- February 4th, 2007, 12:25 am
#58209
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Playing for the Lordhttp://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Sa ... 5855936229
Liberty finds it has passion for ice hockey
BY BILL LOHMANN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Feb 4, 2007
LYNCHBURG The best college hockey team in Virginia plays on a campus where alcohol is forbidden, curfews are enforced and swearing is taboo.
And fighting, even on the ice and even when provoked, is frowned upon.
"What we've had to do, especially with the guys with experience playing junior hockey [in Canada], is curb them a little bit so they can be more controlled," said Jeff Boettger, associate head coach of the hockey team at the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. "Where they used to just be able to say, 'OK, let's drop the gloves and duke it out.' . . . They can't do that anymore."
With fisticuffs, an essential part of hockey at some levels, deemed unacceptable by collegiate rules and campus philosophy, what's a player to do when he's been victimized by a cheap shot?
"I tell them," said Boettger, "just take their number and make a clean check."
One way to "check" an opponent -- for those you who aren't hockey fans is to use a hip or shoulder to stop him cold.
Not exactly "turn the other cheek," but it seems to work.
The Flames, the only Virginia team to play at the highest level of the nonscholarship American Collegiate Hockey Association, are ranked in the Top 10 nationally in their first year in Division 1. Barring a complete collapse in the final weeks of the season, Liberty most certainly will participate in the national championship tournament next month in Youngstown, Ohio.
Last year, the Flames played in the Division 2 title game, losing to Oakland University of Michigan in overtime.
Hockey at Liberty may be a nonscholarship sport, but it is played with a varsity intensity that includes long road trips, rabid home crowds at the university's new LaHaye Ice Center and imported players.
"We brag about it," said Falwell, of the school's success in a state that is hardly a hockey hotbed. "I sometimes fail to mention [the players] are either all from Canada or right by the border. Southern boys can't play much hockey."
Joked Falwell, "We have a deal with the Canadians. We teach them how to read and write, and they come down here and play hockey."
Deal or no deal, it's true that Liberty is blessed with a rich Canadian connection; 13 of this season's 24 players are from north of the border where hockey is something of a national religion. The school also benefits from there being more good hockey players than there are big-time college programs offering scholarships.
But how do Canadian hockey players find their way to the foothills of central Virginia?
"I'm on television all over Canada," said Falwell, who built his ministry and fame through "Old Time Gospel Hour" broadcasts and has been preaching on TV for 50 years. Liberty, whose stated mission is to "develop Christ-centered men and women," has always attracted Canadian students. This year's on-campus enrollment of 9,000 includes 250 Canadians.
But not every devout 18-year-old with a hockey stick knows Falwell. Word of mouth, however, is very strong among those seeking a certain kind of collegiate hockey experience.
"The Christian hockey community is so small in Canada that what happens a lot of times is we get one kid down here, and he knows three other people in that general vicinity," said Kirk Handy, Liberty's head coach and a Canadian himself who first came to Lynchburg to play for the Flames more than a decade ago.
"We aren't looking for perfect kids," said Handy. "We're just looking for kids who want to grow in this type of environment. We make no qualms about it. It's not for everyone."
. . .
Falwell founded Liberty in 1971, and from the beginning he talked about the importance of a strong athletic program. He's long envisioned Liberty becoming a fundamentalist Christian version of Notre Dame. Ice hockey, however, wasn't on the original blueprint.
The sport was on the mind of Dan Lambertson, a student from Canada who arrived at Liberty in the early 1980s. He organized ball-hockey games in the gym and, when the weather turned cold enough, ice hockey games on a frozen drainage pond at the bottom of a hill.
"It didn't last very long, . . . and the last time we skated, the ice was actually breaking away under our skates," recalled Lambertson, now pastor of South Waterboro Bible Chapel near Portland, Maine. "But it gave us enough space to skate and pass the puck around.
"People would walk by and look at us as if we were insane. I guess they'd never seen hockey on a pond in Virginia."
During Lambertson's senior year, he and some buddies organized an actual Liberty team. They had to drive to Roanoke to find ice and opponents, and they didn't have uniforms, wearing old Liberty football jerseys instead. They lost their first collegiate game, 10-2, to Washington and Lee, but they wound up winning five games that first season against noncollege teams.
"I thought it might fade away after my senior season," said Lambertson, the school's first goaltender. "But a real fire got started, and here they are today with a pretty high-profile hockey team."
Now, Liberty plays schools such as Illinois (No. 1 in the most recent rankings), Maryland and Arizona State. Liberty's record stood at 21-6, including a 13-0 thrashing for Virginia Tech last week, heading into this weekend's games against Kentucky.
The current players are attracted by the quality competition, road trips to places as far as Arizona (albeit by bus) and the 2,000-seat LaHaye Ice Center. The on-campus center, a rarity for schools in the South, was a gift from Tim and Beverly LaHaye, members of the Liberty board of trustees. Tim LaHaye is co-author of the popular "Left Behind" fiction series based on the Bible's book of Revelation.
What seems to attract and keep many of the players is the Liberty environment (even though there are no athletic scholarships and they pay $200 for the privilege of joining the team and they must sell tickets before games)?
"It's been awesome to play with guys who aren't idiots all the time," said Jimmy Stewart, a junior from Pennsylvania. "Really, really refreshing."
There's no alcohol, no drugs, no swearing OK, occasional swearing: "When you get in the heat of the moment," said Zac Bauman, a freshman from Ontario, "everybody slips up every once in a while." Girls are kept at a safe distance; campus rules state that "students should not be alone with an individual of the opposite sex in any unlighted area" after dusk.
"The people we're getting down here are just some phenomenal kids who've bought into Dr. Falwell's vision of Liberty University, and that is to create champions for Christ," said Handy, who also works in the school's recruitment office.
Said Adam Konop, a sophomore from Maryland, "Of course we want to win, . . . but one of our biggest goals as a team is to be a testimony to the other team we're playing. It's winning or losing with class. Showing that we're different."
They hear religious hockey player jokes "What are they going to hit each other with, their Bibles?" -- and worse when they hit the road. In other arenas, they often are greeted with derisive comments about their faith. At one game, a sign over the penalty box read, "Jesus won't save you."
"That just gets us fired up," said Konop.
"People say, 'How can you be Christian and go out and hit people?'" said Stewart. "When it comes down to it, that's just . . . part of playing the game to the best of your ability. Even with the rough stuff, you can honor God with the way you live and honor him with the way you play."
Most of the fans at home games are Liberty students, although guys in NASCAR caps and families come, too. After games, children flood the locker room looking for autographs. Liberty players often invite the opposing team for a post-game meal that can wind up being like a church supper with players talking about their faith.
Long term, Liberty is eyeing the possibility of offering scholarships and jumping to the next level -- NCAA Division I -- with the hockey powers of New England and the upper Midwest. But that would be a financial leap and potentially a lonely one since only one team in the South, Alabama-Huntsville, currently plays at that level.
It is unlikely, though, that Liberty's hockey goals will change, regardless of its classification.
In the locker room before a recent game against Oakland, Boettger, the associate head coach, gathered the team for a chat that was a combination pep talk and prayer.
"It's just hockey, boys," said Boettger, a native Canadian. "Let's go out there and have fun. Play your game, and be confident in one another. Play for each guy. Play for the Lord."
Contact staff writer Bill Lohmann at wlohmann@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6639.
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