Cadiz’s Hockey Career Rolls On in Inline Hockey
COSTA MESA, Calif. – 16 years after his junior hockey career wrapped up, Wenatchee Wild alumnus Junior Cadiz’s career in the sport rolls on.
The California native has shifted to the roller hockey scene after spending the inaugural Wild season of 2008-09 in the Wenatchee Valley, a move that has taken him to such places as France, Czechia and Spain, and allowed him to represent his country on the international scene.
Though he spent a season thrilling fans in Wenatchee and helping the area learn the junior hockey landscape for the first time, his background is in inline hockey – he credits his mom for forcing him off the couch and into a sport at nine years old, choosing inline hockey after running across the sport on TV.
“The biggest memory I have is playing after school, going to the rink and messing around with friends,” said Cadiz. “Growing up, it’s when you gain that love for the sport, and that’s my longest memory. Obviously, winning championships and playing for Team USA is always a really cool thing.”
Cadiz played for several inline and ice hockey programs on his way up to juniors, including the Anaheim Junior Ducks, before moving on to juniors. He made his debut on the ice at 14 years old, and never made much noise about his interest in leaving home to continue his career, but longtime pro coach John Paris, Jr. recruited him to join the Maritime Junior Hockey League’s Restigouche Tigers ahead of the 2007-08 campaign. He proved a talented forward in his first year away from southern California, posting 55 points in 53 games for the Tigers in his only season of Canadian Junior “A” hockey. However, Cadiz wasn’t thrilled with the 2,800-mile gap between Campbellton, New Brunswick and home, and stayed only the one year in the Maritimes.
“I hated it,” said Cadiz. “It was such a culture shock for me, being a kid from southern California. We had about 50 feet of snow that year, so it was miserable. You learn so much about yourself, so I don’t regret it at all, it was just a very tough year. Luckily, the hockey was great – I learned so much about myself with hockey, and our team wasn’t very good, so I got quite a bit of playing time.”
Paris soon helped Cadiz find his next destination, linking him up with Bemidji State University graduate assistant Ryan McKelvie, who was in the midst of his own move after taking an assistant coaching job with the Wild ahead of their inaugural season. That season wound up being a productive one for both him and his new team, nearly matching his pace from the previous year with 44 points in 48 appearances with Wenatchee.
The Wild made plenty of noise their first season, advancing all the way to the Robertson Cup championship game in Mason City, Iowa that May – Cadiz scored one of the team’s two power play goals in the final game, a 3-2 overtime loss to the St. Louis Bandits. The Wild made quite the first impression on sports fans in Wenatchee, but Cadiz said the community of Wenatchee made quite the impression on him as well.
“The coolest thing about it was that it was so new to the community, and everybody was so welcoming,” said Cadiz. “We had a great crowd that year, and we did really well, better than we all expected. I’m still tight with the billet family I lived with, Lisa and Tom Kriskovic. I visit them, or they visit me, almost yearly – they came out to France for my wedding, and they’re a second family that I cherish from my experience in Wenatchee.”
Family concerns caused him to pull the plug on his junior hockey career after that, and he hung up the skates entirely during the 2009-10 season. However, he returned to inline hockey as a member of the U.S. national team, and picked up several years of pro experience overseas. The International Ice Hockey Federation no longer sponsors a roller hockey championship, but did long enough for Cadiz to play in the tournament four times and medal in three of those, including a gold-medal finish in 2013.
He remains a regular on the inline circuit, playing each year in the State Wars tournament, featuring top players from across the country. His PAMA Lambeda Golden Knights team claimed the Senior AA trophy at the tournament last year, with Cadiz earning a goal and an assist in the championship game, and he remains active in weekly play in nearby Newport Beach. With a free-flowing 4-on-4 style and no icing or offside infractions, the sport is quite different from its colder counterpart, but he says the sport continues to grow, and has an underrated presence in Europe.
“It’s tough to really know unless you go out there, but it’s a lot bigger than people think it is,” said Cadiz. “I played with teams that have clubs with 20-plus teams in their clubs, and 100 to 150 kids in the program. It’s bigger than 99 percent of people would know, or think it is, which is a great situation. It brings a lot of support and attention to the sport when it has very little to begin with. I loved helping it grow – there are a whole lot more U.S. kids who are now playing overseas. A buddy and I were among the first five, six, seven players to go over there and make a living out of it.”
