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  NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Community members come together to break ground at Mar Vista Park in Palms for an outdoor roller hockey rink. The UCLA men's ice hockey helped secure grants for the project and is providing coaches and referees for the roller hockey league.

By Wil Whitehorn

Daily Bruin Reporter

Years of hard work by the UCLA men’s hockey team in collaboration with local politicians have literally yielded concrete results.

Representatives of UCLA hockey and the City of Los Angeles were on hand June 23 at Mar Vista Park to break ground for an outdoor roller hockey rink, the first of its kind for a Los Angeles city park.

Construction of the rink was given the go-ahead after funds from Proposition K, a 1996 initiative that appropriates money to park development, were allocated last June. The Mar Vista Park Advisory Board beat out a number of worthwhile bids to procure the $247,000 allotment, and received donations from exterior groups to aid in the rink’s construction, which will begin in July and take two months to complete.

“There’s been an existing roller hockey program here for quite some time,” said Ellen Oppenheim, general manager of recreation and parks for Los Angeles. “The community has been advocating the creation of a roller hockey rink, and we’ve been successful in getting a competitive grant that’s funding most of this.”

Development will be aided by a $14,000 donation from Archstone Communities, which was presented on June 23 to the advisory board by vice president Steve Dominiac. The funds will be used to install a scoreboard and drinking fountains on the premises.

Donations have also been made by the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings, who were active in helping the rink-endeavor get off the ground.

“(We’ve contributed by) donating tickets, donating a little bit of money, and donating a lot of equipment,” said Mike Siegel, fan coordinator for the Kings and former captain of the UCLA hockey team. “We’ve also helped the league get into contact with different contractors and set up booths at different festivals and helped teach hockey clinics, things like that.”

Much credit for the project’s realization was given to Tom Ponton, who chairs a Mar Vista Advisory Board which has made remarkable progress in the park’s upkeep in the past two years.

“Tom did a lot, he should get all the credit,” said Tommy Kim, assistant coach for the UCLA hockey team. “He single handedly did everything. He raised hell at those meetings to get this thing started, and they finally listened.”

As far as community outreach, UCLA has done its fair share in donating their time to promote the sport, helping to build community support for the project.

“This first started out as a makeshift league, barely having enough equipment to start out, and has actually developed into this rink,” Kim said. “We’ve done everything from coaching to (refereeing) to running clinics. We actually started a summer camp last year, and there was a pretty good turnout.”

City councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who spearheaded the city effort to procure the Proposition K grant, distributed certificates of appreciation at Saturday’s ceremony to Kim, Dan Gay, Chris Coker and Mike Michelena, who represented the UCLA hockey team. Archstone Communities, the Kings and the Mar Vista Advisory Board were also commended.

“This is a really great symbol of what a community can do,” Miskikowski said. “This community came together to unify the park, and then they said, ‘OK, with this energy and effort, why don’t we make things not only better, but really create something that we want for our kids.’ It’s really great.”

Miskikowski’s optimism was contagious.

“Today we’re breaking ground for the construction of it,” Oppenheimer said. “And we look forward to coming back for the ribbon cutting when it’s all done.”