Special to USAHockey.com
The Metro Classic Hockey League in Omaha, Neb., has enjoyed success with adult hockey in recent years and Ray Gitchel predicts significant growth ahead for the league.
Gitchel is one of the present promoters of the league along with David O'Meara.
"I'm a player relations guy," Gitchel said. "I've been with the league for seven years. I had no previous hockey experience. The league started out as a league for adult beginners to learn how to play the sport.
"There were six teams there when I first started. We work for equity. We put together the teams. Each one has three to four beginning players, eight or nine who are average and two or three who are at the top end in talent."
Gitchel said his love for the sport propelled him to a career in adult hockey.
"I was like a rink rat," he said. "I went to all of the league functions and started officiating. I started playing as much as I could. But I had a son in youth hockey. I've coached him since he first started playing."
Nebraska hockey, Gitchel said, has grown in popularity from the presence of teams in the United States Hockey League and Central Collegiate Hockey Association in the Omaha area.
The MCHL currently has 22 teams.
"We have 12 that are considered to be a part of our beginners league," Gitchel said. "We have 10 that are in the upper level, basically in an intermediate type of league. One of the biggest things is that we switched to two levels. We had a lot of people who were beginning players going up against players who are very good."
The MCHL plays out of the Hitchcock Ice Arena in Omaha. "It's a city-owned facility,"' he said. "We have good facilities here."
Gitchel has been impressed with what he's seen in the growth of the sport.
"Hockey has come a long ways in Omaha since I've been a part of the program," he said. "We had guys who originally started the league who now have their own boys playing."
More adults are getting into the flow of hockey, Gitchel said.
"We have a lot of kids in their 40s who have started playing hockey," he said. "It helped to have people with limited skills so they can be a part of the game. That's why our league has grown.
"Our oldest player is in his mid-50s. We have seven to 10 players in their mid-50s."
Story courtesy Red Line Editorial.
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