an edge. He leads the RoughRiders in rookie scoring and should get drafted by an NHL team this summer.

Now wouldn't it be something if it turned out to be Montreal?

“Mac's funny,” DeBlois said of his friend. “He doesn't really care what people think, so he's always fun to be around. He doesn't change at all, he's always the same person. He's easy to be around, easy to introduce to new people. You can meet him once and love the kid.”

“He's laid back, an easy going, very friendly kid,” countered Bennett about his buddy. “It would be impossible not to like Derek. He's just really easy to talk to, a very good guy.”

They were both asked if their personalities are identical.

“I wouldn't say we have the same personality, but similar,” DeBlois said. “We both enjoy the same activities, doing the same stuff. All of our best friends at school where we come from are all the same people.”

“They're just very personable, well spoken, well rounded young men,” said RoughRiders Coach/General Manager Mark Carlson, who swung a deal to acquire the rights to DeBlois at last year's USHL Entry Draft.

You'd figure Carlson almost had to trade to keep the pair together. They never seem to be apart.

Bennett's family originally lived 25 minutes drive from DeBlois' in Rhode Island but is moving and will be “about a two-minute drive” away. That's just as well.

It'll be easier to track each other down during the summer to go surfing.