Hockey in Texas has grown consistently since the Dallas Stars’ move from Minnesota in 1993 but has yet to reach the popularity of other sports in the area.

A group of youngsters from Denton, Aubrey, Lewisville and Flower Mound will be taking their talents in the roller hockey realm to the national scene with hopes of earning respect for the state’s upcoming hockey players when Team Face Off from Face Off Hockey Center in Denton heads to the Tournament of Roller Hockey Series Under-12 national championship beginning today in Buffalo, N.Y.

Devin Howard, who will be a seventh grader at Strickland Middle School, has been on skates since he was 5 years old. Now 12, the son of Face Off’s owner, Brett Howard, said he’s ready to make a return trip to nationals after participating last year in Detroit with a team from Richardson. He’s excited to shoot down the attitude toward Texas hockey from the northern states.

“I’m proud to be from here,” Devin said. “Last year, it was a Texas team that went up and won it, and that kind of came out of nowhere because Texas isn’t that big for hockey.

“Texas is really small by hockey standards, and there aren’t many teams that are in Texas that go [to nationals], so it’s a big opportunity to go up there. I kind of feel like we’re playing for the state.”

Team Face Off was chosen after tryouts were held in December. The tryouts were open to anyone of age who played in the Face Off house league.

Since January, the team has been practicing once or twice a week under their coach, Justin Walker, a 30-year-old Denton resident who helped open Face Off years ago when it was called Hat Trick. He’s been playing hockey for 16 years now and has coached many recreational league teams. Team Face Off is his first travel team to coach, and he said it’s been a great experience.

"It's been real exciting,” Walker said. “The kids, when they first come in, have areas where they need to work on. They really had never been coached on team hockey and playing possession hockey, so we really worked on that. Now, I have seen it come full circle. They’ve learned to play in a system, which when you play quality competition is a big deal."

Brett Howard said the most satisfying part of seeing kids he’s watched grow up on the rink have this success is the lessons it will teach the kids, including his own.

“I want my kid and all of the kids here to know that if you want to obtain something, it takes hard work to get there,” Howard said. “And these kids have worked very hard since December getting ready for this. It’s fun to play in the other tournaments, but everything boils down to this tournament. They’ve basically worked since December to play six hockey games.”

Even though most of the kids’ families will be traveling to Buffalo to watch them, the family aspect of the trip goes beyond that.

A few of the players’ dads will also be playing in the adults bronze division, which is an open tournament.

One of those dads is Joe Valenti, a doctor in Denton, whose twin sons Oliver and Nicolas both play for Team Face Off. The Valentis are from Buffalo so will have a hefty cheering section for both the kids’ games and for the adult team, the Mooseheads.

“We’re just glad to be going at all,” Valenti said of the Mooseheads. “We have a team that’s pretty varied because there are three players over 40, and we’re not playing in an Over-40 division, so it could be a rough time. We’ll give it our best shot.

“It’s gonna be really exciting to go play hockey and see my family, and the kids are just really excited to play in front of their family.”

Walker can only smile when he looks back to when he was playing youth hockey with a ball instead of a puck and on outdoor rinks. He said the tournaments the kids play in now are much more structured and that there are simply more hockey knowledgeable people in Texas to coach than there were in his younger days.

Perhaps that perspective gives Walker extra appreciation for the transformation he’s seen his players make.

"It's definitely been fun watching the kids get better and seeing their stick handling abilities develop,” Walker said. “They’ve started to understand why you go here and why you do that, and seeing that stuff makes perfect sense to them now.

“I’ve seen them turn from rec league hockey players into players that understand the game. That has definitely been my favorite part of the whole deal."

ADAM BOEDEKER can be reached at 940-566-6872. His e-mail address is aboedeker@dentonrc.com.