Pro Cheer Field Trip: LA Kings Ice crew Auditions

Last week, I had a chance to sit in on the first day of auditions for the NHL Los Angeles Kings Ice Crew. Brooklyn Boyars, Manager of Game Day Presentation for the Kings, was nice enough to let me snoop my way in and observe tryouts.

Brooklyn

I’d never been to that kind of audition, so I was pretty excited to go, and learn all that I could. I figured you guys would be interested too, so I took lots of photos. Maybe this is something you’d like to try!

The audition process reminded me a lot of the skating parties I used to go to as a little kid. Everyone looked like they were having such a great time, it was easy to forget that it was an audition. I walked away at the end of the day, wishing I could go back in time to finish those skating lessons and enroll in zamboni school.

Maybe it’s not too late for the zamboni part.

A little background: Last year, the Kings had two different entertainment groups: the off-ice Kings Crew (co-ed) and the on-ice Metal Ice Crew (all girls). This year, the two teams merged into the all new Kings Crew. The Crew is responsible for keeping the ice clear. They shovel the surface during breaks and pick up anything that gets thrown out on the ice.

In addition to that, they are involved in contests, fan-participation games, on-ice activities, give-aways, and just about anything else needed to add fun and excitement to the game day experience. They also represent the Kings at various events throughout the community.

The audition consists of three parts:
1. A series of drills to test the girls’ skating ability/potential
2. A bunch of fun activities simulating typical game day activities
3. An off-ice interview with the judges

The first thing, of course, was registration out front…

Then you had to go inside and pick up your assigned number.

Girls who didn’t have skates of their own could rent them from the facility. (The Toyota Sports Center, in El Segundo, CA) Note: these are hockey skates. None of that Sasha Cohen toe pick stuff here.

The girls gathered in the stands to wait for the audition to start.

Last year’s veterans were back to fight for their spots on the team.

Once the zamboni had cleared the ice, Brooklyn gathered everyone around to explain the audition process.

Then the girls hit the ice to warm up for a few minutes. Some skated like pros. Others weren’t as skilled, but were willing to try. I was impressed. I thought there would be a lot more falling and crashing into the walls. There was some of that. But not much.

Whoops!

FYI: I had no idea it would be this hard to photograph skaters. They never stop moving. You have no idea how many blurry photos I have to show for my efforts.

It looked like fun. Grrr…I wish I hadn’t quit those skating lessons.

Then Brooklyn introduced the judges, and split the women in two groups to run through a series of on-ice drills. There were a lot of them. These are a few of the ones I wrote down. (I apologize for my lack of appropriate skating terminology.)

1. Starting and stopping (As is turns out, the ability to stop is muy importante)
2. Skating backwards
3. Swizzles (Swizzles are the reason I quit skating lessons. I could swizzle out, but I never figured out how to swizzle back in. You kinda have to do both parts, or it’s not a bona fide swizzle.)
4. Skating on one foot. Then on the other foot.
5. Doing squats (like at the gym) while gliding across the ice
6. Gliding across with one knee down in a kneeling position

Then it started to get complicated as they skated around in a series of circles and complicated patterns. Circles to the left. Circles to the right. Circles going forward, circles going backward. Skating forward half way around, then backward the rest of the way around. It had something to do with inside edges, outside edges, and cross overs. To me, it mostly looked like a lot of circles.

There was one exercise where they had to skate halfway across the rink, skid to a stop, turn and skate back to the starting line, then turn and skate all the way across to the other side of the rink. And they had to do it FAST.

Then they had to do this crazy scramble thing, where they all had to skate around randomly in one small area of the ice. It looked kind of crazy, with everyone going in different directions, until the coach yelled STOP! Then they had to come to an immediate stop. Presumably without knocking anyone else over.

I think the purpose was to show the ability to stop without much room, and to maneuver around other moving bodies on the ice. (I’m making that up. I have no idea what it’s for.)

It was kind of like demented musical chairs, but on ice.

And without the chairs.

Next, it was time to give it a shot with the tools of the trade. During games, the Ice Crew has to shovel the surface of the ice. So during auditions they had to heft those shovels around and show that they could do it with ease (and maybe a little finesse.)

Those shovels looked heavy. They were bigger than some of the girls hauling them around!

Next up was the hat drill. Brooklyn and the coaches threw a bunch of ball caps down on the ice. The girls had to take turns skating around and picking up the hats. It was kind of like a relay race.

After picking up a hat, you had to throw it back down again, for the next group to pick up.

It looked pretty easy. But for someone like myself who can barely stand upright on skates, bending over to pick something up looks just about impossible.

Then they started to get into the super fun part. The had to practice tossing these big floppy Frisbee-things to each other. The kicker was, you had to CATCH it. Throwing is easy. Catching, not so much.

I mentioned that they were on ICE SKATES, right?

I can’t throw a Frisbee on dry land. It always goes waaay off to the right. I tried playing Frisbee with my friend’s dog one time. He watched it go flying, rolled his eyes, turned his back on me, and sat down. Ouch.

But I digress…

I guess you have to have some kind of aim, if you’re going to be throwing t-shirts etc. to the crowd on game day. I don’t know if that’s actually the point of the exercise, but it’s my theory, anyway.

The last part of the on-ice audition was another free skate. They cranked up the music, and gave the girls an opportunity to show off a bit. This was the charisma/crowd appeal portion of the tryout.

I’m not sure how the judges scored this. The girls really got into it. I saw some spinning, some dancing, even some air guitar. Almost everyone got Low with Flo Rida.

And finally, it was over. The girls took off their skates and put on their sweaters. The judges gathered to prepare for group interviews. That’s when I took off. Interviews are always closed. Who needs another person in the room, blinding you with a camera flash, while you’re trying to stay composed and answer questions intelligently? So I don’t mind skipping interviews.

But oh boy, I wish I could’ve gone to the second day of auditions.

They were going to have a fitness evaluation, a game simulation, and even more fun on-ice stuff. I have a feeling I really missed out.

All I can say is, I am definitely going to a Kings game this fall. I don’t know how I’m going to make that happen, but I’m going to make it happen. I want to see how this story ends – who made the team, and how they do their thing on game day.

The next time you go to a Kings game, give a wave to the Ice Crew. Their job is fun, but not nearly as easy as it looks!