By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer

They’re some of the city of Kissimmee’s biggest movers and shakers.

But on Thursday nights, Saturday mornings and, for a weekend this fall in Las Vegas, they are rollers, shooters and, they hope, scorers.

Such is the tale of the Ancient Warriors.

Kissimmee Public Works Director Dave Derrick, Civic Center Supervisor Gregg Smith and City Manager Mark Durbin will team up, as they have done annually since 2006, with five other players from California for the hockey tournament, to be held Oct. 8-10.

They will compete in the tournament’s over-50 bracket, explaining the team moniker. That means they’ll get an infusion of “youth” from a rookie if Parks and Recreation Director Dan Loubier, who turned 50 this year, can finish a project on land he owns in his home state of Maine this fall and make the trip.

“We’ll have to buzz-cut the rookie’s head, or give him the Friar Tuck cut,” Durbin joked.

The local portion of the Warriors play at Lakeside Park to stay sharp. A couple of players try to get up to Orlando for leagues there, which is where they started out playing before Kissimmee got a rink and formed leagues.

“We just play pickup, it’s not really organized, but we’ll start getting serious about it real soon,” Derrick, 53, said.

Durbin, 55, has been playing in one inline league or another for about 20 years, he said, and received an e-mail from USA Hockey that the over-50 bracket would be starting. He went by himself the first year and met the California contingent from the team, then started putting the Florida part of the team together when Derrick, then Smith, reached 50.

“It’s been really great,” Durbin said. “I’d really like to put together an entire team from Central Florida, but it’s hard to get all those people to get out and go.”

The Warriors are trying to improve on their showing from last year, when they won just one game.

Derrick and Durbin play forward, with Loubier and Smith back on defense. Their goalie comes from Santa Barbara, Calif.

So who is the goal-scoring sniper, the slick skater who strikes fear into the hearts of opposing teams a la Sidney Crosby?

“Well, we’re still looking for that guy,” Derrick said.

Well, Wayne Gretzky does turn 50 in January.

Loubier said that he began playing hockey with Durbin when the city manager hired him some 15 years ago, playing floor hockey at the YMCA. He joined an ice hockey league when the Ice Factory opened on Partin Settlement Road soon after.

“I didn’t start playing on wheels until much later on,” said Loubier, who added that playing on rollerblades took adjusting to. “I didn’t mind the falling so much as the sudden stop you come to.”

The team and the tournament give guys like Derrick a chance to get the competitive juices flowing.

“Every year we expect to win. We’ve been in the top five, but once you get above that it gets really competitive, a couple of teams play together year-round and sort of dominate it,” he said.

So just playing is a benefit to the players — and is a loss that happens in Las Vegas not at a blackjack table or at the sports book really a loss?

“When you get to our age, you start thinking about ways to stay healthy,” Derrick said. “This is a way for us to burn some calories. And it’s a really good group of guys.”

Durbin also lauds the health benefits.

“Playing is what keeps me in shape, even though I’m sore after every game,” he said.

The USA Hockey Inline Cup was introduced in 1997 to provide national-level competition for adult players of all skill levels.  This year marks the 11th time that the Last Vegas Roller Hockey Center will host the event.