Audrey Williams
Online Sports Editor
Seniors Ian Zaleski and Cade Street have moved 700 miles from Idaho to play hockey on the Los Angeles Junior Kings AAA team.
Zaleski and Street are both from Idaho, Street from Sun Valley and Zaleski from Boise. Both have been skating for 15 years and playing competitive hockey since middle school.
“My mom took me skating when I was super young,” Zaleski said. “She was a figure skater so I was bound to be put on the ice, so when I was three, a hockey instructor came up to her after seeing us around and said that I was ready to play.”
Street began to making hockey a priority in eighth grade when he started commuting two hours to Boise from his home in Sun Valley to play for the Idaho Junior Steelheads bantam AA hockey team.
“As I started becoming more invested in hockey, I knew I wanted to play in a different place,” Street said. “Idaho doesn’t have many teams, and I knew it was something I wanted to do.”
Before his freshman year Street looked into billeting. Billeting is when a player tries out and plays for a tier one AAA team out of state and lives with a host family for the entirety of that team’s season.
“I have been doing this for a few years now,” Street said. “Although being away from home and family is really hard, it has given me opportunities that I otherwise would not have been given
Street signed with a team in Colorado, the Colorado Rampage U15 AAA hockey team, for his freshman year, then the West Coast Renegades U16 AAA hockey team in Utah his sophomore year, and finally the Los Angeles Junior Kings AAA team he is currently on for his junior and now senior year.
“I was able to come here for the junior year last minute with a broken shoulder,” Street said. “I decided to stay here for my senior year because I had the opportunity to be a leader on this team. I didn’t want to go to a fifth high school and I was done being the new kid.”
Zaleski first began billeting his junior year of high school when he signed with the Pikes Peak Minors hockey team in Colorado Springs. This year, Zaleski was able to come into contact with the coach of the Junior Kings AAA team and play for the year.
“I have a lot of family out here so that made moving here feel a lot easier,” Zaleski said. “However being away from my immediate family is still hard.”
Street is a defensemen and Zaleski is a forward wing. Their team travels and competes around the United States and Canada, and practices around 10 hours a week. Their practices include skating, yoga, lifting, running and beach work outs.
“I am a physically leading asset on the team,” Street said. “I am strong, physically inclined, I have a good shot and I can use my body to my advantage. But I lack foot speed and I tend to not play with poise when it is needed the most.”
Living in Manhattan Beach and attending Mira Costa is a big change from living in Idaho. Both Street and Zaleski agree that there are positives and negatives to it.
“The hardest part is not being able to see my family,” Street said. “However, any hockey player would be jealous to know that in the middle of January we can still come into practice wearing flip flops and shorts.”
After spending so much time and effort committing to hockey, both Zaleski and Street plan on playing hockey after high school, in college and professionally.
“Playing college hockey would be amazing,” Zaleski said. “After college, I want to play hockey overseas somewhere.”
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