City sticking it to rink?

Lou Lozzi spent more than half his life at Rizzo Rink, learning to skate circles around the competition in ice hockey and roller hockey.

The 16-year-old won a city roller-hockey championship in 2002, and followed that up with an appearance in USA Hockey’s Junior Olympic festival.

Lozzi, of the 1200 block of Emily Street, recently earned a scholarship to play ice hockey at South Kent Prep in Connecticut.

"The people at Rizzo taught me the basics of how to play," said the junior at Girard Academic Music Program. "If I didn’t have Rizzo Rink down here, I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am today."

But the city-run rink might not be able to benefit other aspiring hockey players. Rizzo, at Front Street and Washington Avenue, is on a list of recreation cuts the city is proposing to help balance its budget.

Frank Avalon, treasurer of the Rizzo Rink Advisory Council, found out last week through a newspaper article about a potential plan to eliminate city ice-hockey programs.

"Honestly, we were shocked," he said. "Out of the five city rinks, we were told that we would never have to worry about the rink because it’s self-sufficient. We have so many volunteers down here that I can’t mention them all."

Some 700 children, many as young as 5, learn to play ice hockey at the rink. The program is among 37 recreation centers, 20 swimming pools and five ice-hockey programs that the city wants to cut to help reconcile its $227-million deficit. Rec closures alone will save the city $4 million, according to Mayor John Street’s budget plan.

But Rizzo’s players, parents and coaches insist cutting the ice-hockey program would come at too great a cost to the community. At $125 for a season of lessons — equipment included — Rizzo is a bargain. One nearby in-house ice-hockey program, at Hollydell Ice Arena in Sewell, N.J., charges $195 to play in the league, sans equipment.

Councilman-at-Large Jim Kenney has been a volunteer coach in the Rizzo League for a decade. He pledges to do whatever he can to help the program remain intact.

"A whole group of kids will be excluded from this activity in the winter," Kenney said. "This is a cut that will affect every kid around the city."

The Rizzo Rink family plans to speak out against the city cuts at a Council hearing, which had been postponed from earlier this week at press time. In addition, the group has collected more than 1,500 signatures on a petition.

The rink’s advocates include 7-year-old Devi Majeske, who just finished her third season of ice hockey. The first-grader, from the 700 block of Carpenter Street, even prepared a statement to read in Council chambers.

Devi’s father, Gregor Majeske, said his daughter enjoys the program so much that she recruited girls from her school to sign up.

"They just love it," he said. "It’s an amazing program."

And some skaters get more than fun and recreation out of it. Like Lozzi, athletes can develop their hockey skills on the way to playing on the national and international levels.

Jessica McAllister, of 15th and Shunk streets, grew up playing ice hockey with the boys at Rizzo Rink. Last summer, the 17-year-old traveled to Europe to represent North America in the Czech Hockey Challenge Cup. She also spent last year’s Easter vacation in Chicago participating in a national high-school showcase tournament.

Other former Rizzo Rink athletes have made it to the minor leagues and Canada to play hockey.

The rink also serves as a practice facility for the St. John Neumann and Roman Catholic ice-hockey club teams.

Last Thursday, players past and present, along with coaches, advisory council members and parents, held a strategy meeting. Avalon, who also coaches a hockey team for 5- to 7-year-olds, said the group decided who would speak in Council on behalf of the 16-year-old program.

"We had so many people [wanting to talk] that we had to turn people away," he said.

There is a possibility city rinks could be privatized down the road, but Rizzo Rink users fear ice-hockey players would be priced out of the facility.

"If the city closes all five rinks, that’s it; it’s over," Avalon said.