Hockey pucks enjoy a wild, circuitous and unpredictable journey. During the course of a game, this tobacco-tin shaped projectile spins, sputters, weaves, wobbles, caroms, flips and flies, but it never stands still. And such has been the odyssey of a local group of avid inline hockey enthusiasts. Their regular pick-up games were the Flying Dutchman of recreational activities for the past 15 years, seen here or there but never at a designated place or time.

Now devotees are happy to say "the puck stops here" at a rink in Chapel Hill's new Southern Community Park. Located off route U.S. 15-501 South between Southern Village and Dogwood Acres Road, the park also features basketball courts, an 18-hole disc golf course, a children's play area, a dog park, picnic shelters, a meadow area, trails, all-season restrooms and more athletic fields scheduled to open in August.

"A few years ago, we noticed that there was a rink in the plans for this park, but they'd cut it out of the budget," Mark Marcoplos said. "Some of us went to the Chapel Hill Town Council twice and asked them to put it back in, but not the Cadillac version. They'd imagined a real fancy rink, but we said, 'Hey, all we want is a concrete slab and a fence.'

"We persuaded them to put it back in," he said. "It opened up last spring, and it's changed everything. It's like playing real hockey."

Played on a concrete rink, the year-round activity known as roller, inline or street hockey roughly follows the rules of ice hockey, featuring the same or similar equipment. Games are played on a dry surface, preferably with a perimeter of boards or fences to contain errant pucks. Players direct a specially made puck or a street hockey ball while skating on either quad roller skates or, more often around Chapel Hill, on inline skates. In its various forms roller hockey is played in nearly 60 countries worldwide.

While pick-up play can be found anywhere from a quiet street to a dedicated rink, local play began on UNC tennis courts as the brainchild of someone known more for her World Cup and Olympic soccer goals than hockey goals.

"Legend has it that at Mia Hamm's wedding, some of her soccer friends decided to play roller hockey over the wedding weekend," Marcoplos said. "That just developed into this pick-up game."

UNC women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance, an avid inline hockey fan, agrees it all began with Hamm's marriage in 1994.

"All of these athletic people were coming to her wedding, so she wanted to figure out some game everyone could play. She thought, 'Why don't we all rent some skates and get on the campus tennis courts off Country Club Drive?' The whole wedding party, including Mia, was out there playing inline hockey," Dorrance said, laughing. "You can imagine the whole wedding party all scraped up."

After that, many of the locals involved in the wedding continued to play regularly until they were kicked off the tennis courts. The game then moved to a parking lot near Craige Residence Hall on UNC's south campus, where play flourished.

"That location was great for a thousand reasons," Dorrance said. "It was a great surface with a fence around it, and UNC Intramurals even put lights up so we could play games in the middle of the winter. They actually designated it for us, and we had great games. We were more visible there, so that attracted more players."

Marcoplos said play continued off and on at the Craige lot for years. "But then they built a dorm there, and we became refugees again, playing at all of these different places until we finally figured out that we could play on weekends at the (Skipper Bowles) parking lot next to the Business School Deck. ...

"We'd form a rink out of these drainpipes that were over behind the deck," Marcoplos explained. "It was made with bungee cords and pipe, and it mostly kept the street hockey ball on the court. When it was raining, we'd actually go inside the deck and play."

Who are those kids?

With the demand for weekday parking, however, the Skipper Bowles lot was only available on weekends, and finding a more accessible area for play proved to be an uphill (and downhill) climb.

"We settled on (the park and ride lot off) Eubanks Road," Marcoplos said, "but there's a slope out there, so there was this really weird dimension to it. You'd be skating uphill, make a turn, and suddenly you were going downhill."

Competition evolved into play between the "Uphill Team" versus a "Downhill Team."

"Sometimes, someone would complain and the police would come out," Dorrance said. "They'd watch us long enough to see that we weren't a bunch of vandals."

At one point, the police had explained that they were responding to a complaint of kids hanging out in the lot.

"At our age, that's like getting carded going into a bar," Dorrance chuckled.

Finally, this past spring, local play skated onto its current site.

"If you look at all the facilities the town has built over the past 50 years, this one gets incredible use from an entire spectrum of the community," Dorrance said. "We want to compliment the town leadership, because for a whole lot of us, this has been an absolute godsend."

More and more

Rules of play at the new rink mimic those of ice hockey, altered slightly to reduce any risk of injury: no checking, no lifting the puck or ball.

"Every once in a while you'll bang into someone, but it's accidental," Dorrance said. "You don't want to lift it, but obviously the ball gets up a little high sometimes. It may hit someone in the head, and then there's just an apology."

Gordon Gress, who played hockey in Pittsburg, said the new facility is cooler, but the boards restrain play slightly.

"When we were on tar, you'd get the heat from the sun and the heat off the surface," Gress said. "Here, it's cooler, but it's a smaller surface and a little faster so you do get a few more collisions."

Still, many feel that the activity is not only virtually risk-free but possesses curative properties.

"I used to play soccer and my knee would swell up like a watermelon," Marcoplos said, "When I started playing hockey, my knee actually started getting better."

"This could be the health plan of the future," Dorrance said. "You just promise to play inline hockey as you age, and then you wouldn't have to pay any health insurance premiums, because you're going to be healthy. The exercise is extraordinary, and the injury incidence is so relatively rare, it's a great thing for conditioning as you get older."

Gress said the new facility is attracting more and more players.

"Some Saturdays, we'll get 20-30 folks out here and we'll have to have three teams that rotate in for seven-minute games," Gress said, noting the rosters have included some celebrities like Doug Flutie, who was in town for the Mia Hamm Foundation's golf tournament, dedicated to bone marrow research.

New blood

With more and more hockey fans arriving in the South, spirited play can reflect escalating talent levels.

"I heard about it when I used to work in a lab as an undergrad with one of the guys playing," Montreal native Jason Bischof finds it "perfect."

"It's definitely enough to get the blood pumping," Bischof said. "There are a lot of transplants in the area and a couple more Canadians out here, and one's of Russian descent. We'll get a couple youngsters coming out too, like 14 or 16 years old. Hockey is really picking up down here."

A skater from Ohio, Rich Rydin only recently came upon hockey.

"I need exercise, and most of my skating had been just for exercise on a trail in Ohio," Rydin said. "Picking up a stick with these guys is kind of new, but it's a great environment for learning how to play. There's a lot of passing, and no one's killing each other. There are a lot of good players here, but they give us beginners a break."

Dorrance said those interested should simply visit or come out when others are most likely to be present.

"Anyone can pop out any weekday evening or on a Saturday between 9 and 10 a.m.," he said. "During the week, Tuesday and Thursdays have been the most popular, but we've been out here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as well."

Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation's Bernard Leach noted that future plans for use of the rink might include the development of a youth inline hockey league. Those interested should contact him at 968-2734. Also, anyone wishing to schedule their own game or event using the rink should reserve a rink time with Leach.

"Anson once told me, 'Come on out-it'll change your life,'" Marcoplos said, "and he was absolutely right."