Tucked away off a nondescript street in Poway is a large warehouse. From the outside, it looks like an office building.

But inside, past a reception desk that rents out skates, it has a pristine ice rink and hockey amenities. It is the Gulls’ new practice facility.

The Gulls, who play the San Jose Barracuda on Wednesday night at the Valley View Casino Center as they look to snap a two-game losing streak, permanently moved their practices to the Poway Ice Arena on Jan. 5. They had previously held practices at Valley View or the Kroc Center in San Diego as they waited for the Poway arena to be completed.

Now, it is their new home.


“It’s a home,” coach Dallas Eakins said after practice Tuesday, standing in a spacious carpeted room where some equipment was stored. “It’s like where you live, like where people come home. You’re comfortable there. And I think where you’re comfortable, you’re able to teach the best and I think you’re also able to learn the best.”

It is, by most accounts, far more aesthetically pleasing than Valley View and KROC. But it also is far more amenable to player development.

Before they moved to Poway, Gulls players had to lug their bags of equipment, many of which looked like they could fit a small buffalo, to and from practice. They also carried their hockey sticks with them.

After once practice at Kroc earlier this season, players had to dodge small children who were skating there as part of a summer camp. It was quite an image: Very large professional hockey players carrying enormous bags and hockey sticks trying to avoid very small summer campers, many of whom were oblivious to the situation.


At Poway, this will not be a problem: Players can leave their jerseys and equipment, and leave without luggage. This is not the only advantage.

The locker room, for one, is much bigger. Players on Tuesday cracked jokes and seemed at home in it. Above the locker room door, scribbled on a torn piece of paper and taped to the wall, is the phrase, “To whom much is given, much is expected.”

There is also a much more accommodating office for coaches. At Valley View, Eakins and his assistants often crammed into small spaces to meet, and none of them was designated as their official office.

“We’re all, in professional sports, we’re creatures of habit,” Eakins said. “And for me to be able to get up, come in and get in my office and sit and be organized, rather than finding a place to sit with my briefcase ... It starts right with me.”


“As a staff,” Eakins added, “we’re not living out of our briefcases anymore.”

The training room is bigger and better as well, defenseman Brandon Montour said. There are now three squat racks, center Antoine Laganiere said. There are TVs everywhere, Laganiere added.

Then there’s the video room, which makes it much easier for Eakins and other coaches to, well, coach.

“It’s one thing to grab your computer and be running around to players trying to show them clips,” Eakins said. “It’s another thing to have them sitting in a space where there’s an 80-inch screen and now you can talk to the group in a small confine.”


Eakins said the Poway arena rivals some NHL facilities. “That’s the biggest thing for me,” he said. “Is this facility nice? Yeah. Could you say that you’re spoiled? Well, I don’t think that: This is what you need to develop players, and we’re fortunate to have it.”

Gulls players are scattered throughout San Diego. Some live downtown; others in Mission Valley, still others in Del Mar. So for some, commuting to Poway is a longer trip. They don’t mind.

Eakins? “I’m fortunate,” he said. “I live six miles from here.”

rob.harms@sduniontribune.com