The Story of the Rattlers
As most of you know I play hockey every Wednesday night. Usually our games are at 9:30 or 10:30 which means no-one in the free-world comes to watch me play games. I play on a team called the Rattlers and I have decided to become a historian for the team, because no-one else has stepped up to the plate. Our story is quite interesting, please enjoy the reading and the pictures.

the beginnings the puck pickup Slapshots

See where the Dallas Observer indirectly calls the “Rattlers” the best amateur inline hockey team in Dallas. If you were wondering how I came about this. The rattlers won the championship in the top division when this fine periodical was published.

the beginnings
Our story is rather incredible, it all started when I graduated from Texas Tech University in May of 1995. My best friend Jay Spalding bought me roller blades and a hockey stick for graduation. He had bought himself skates and needed someone to skate with. Now the last time I skated on anything was probably in 6th grade at Josey Skateland in Carrollton. To put it bluntly, we were horrible. I called Jeremy Smith who had just graduated from Texas Tech with me and told him we had roller blades and were trying to play some form of hockey. So almost immediately Jeremy and Brandon Walton went and bought skates. On and off and not very seriously we skated for one year.

In the Spring of 1996 we got a few more friends to buy roller blades. I got Scott Eden who had just graduated from Texas Tech and Jason Melledy who was working for the Lewisville Police Department. Brandon talked a few of his friends Chris Slocum and Dean Sutliffe to come play with us. Jay got his friend Jim Juergens to buy some skates also. So we all went to the Newman Smith parking lot and started to play. We spray painted the creases on the parking lot and played with a ball. No goalies, just defensemen. We played twice a week through the heat of the Texas summer (if you live in Texas you know what those can do to you.) Most of the time, two teams that played against each other were the Texas Vs games. Jim, Chris and Dean all played on team and the rest played on the other. We had a bunch of other people come and play with us on and off, but no-one else really kept playing consistently.

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the puck
After playing with a rollerball for the first seven months we decided to find somewhere else to play. Jason found a place in Lewisville that had boards and nets and even benches. We found out that when we played with a puck, the shots were harder and no-one wanted to get in goal. It was about this time that everyone started buying pads one by one to protect certain parts of our bodies. When something got hurt, we bought a pad for that area. We only got to play there for about 1 month, but one thing was certain, we were never going back to a ball.

Jason again found a place to play at. We started playing at a bar/restaurant/volleyball beach club called Longbranch. But we needed to clean the place up. So were worked and worked and worked (Journey music in background). Painting, sweeping, nailing, restringing. We finally had a place that was our own. Twice a week we played there for the next six months. We added one of Chris’ co-workers Daniel Byrd.

The plan was becoming more and more clear, and that was we were going to play at Slapshots Hockey Center in the "B" league. We were learning how to play as a team and our positions were falling into place. The only thing we needed was a goalie. One day the goalie came to us. Nunnie De Los Santos just walked up and started playing. Immediately we knew we were ready. We had our Jerseys, we were going to be the San Francisco Spiders, a minor league hockey team from San Francisco. Our next step was to play in a pickup game on ice.

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pickup
On New Years Day 1997, two weeks before our first hockey league started, I thought of a great idea. Why don't we go play pickup at the Stars Center? For those who don't know this happens to be the place where the NHL Dallas Stars practice. This was a big mistake. Five of us attended. Scott, Jason, Jim, Jay, Me. It was real nervous in the locker room, I tried to make small talk about the Rose Bowl or something, it did not help at all. The air was thick. After we dressed we all went out and skated in the warm-up. Now none of us has ever skated with anyone but ourselves. We had been on the ice before but never with pads or sticks. I was getting scared. Real scared.

As guys started getting ready to play we all jumped on the bench. If you don't know how pickup hockey works, you get on the ice from one end of the bench and come off the ice from the other end of the bench. You scoot down and wait your turn. We sat on the end of the bench together making sure we were the last ones to play. For about 5 minutes guys hopped off the ice and we scooted down. There were guys with Michigan State College Jerseys and some talked with Canadian and Minnesota accents. We were Texans and grew up playing football. A guy in a red jersey skated up and said "Defense". I was next. The first to go from our group. I honestly have never been so scared in my adult life as I was that day.

He said it again "Defense". We all sat there. I looked down at the faces of my best friends, and their complexion was pale as the ice we were going to skate on. I knew it was my turn, but I didn't want to play anymore, it was not fun anymore. Somehow with whatever cojones I had. I stood up next to the waist high wall. This was something I had never tried, I have never tried to jump over the wall. I ran all scenarios through my brain, "If I fall, I’ll fake an injury", that is what I am going to do. I lifted one leg over, then followed with the other. I hopped off and to my surprise I landed on my feet. I skated my first shift. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time the whole shift. I touched the puck twice that shift. I never had so much fun being terrible as I did that day.

When me and my friends talk about that day, we laugh and think about how small of a deal it is now, but that day was the first for us, our cherries had been popped.

Slapshots Hockey Center
Two weeks after our first ice experience we started in our first league. Since we were cocky and didn't know any better we started in the "B" league. This was second from the best out of the four leagues. We proceeded to lose all but one game. In our second season we lost all of our games but we tied one. So after our first two seasons our record was 1-12-1.

In the following years we won 5 championships in five years (and counting) and changed our team name from the "Spiders" to the "Rattlers". Although guys have come and gone, most of our main core group still plays together. We have added some players that fit in like a glove, Dave Ramey, Dave Dierkes, Phil Yates, Ryan Akerman, Jesse Reynolds, Kevin Spicer, Tang Nguyen and Sam Nguyen. Some haven't fit so well (we won't go into those names). Some players have gotten married, gotten new jobs, gotten married, had kids, moved out of state, but all still remain in contact.

Players and years have changed. Only the philosophy of teamwork & friendship has remained constant. The Rattlers live on ...

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