Taking on ALS

Players aim to raise funds to fight disease that killed teammate

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Hockey is supposed to be about scoring goals, checking and fighting. Not Kilroy's Hockey Club.

The club, for players ages 35 and up, has evolved from a group of guys playing recreational hockey in 1993 into a four-team nonprofit club which focuses on raising money for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a disease which took the life of one of the club's players, Steve Rigazio, in late 2001.

The club plays games at 7:15 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. every Monday at the Fiesta Rancho Ice Arena. Jeff Bruckner, 41, a longtime Kilroy's player and co-founder of the nonprofit club along with Eric Nadeau, 40, explained how the team began.

"The club was formed originally in 1993 as just a hockey club," Bruckner said. "A couple of guys, Sandy Howe, Bill Shephard and K.J. Howe, were playing in the local leagues and started the team back then. A gentleman by the name of Paul Lanti, who owns the Kilroy's restaurants, sponsored the team and over the years, Kilroy's teams were always the team everyone wanted to play for.

"They had a great group of guys and all older gentlemen too. And everyone wanted to beat these guys. The average age was probably in the mid-40s, and they were beating guys where the average age was 25 by playing old school hockey ... great teamwork, everyone passing the puck."

Bruckner, who joined the team in 1996, explained how the club found out that teammate Rigazio developed the deadly condition, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

"It was probably about 1998 and Steve had fallen off the roof cleaning his gutters out and for a couple of weeks he was complaining about soreness in his shoulder and arm and we just assumed it was from the fall," Bruckner said. "But it kept getting worse and worse and they never could diagnose it for a while. And that's the problem with ALS -- it's never diagnosed correctly at first. Then we found out that he had ALS and that was a good year, year-and-a-half of him complaining about this (his pain) and by that time he was probably well into his third year of probably having the disease. And the life span of the disease is three to five years."

ALS is defined on the ALS Association's Web site www.alsa.org as a neurodegenerative disease that usually attacks upper and lower motor neurons and causes degeneration throughout the brain and spinal cord. Mostly, the disease strikes people between the ages of 40 and 70, and as many as 30,000 Americans have the affliction at any given time.

Bruckner recalled what kind of person Rigazio was.

"We played together on the same line," he said. "I was the center and he was my right wing. He was just one of those guys who did all the dirty work. He was a clean player, but he just worked and worked and worked on the ice and was just a great leader."

Bruckner talked about how Rigazio evolved into the club's coach after the disease had stripped him of his ability to play hockey.

"The last year when Steve was alive, in 2001 -- our 2000-2001 season -- and Steve couldn't play at that time because his arms were basically useless and he was having difficultly breathing. But he coached us through that whole season and I think we only lost three or four games during that year and we ended up sweeping the playoffs and winning the (Nevada Hockey League at that time) championship for Steve. And I'd imagine that our average age at that time had to be in our 50s and we probably had three players in their 60s."

And besides returning to the rink to coach his buddies in the waning days of his life, Rigazio also took the time to go and testify in front of Congress for ALS research at the invitation of U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Rigazio also started the Nevadans for the Prevention of ALS, which has made significant contributions in research grants through the years.

"Steve was one of these players ... not only was he a community leader here in town -- he was the president of Nevada Power -- but Steve also spoke in front of the U.S. Senate committee regarding funding on ALS. He was a Republican and they wanted to have Steve as the chairman of Nevada before he died but he couldn't fulfill those services. He was just a great teammate. He was one of these guys from southern Illinois."

After Rigazio's death, the focus of Kilroy's Hockey Club became quite different.

"After Steve passed away in 2001, we started our own club," Bruckner said. "And we did something a little unique with it."

Instead of only focusing on winning, Bruckner and Nadeau designed a system to reward good play and one that would help raise funds to fight ALS.

"We didn't want to be associated with the leagues. We're a club," Bruckner said. "We stay on top of everybody. And we created a system where the winner of the season is the team that has the most assists minus the (team's total) penalty minutes and we called it the Rigazio Cup (the equivalent of the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup). It was amazing how fast our concept took off."

The winner of this statistical title designed to promote teamwork and clean play in Kilroy's last season which ended in May were Team Brass, while the winner of the Steve Rigazio Award -- the equivalent of the NHL's MVP award -- was Pat Quinn.

And while the players on the club continue to play the sport they love during their short summer season, Bruckner is looking to expand the club -- which just had two teams a year ago -- from four to six teams for its next full season, which begins this month.

Among the players on the Kilroy's Hockey Club are 71-year-old defenseman Jim Millen, the oldest player in the league, and two women -- Cindy Stokes, who plays defense, and Gina Toth, who plays goalie.

Obviously, age and gender aren't a factor for Kilroy's.

"We have probably at least three other players that are in their mid- to upper 60s," Bruckner said.

And Bruckner was complimentary of the attention Fiesta Rancho Ice Arena manager Rob Pallin has paid to his club.

"The Fiesta (Rancho) Ice Rink -- Rob Pallin is the manager there -- has just been tremendous with getting us the ice time and working with us and doing what he can to help promote this club."

To make sure club members don't forget what their team is all about, Bruckkner and the other coaches give a little pre-game pep talk to the hockey players.

"Before each game, we talk about the style of play we're looking for," Bruckner said, "And we tell everybody 'We're doing this for Steve Rigazio. This is what we're here for. Don't forget about what happened to Steve.' "

To help raise money for their cause, Kilroy's Hockey Club players are actually penalized for scoring goals.

"They pay $3 per goal but if they get an assist, they get $1 credit," Bruckner said of one of the club's fundraising means, which also includes a golf tournament. "And they pay $1 per penalty minute. We're trying to beat ALS one goal at a time."

Since 2002, Bruckner said the club has raised around $40,000 in funds to help fight the disease. He said this year's golf tournament raised about $17,000 for ALS.

"All the money that we raise, our net revenue, we donate to our local ALS of Nevada Association," Bruckner said.

When asked what he thought Rigazio would think of what Kilroy's Hockey Club was doing to help try and fight the disease that took his life, Bruckner was sure his former linemate would be happy.

"I think he'd be proud of us," Bruckner said. "I don't know if he was truly aware how much he affected all of our lives. And until something like that happens, you don't really know what comes out in people. We have a close relationship with the ALS of Nevada Association. And it's our goal and it's their goal too -- to put them out of business. And by putting them (the ALS of Nevada) out of business means that they've found a cure for it. And there is nothing more we'd like to see than a cure for this disease."

If you are over 35 years old and interested in playing for Kilroy's Hockey Club, call Bruckner at 325-7772.