Roller Hockey

Hilltop High Lancers conclude trailblazing CIF season

By Phillip Brents

They will be remembered as trailblazers in their sport: the Hilltop High School 2000-2001 roller hockey team.

The Lancers completed regular season play with an undefeated 13-0-1 record to finish atop the Metro Conference’s history-making nine-team league -- the first in the state to be officially sanctioned for play by one of the sections within the California Interscholastic Federation. The San Diego Section earned the notoriety of sanctioning the first CIF-sponsored high school roller hockey league.

That Hilltop emerged with first-place honors is not surprising considering the pedigree and tradition established within the program, which is now in its fifth year under head coach Dan Vaccaro. The "Lancers" had participated for the first four years of their existence as members of the San Diego County High School Roller Hockey Conference, a grassroots entity that had formed to offer the sport to athletes as a viable alternative to officially-sanctioned high school sports. Then last year, the Lancers received recognition from the school as a club team, allowing its members to earn letters while competing in the sport of their choice.

Again, Vaccaro was among the chief movers and shakers behind the move upward, as he was along with Sweetwater Union High School District Superintendent Dr. Ed Brand in the sport obtaining official sanction last spring by the San Diego Section’s Board of Managers.

For the past five seasons, players from Hilltop High have carried the banner for the sport in the South Bay, and now the current class gets to finally hang one in the school’s gymnasium.

This year’s Hilltop team won by rout as well as by narrow margin and, in one case late in the regular season, was forced to preserve its perfect standing by scoring the final goal of the game to tie Bonita Vista, 2-2.

The Lancers defeated Eastlake, 4-3, in a midseason game that matched co-champions from last year’s South Bay League division in the San Diego County High School Roller Hockey Conference. Again, Vaccaro was instrumental in helping launch that South Bay League division, which included squads representing Eastlake, Chula Vista, Hilltop and Bonita Vista high schools from the Sweetwater district.

The goaltending duties of this season’s history-making Lancer roller hockey team featured the talented duo of Chris Romero and Rick Benavides. Field players included Anthony Porras, Carl Horten, Joshua Gomez, Joseph Casillas, Kyle Lew, Daniel Vaccaro, Ben Nixon, Eric Morgan, Jena Albert, Mike Fulgham, George Agonowski, and to open the season, Emanual Buenrostro.

Horten, Gomez, Agonowski, Morgan and Casillas proved to place their names consistently among the league’s scoring leaders. Benavides, a freshman, backstopped the team to its thrilling come-from-behind victory against Eastlake after recovering from an early 2-0 deficit.

But the team will be remembered for its overall depth and balance. There wasn’t one superstar player on the roster that dominated: the Lancers won as a team. The Hilltop lineup is also studded with underclassmen -- so one might expect the Lancers to field the proverbial "team to beat" against next season.

As for next season?

While this was an admittedly "trial" season for the sport within the Metro Conference, there are existing club teams from outside the district that wish to join.

The Metro Conference’s sanctioning as an official CIF roller hockey league appears to be the opening and closing chapter in the sport for a few years, at least. When the San Diego Section’s Board of Managers approved roller hockey as a CIF sport within the section, it did so without roller hockey being included on the state CIF’s list of approved sports. In essence, roller hockey did what lacrosse had been attempting but unable to do for several seasons as well — gain entry into the CIF’s "promised land."

In the wake of the board of manager’s decision, the state CIF office has since placed a moratorium on any new sport becoming a CIF sport until it has been placed on the state CIF’s list of approved sports. That means that no other section within the state can add roller hockey as a CIF-sanctioned sport until roller hockey is placed on the CIF state office’s list of approved sports. It also means the San Diego Section cannot sanction the sport within another conference, which closes another avenue for the time being in the sport’s quest to become an official CIF banner sport. In order for the San Diego Section to award a championship banner in roller hockey, the sport must be played within at least two separate conferences within the section.

With only the Metro Conference presently sanctioned, only a league banner can be awarded — not a CIF banner. What may happen should outside teams gain admittance to the conference next season is a split into geographical-aligned leagues but within just one conference, which would preclude a CIF banner being awarded.

That doesn’t mean that a floodgate of teams will be admitted next season. In order for any existing roller hockey team from a school that is not currently a member of the Metro Conference to gain entry in the league, that team would first have to get permission from its home school to participate in the Metro Conference and then obtain permission from the Metro Conference for admission.

A Metro Conference athletic managers meeting is scheduled to discuss such items as expansion of the conference to outside teams, available roller hockey rink facilities, league divisions, interleague play, championship determination, league dues and eligibility issues.

A standalone, state-of-the-art outdoor rink is currently under construction on the campus of Castle Park High School. Upon completion, it is expected the Metro Conference will transfer most of its games from currently rented indoor facilities to this new rink.