Robert Kirchner

(Dayton, Ohio)  One of August Aiken’s fondest memories as a child was winning the Pee Wee (12 and 13 year old players) national hockey championship, the team went undefeated that year, winning 30 plus games, one of his line mates that year was Bobby Ryan, the same forward who plays for the Ottawa Senators.  The actual unique part of winning the championship is the team August played for hailed from Los Angeles, you know Southern California.  That year they beat the best from traditional hockey markets, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Detroit and New England.

When you think of the Southern California some may not think of it as a hockey hotbed.  But that changed in the early 1990s as hockey exploded with the Los Angeles Kings acquiring Wayne Gretzky in in the summer of 1988, with that one move, the hockey landscape changed.  Today, many college, Junior and professional hockey players hail from Golden State.
A few years back the Great One made the following statement “I tell people this quite often,” Gretzky said.  “You can pick 10 year-olds and 12 year-olds (from California), put together a couple of teams, and they can go all through Canada and handle themselves extremely well.  They can compete with the best of Canadian kids at 10 and 12.”

Dayton Demonz center August Aiken grew up in Los Angeles at a time when youth hockey grew in California, which correlated with the addition of National Hockey League (NHL) teams in San Jose and Anaheim.   August like most boys his age in the Los Angeles area enjoyed the beach, especially surfing, as his home was a stone’s throw away from the Pacific Ocean.  Outside of his time on the beach, he enjoyed the popular Southern California sport of hockey, on roller blades, or on the ice.  From an early age he was a member of the Los Angles Junior Kings, the competitive youth hockey program supported by the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL.  The Junior Kings home was the same rink the NHL Kings used as their practice facility.  

Fast forward to the 2004-2005 NHL season (the NHL lockout year), his Midget Team, the Los Angeles Junior Kings, was coached at the time by Andy Murray (who had a little extra time on his hands with no games being played that season in the NHL) the head coach of the Los Angeles Kings at the time.  Murray had the Junior Kings Midget team competing in a tournament in British Columbia against the AAA Midget teams.  August stood out in the tournament, and the Canadians took notice, the following year as a 17 year he was able to obtain a roster spot and playing the next three years of Junior hockey in the competitive British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL).

During his final season of Junior hockey, August’ childhood dream came true, receiving a scholarship to play Division 1 college hockey.  “Playing Division 1 college hockey was a great experience for me, I learned a lot about the game while getting a quality education, and had the opportunity while playing in the Western Collegian Hockey Association (WCHA) against a few players who currently play in the National Hockey League (NHL)” said August. At the University of Anchorage Alaska August majored in Business Administration.  It was at this time he realized he was capable of playing professional hockey.

The following year he was invited to training camp of the Ontario (California) Reign, of the ECHL not far from where he grew up in Southern California, making the team out of training camp.  Although his stint in the ECHL was short, he spent the next couple of years in the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) before arriving to the Dayton Demonz in the fall of 2013, becoming a core member of the Demonz championship team last season.  

When talking to most players from last year championship team they will say winning the Commissioner’s Cup as the Federal Hockey League champions as their career highlight.   August is no different looking back at the Danbury series with the Demonz dramatic comeback, and winning the deciding game on Danbury ice, “we were determined to win the Cup on our (bus) drive to Danbury for the 5th and deciding game, the team jelled at the right time, we believed in each other, and played our best game of the series with all the chips were down and the odds stacked against us.”

This season, his fourth in professional hockey, August centers the Demonz top line between Ahmad Mahfouz and Robert Vanwynsberghe, all three are in the top five scoring in the Federal Hockey League, and the line is considered the most potent line in the FHL this year.  “August is the playmaker, and the one who keeps the line going, he can make plays with the best of them, along with his speed he has a quick hard shot” says Demonz head coach Trevor Karasiewicz.  Coach Karasiewicz would have liked to have seen the line play against Danbury this coming Friday night as a test to see how Aiken’s line matched up against the first place Whalers, however Louisiana of the Southern Professional Hockey League called August up to their team earlier today (Wednesday, January 7, 2015).  “August has been great on and off the ice during his time in Dayton; I wish nothing but the best for him as he continues his professional hockey career.”

Ahmed Mahfouz added, “I am glad Aik’s got the opportunity to move up, it was a lot of fun playing with him, he is a great skater with good vision, and has a great shot.”  Mahfouz went on to say, “We seemed to find each other on the ice, all I had to do was chip the puck out of the zone, and with his speed he just would wheel with the puck, once he got going he would put the opposing defenceman on their heels which created a lot of time and space for both Vanny (Vanwynsberghe) and myself.”

At the end of each hockey season August returns home to Southern California where he enjoys spending time on the beach with family and friends, or surfing in the ocean, like he did as a child many years ago.  Other interests are working on cars, and extreme sports like snowboarding.  However, as a professional athlete it is not all fun in the sun.  His off season workouts are intense and competitive.  To build strength, he spends time working out in the weight room, along with being on the ice four or five times a week training with other professional hockey players in the area.  “A bunch of us go back to California and train together, there is not a lot of rest, we do high intensity workouts, mainly circuit training off the ice, on the ice we have a group of guys that consists of American Hockey League (AHL) players and ECHL players, we normally start by doing drills for 45 minutes, then play games of 4 on 4, or 3 on 3.”  

After his playing career is over, August would like to return to California and coach ice hockey and help kids in his home state reach their hockey goals.  “I would like to take everything I learned from all the places I played in North America, and utilize this experience to help in their development as hockey players and individuals.”  When asked what advice he would tell a child who thought about playing ice hockey at an elite level, August added “continue to work hard every day, take no days off, and always want to get better and most importantly to never give up.”
 
Photo Credit:  Josie Colwell