Ice hockey set to grow in Philippines

For a country that is best known virtually untouched by winter, playing ice hockey seems to be limited to video games.

However, with four rinks in the country and recent admission as a new associate member of the International Ice Hockey Federation, the game is set to grow in the Philippines reports IIHF.com

As of now there are about 200 players from five clubs registered in the Philippines where four ice rinks can be used, the main one being the SM Mall of Asia Ice Skating Rink in Pasay City next to the capital of Manila.

The other ice rinks are at Megamall, Southmall and the Seaside Cebu Ice Skating Rink.

IIHF.com’s Joeri Loonen learned more about the past and future of ice hockey in the country when he talked with Tournament Director Francois Gautier and Philippines hockey training and development manager Carl Montano.

“Originally I only came back for vacation to attend my mom’s wedding,” Montano, a Surrey, British Columbia native, explains. “I learned that my niece was playing ice hockey here so I came here to train along to be in shape for the playoffs back home in Canada. Not long after they asked me to stay and offered me the position of head coach. With being involved in hockey always having been a dream of me, I decided to accept the offer and jump right into it. Within three weeks I was back and have only visited Canada for holidays since.”

Gautier was born and raised in the Philippines and started playing on one of the few indoor rinks. “It was really unorganized at the time. I was not wearing a visor, mouth and neck guard playing against guys that could barely skate,” he remembers. After finishing his studies in France his appetite for the game hadn’t gone lost but he learned not much had changed in Manila and decided to help out organizing things himself. “I noticed a lot of people were demanding a lot but did not want to move a finger. I stepped in and moved more than a finger and here we are now, doing all the organizational and managerial tasks and managing tournaments for the Philippines Ice Hockey Federation.”

With no neighbouring country big in the sport, the Philippines had developed its own style of hockey. It took Montano a while to get used to how hockey was being played and he slowly started to make adjustments.

“Typically they play more offensively than defensively here. Before I arrived, all coaches were only focused on scoring goals so there were hardly any defencemen on the team. I’ve been trying to introduce a more North-American style play of hockey, building from the back out,” explains Montano. “My teams slowly but surely bought into the concept especially when results started to follow. Now we are no longer the team everybody wanted to play because of a sure victory but they are afraid to play us because we can compete.”

Back in those days there was no organized leagues yet. The teams played pickup games and were primarily formed out of expats. The Philippines did participate in regional invitational tournaments but rather than being an official national team it was an exclusive selection of club players.

Things started in 2008.

“We noted the pickup games were gaining more attention and people were fighting for spots. With that increase we felt with some better organization we could start up a formal ice hockey league and federation,” Montano remembers.

With a federation (FIHL) in place, the focus on establishing a true national team also became more viable. Gautier found out that it wasn’t as easy as just selecting the best players. “To actually call it a national team, you need to have everyone involved and look at every player available. So having a federation that unites every group was a very big step,” says Gautier, who also had to deal with resistance.

“There’s always people that are all talk and no action and there were hidden agendas and money matters that we had to cope with, but you are never going to make everyone happy. There will always be people that think they can do a better job.”

Receiving IIHF membership is considered a major milestone. Alongside this recognition the federation also received membership of the Philippines Olympic Committee and as such the national team can apply to participate in official international tournaments like the Challenge Cup of Asia and the Southeast Asian Games.

This week the Philippines national team will be at the Asian Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan.

“Exciting times are ahead of us and it was certainly worth the ride. This will give us the opportunity to gain exposure locally and internationally which is something we are really in need for,” Gautier explains.

Even though the sport’s is gaining popularity, ice hockey remains a very expensive sport in a country where the average income is around $300 a month.

On average, players practice twice a week at a cost of $20 to cover for the ice rent. That prorates to over a $1000 annually which is still excluding the costs of transportation, gear and costs for participating in international tournaments in countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.

Currently a player of the Minnesota Wild, Matt Dumba is the only player with Filipino roots that has made it to the NHL and could serve as the ideal role model for Philippine kids who are interested in playing ice hockey.

With limited funds available, the goals are clearly long term. “We are focusing on youth and development. We don’t have an established top to bottom supply of players, so we need to start getting more kids playing hockey in order to build a strong core of players that can play at the senior international level in the future,” says Gautier.

– iihf.com