Underwater hockey lets all the ice melt

By DAVID SMITH
Collegian Staff Writer

On Monday nights, Paola Mori-Maldonado plays hockey with her friends. She goes down to McCoy Natatorium, grabs a stick and jumps in the pool.

Mori-Maldonado (senior-health and human development) is the president of the Underwater Hockey Club -- which plays hockey underwater with two teams of six players each equipped with sticks, masks, fins and snorkels.

"You have to hold your breath a lot," said Mori-Maldonado, adding that the game is played in an 8-foot-deep pool.

All of the action takes place on the bottom of the pool, with each side using foot-long sticks to push and pass a 3-pound, brass-weighted puck into the opposing goal.

The puck is bright orange to make it easier to see. One team has white sticks and the other has black so you can tell who's who underwater, Mori-Maldonado said.

The sticks are about 1 foot long and are used to push the puck forward, rather than slap the puck, as in ice hockey. Mori-Maldonado said using the sticks underwater is a technique that requires some finesse.

"Some people can shoot (the puck) 10 feet underwater, some can only shoot it 1 foot," she said.

But most people learn to play the game quickly, Mori-Maldonado said.

"People are always 100 percent better the second time they play," she said.

The club was founded in 1991 by Sheila Gilmartin, a graduate student from Hawaii. Gilmartin was the captain of the underwater hockey team at the University of Hawaii and when she arrived at the University, she put up fliers asking if anyone would be interested in playing.

One of the people she attracted was Kevin Becker, who was then a University student.

"Only three people showed up the first night," said Becker, who was part of that group and who has been playing ever since.

Becker said the club had great success in its first few years, going to tournaments in Chicago and Boca Raton, Fla.

"Most of the people who joined in the beginning were swimmers in high school who wanted to try something different," Becker said.

However, the club has not been to a tournament in several years.

"We lost a lot of good players last year," Mori-Maldonado said. "We're trying to rebuild the team now."

Although underwater hockey is an international sport that began in the 1950s, it is not widely known.

"I had no idea what it was when I saw the flier," Becker said. "I just wanted to check it out."

The rules are very simple. The puck cannot be picked up or touched and there is no physical contact.

However, accidental contact does happen frequently.

"I've had my head bounced off of the bottom of the pool -- you get kicked in the head, you get punched in the mouth," Mori-Maldonado said. "Those are the typical (underwater) hockey injuries."

The club meets at 10 p.m. Mondays in the McCoy Natatorium.