USA ball hockey chief Chris Banks: Anyone can fall in love with ball hockey

Compared to European countries, the United States is very large. How are you able to find the best players from different parts of the country?
There is a large adult men’s league called the National Ball Hockey League – the NBHL – which has all different levels of players all over the country, including elite players. Usually, we’re able to find the players that way.

So you’re able to watch all of the players everywhere in the country?
We rely on our local leagues to let us know who the good players are – the players who are ascending and becoming great players. Then we have evaluation camps and it depends on the age category – some of it is by invitation only and some of it is open. At that point, the scouts within the different age categories will get together. Ultimately, the coach, the general manager, and the director of hockey operations from USA Ball Hockey will decide who’s going on the next trip.

We’re constantly scouting for new players and new areas of the country as well because, in the past, most of our players have come from the Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Boston areas. But now, we’re getting players from New York City, from Chicago, out west, down south from Florida, so now we’re starting to get players from around the country as our organization grows.

What will it take for the USA to be on the same level as Canada and some of the other top ball hockey countries in the world?
Time. We are a relatively young organization. USA Ball Hockey was established in 2019, so we haven’t had much time compared to Canada, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. With more time, we’ll have more players to choose from.

How many members do you have?
We’re probably north of 15,000 now – these are members who pay yearly membership fees to be part of the organization.

How do you plan to grow the numbers? Where will the new players come from?
I think it starts at the lower levels. We have one tournament every year, a very large youth tournament called “Future Stars”, and that’s where we find our players. It’s in Utica, New York, this year, and it was in Buffalo the last four years, and teams come representing different states. Our age divisions start from 11 and under, and then we have U12, U14, U16 and all the way up … the same with the girls. On the youth side, that’s where we’re finding our players and our coaches and staff.

For the players, is the “Future Stars” tournament bigger than the World Championships?
No, but the “Future Stars” allows the youth to look forward to something. We try to make it different and better than every other youth event in the country because we want to give them a taste of what it’s like to play at the world level, and give them something to strive for.

How many of your ball hockey players also play ice hockey? All of them?
No, very few. Maybe five percent. Most of them are lifetime ball hockey players. You know, ice hockey has an economic problem, and that’s the same in the USA as it is in the Czech Republic or Switzerland or wherever. Only a small percentage of the population can afford to send their kids to play ice hockey. With ball hockey, you don’t have that. Ball hockey’s very inexpensive, so you can get players from any economic situation.

You’ve talked about growing the game in the United States. What about at the World Championship level? What would make it better?
Getting more countries. Involved. Our goal at USA Ball Hockey is to get as many people playing the sport as we possibly can. On the world level, it’s the same thing, because if we love this so much – and I mean Americans, Canadians, Czechs, Slovaks, everybody here – why wouldn’t a Polish or a Norwegian kid love it? Everybody would love it, but they just have to be exposed to it. I think that’s the number one goal in the ISBHF right now is getting more countries involved.

The USA has already hosted some ISBHF events, but have you considered being more active in this regard? What would it require?
That’s a great question. In the United States, finding the venue and the location is very expensive for the organization, but the organization must take that burden on and figure it out. As for the other teams, yes, it would certainly be cheaper for European teams to stay in Europe, but I think European players want to come over to America too, so we would try to do it as inexpensively for the players as possible when they get over here, and I think the European teams should dedicate more to try to make that happen.

How did you personally get involved in ball hockey?
When I was in my early 20s, I started playing for a local team in Buffalo, where I worked at the time. I became the captain of my team, then I became the captain of every team I had, then I became one of the founders of Buffalo Fusion Hockey, which was a local organization, and then I became who I am today. I played until I was 38 at the men’s A level and I just loved it. I still love everything about it – the players, the relationships, the people I’ve met throughout the country and around the world … ball hockey’s been very good to me.