A prophecy realized

Mike Sciacca

It was nearly two months ago that Mike Macy offered a group of

youngsters a surprising yet sincere revelation.

But what he said, to a few stunned but attentive 14- and 15-year-olds,

he didn’t yet have proof of.

“I told the kids at the beginning of the season that this is the best

team I have ever coached,” said Macy, a longtime hockey coach and current

head coach of the Huntington Beach Sun Devils Ice Hockey Club.

Over the course of a long, and what turned out to be very successful,

season the Sun Devils proved Macy prophetic.

Armed with that vote of confidence by their coach and overcoming a

late season slip, the Huntington Beach Sun Devils went on to win the

Southern California Amateur Hockey Assn. Bantam A Division championship.

Furthermore, the squad also made it all the way to the State Cup,

which is better known as the California Amateur Hockey Assn. tournament.

The Sun Devils played for their first Bantam A state title at Disney

Ice in Anaheim, where they fell to the San Jose Jr. Sharks, 4-1.

This season marked the second consecutive year that the Huntington

Beach team has played for a Southern California Amateur Hockey Assn.

title.

The Sun Devils, who train out of the Huntington Beach Skate Zone, are

a team made up of 18 local youngsters and have been in existence for four

years. Macy has coached the team for the past two seasons, and seven

players on the 18-man roster have played with the team for two

consecutive seasons.

Five others have been with the squad since its inception. Those five

have known the growing pains of this team, which has fun and hustles on

the ice, yet struggled through a season three years ago that didn’t

include a single victory and had an overall record of 0-15-1.

One of those players is Stevie Workman, who plays forward. Despite

that rocky season, Workman said he was not about to quit the team.

“I just couldn’t give up,” said the 14-year-old. “If I did that, then

I’d feel like I was a quitter -- and I’m not a quitter.”

There was no quit in these Sun Devils, although they took a new

direction when Macy became coach two years ago. Practices became more

intense and the team became more cohesive. In Macy’s first year, the Sun

Devils made it to the Southern California final, where they earned a

runner-up finish.

This season, the pieces continued to fall into place.

“We just had the chemistry to be a good team,” Workman said.

A test of character was presented to the playoff-bound Sun Devils when

they met the eighth-place South Coast Sabres in the regular season final.

Desperate for a victory just to reach the playoffs, the Sabres pinned

a 3-2 defeat on the Sun Devils.

The loss relegated Huntington Beach to a No. 5 seed in the tournament,

which translated to a No. 3 seed in one of two playoff brackets. As fate

would have it, the Sun Devils faced the same South Coast team in the

first round of the event and routed the Sabres, 7-1.

They advanced to face their rivals, the Long Beach Jr. Ice Dogs, in

the tournament final and needed double overtime to pull out a thrilling,

3-2 win to win their first Southern California Amateur Hockey Assn.

crown.

The two rivals would meet again in the state tournament with a berth

in the final hanging in the balance. In another tense showdown, Workman

and Tommy Greenberg assisted Scott Melton’s goal as the Sun Devils

prevailed, 1-0, in sudden death overtime.

“It’s just been a great season,” added Workman, who has one more year

left with the Sun Devils. “We keep getting better and better each year.

Hopefully we can keep things going next season.”

The Huntington Beach Sun Devils are made up of Macy, assistant coaches

Mike LaMond and Jack Glant, manager Kenn Rosenberg and team members

Workman, Greenberg, Melton, Brett Shahian, Troy Aguilar, Trevor Donnelly,

Zack Porter, Brett Young, Andrew Kawczynski, Matthew Smith, Jonathan

Glant, Eric Rosenberg, Daniel Cox, David Gimbi II, Sykler Hoar, Jeffrey

LaMond, Craig Failla and Ryan Onodera.

* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at (714)

965-7171 or by e-mail at michael.sciacca@latimes.com.