Youth on wheels: youth hockey partnership.

On the East and West coasts, roller hockey has taken off like a rocket as the fastest growing sport in the country. While enthusiasts in the sunny states of California and Florida have received the majority of the attention, roller hockey has expanded into the Midwest, including Kansas City, Missouri.

It started as it has in most cities, with a few kids playing hockey on the street with makeshift goals, stopping the game whenever a car came along. It was when Bill Quatman's daughter and son got skates and wanted to join in the action that he decided there had to be a safer place to play in their Brookside neighborhood. The 39-year old lawyer gathered his two kids and some friends and took them to a local school playground to play pick-up games on the asphalt, away from the traffic. Word spread in the neighborhood and before long, there was a regular group playing after school.

Forming Partnerships for the Next Millennium

About this time, Quatman had a chance meeting with Nathaniel Wilkins, superintendent of the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department. Wilkins and Quatman had developed a working relationship through their participation in a leadership development program sponsored by the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. As Wilkins recalls the meeting, "Bill said he wanted to talk to me about whether the Parks and Recreation Department would be interested in starting a street-hockey league. I told him that we are always looking for new recreation opportunities and that if he would get me some information on the sport we would see if we could help." With that opening, and with his law firm's computer, Quatman gathered news articles from around the country on the growing sport of roller-hockey, sponsored by professional hockey teams and parks departments in San Jose, Atlanta and major cities across the country.

Wilkins was willing to take a gamble and he agreed to order 25 sets of helmets, sticks and hockey gloves to see if kids would take to the program. They did, and the Brookside Roller-Hockey League was formed.

Wilkins believes to better serve the needs of a changing community, park and recreation professionals must be willing to develop partnerships and collaborate wherever possible. He further states that park and recreation professionals must be willing to fink up with uncommon partners to produce new possibilities. This philosophy stems from associations with Richard Zavala, director of the Park, Recreation and Community Services Department in Fort Worth, Texas, and other forward thinkers within the field. Transformation, right sizing, downsizing, shrinking resources, and the like all demand recreation professionals seek new and different ways to offer programs. Developing partnerships and collaborations is the future.

It is a well-known fact that park and recreation departments, by themselves, can successfully plan, organize, lead, implement and evaluate a program -- through partnering, this action has vital citizen input. Partnerships and collaborations are effective methods for developing and understanding neighborhood/ community interest and needs. Believe it or not, parks and recreation departments do not have to be all and do all. There are community individuals, groups and organizations, just like Bill Quatman's, waiting to mobilize in support and development of new park and recreation programs and services. That's how the roller-hockey partnership and program for youth came about in Kansas City.

"While retaining uniqueness and autonomy, we in the field of recreation, who share the same values and goals, can accomplish more by working together than we can on our own. This is the chance for us to demonstrate the full value of who we are and what we can do," says Charles Jordan, director of Portland Parks and Recreation, regarding the subject of community collaborations. "Our youth are at risk, and our society is at a loss. Up to this point, we've been fighting a nuclear war with conventional weapons. This first addition to our arsenal must be a new way of thinking... We must learn to work together, because society needs help with its youth. And we have a piece of the solution."

A New Vibration

The first roller-hockey season in 1995 drew 35 players. Volunteer coaches showed up just to watch the kids play and ended up getting interested in helping out. By the end of the first season, Quatman had located other youth roller-hockey programs at local roller rinks. The Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department sponsored the first All-City Roller Hockey Tournament, drawing eight teams in two age brackets.

Based on the first year's success, Quatman and Wilkins went to work to see just how large the local interest was. They contacted the local IHL franchise team, the Kansas City Blades, local restaurants and a sporting goods store about sponsoring teams. In 1996, over 70 boys and girls, ages nine to 14 signed up to play a 10-game season from April to August. Sponsors provided T-shirts, Wilkins bought more equipment and Quatman found more coaches and referees.

"The second season was really a turning point for us," Quatman says. "As word spread the kids got excited about playing in a league. We actually had to turn away some players because we just didn't have enough equipment or teams to handle the interest." The season ended with the second All-City tournament at which Brookside placed second in both age divisions, narrowly missing the first-place trophy.

Quatman realized that he needed some organization and help. Using his skills as an attorney, he incorporated the league as a non profit organization and obtained the coveted 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status from the IRS. He then recruited fathers of players as his board of directors, his wife as treasurer, and several of the coaches to help plan the 1997 season. Before long, the league had 15 volunteer coaches and 12 corporate sponsors at $250 each. Wilkins purchased more equipment, including a $4,500 padded border system for the rink, and the Kansas City Blades ice-hockey team authorized the use of the team name and logo. The newly incorporated team then took the name the "Junior Blades."

Wilkins proudly claims that all hands are now on deck; this is a true partnering effort. "Our park department staff have helped to move the border system, and key recreation division staff secure the facilities and equipment. In my estimation, this is a win-win situation. In exchange for the parks and recreation efforts, we have developed a new opportunity to publicize Kansas City Parks and Recreation services. Our name now appears on promotional material, and we are advisors to the program."

"Sign up was incredible," said Quatman of the league's third season. We had handed out flyers at the St. Patrick's Day Parade, posted some in local schools. We felt that we had enough equipment to take on 100 players, but we took 125 total because we hated to turn anybody away. Charging each player $50 ($20 of which went to purchase liability insurance), the league had enough money to purchase more equipment on its own to accommodate the additional players.

Practices and games are played in good weather on an outdoor asphalt surface in a highly visible area, with lots of car traffic. Mention roller hockey in Kansas City, and most people will tell you that they have driven by and seen the kids in Brookside playing on a sunny weekend afternoon. According to Quatman and Wilkins, the public-private venture has worked well because of parental interest and lots of volunteer help. Paul McGannon, a Brookside director, father, and hockey enthusiast, observed, "Bill [Quatman] and Nate [Wilkins] got this thing going, and there is no telling where it will stop."

"There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit."

Safety Is Job 1

Safety is a major concern for the league. The city and school district have each required $1 million in liability insurance, which is readily available from national roller-hockey organizations, such as USA Hockey In-line and USA Roller Hockey, for about $20 per player and coach. In addition, all players must wear protective head gear with face guard, gloves, knee, shin and elbow pads. Through three years and 200 children, Quatman reports only two minor injuries, both of which occurred before or after practices, when kids were horsing around and not even playing hockey.

Wilkins and Quatman have their sights set high for next year and are already talking about holding a national tournament in Kansas City as a way to promote the sport and generate money for needed equipment. "Ideally, I'd love to see a public-private venture to build a permanent outdoor site, with perimeter boards, lights for night playing, bleachers and striping for hockey. It has happened in other cities and it will happen here," says an optimistic Bill Quatman.

Nathaniel Wilkins agrees, "These types of public-private ventures are the future of parks and recreation all over. As public funds become more scarce, we will need to partner with the business communities and neighborhood groups to provide programs that fit the interests of the community. We're glad to have been at the right place at the right time for roller hockey in Kansas City."