I take great pride in announcing I actually typed ’08 for the first time without having to go back and erase the ’07. It is already a successful 2008.

They are the Amarillo Rattlers, the Austin Icebats, the Lubbock Cottonkings and the Odessa Jackalopes.

They play in Corpus Christi, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Amarillo. Who are they?

Those are some of the professional teams that play hockey in, that’s right, Texas.

As Maine hockey fans you may be hearing more about Texas hockey.

Come the fall of 2009, if all goes well, the first player from Texas to don a Black Bear uniform will be Johnnie Searfoss from Colleyville, Texas.

As Larry Mahoney recently reported in the BDN, Searfoss, 17 and playing for the Texas Attack in an independent AAA Midget league, has committed to Maine.

He is expected to play junior hockey next year before joining the Bears.

Maine fans may be surprised to find out Texas has a long hockey history. It is no Montreal, but the game is not new in the Lone Star State.

Professional hockey first came to Dallas in 1941 with a team in the American Hockey Association. That history has come down to the current Dallas Stars.

Minor-league hockey has been abundant in Texas longer than that and continues so today. The American Hockey League, the East Coast Hockey League and the North American Hockey League can all be found in Texas.

The University of Texas has had a program for seven years.

Texas Tech, Southern Methodist and Texas A&M have teams. They may not be Hockey East-caliber teams, but you might not want to tell them that.

Goaltender David McKee made a splash at Cornell and has moved on to the Anaheim Ducks. He is from Irving, Texas, and survived on ice in the land of the Cowboys.

Maine coaches learned early in the program’s history that recruiting is a term without borders.

Texas will not provide a lot of Division I players at the moment. Then again, it’s the ones you get who matter.

Searfoss will play junior hockey to improve his game against better players to prepare for the college game. That is always the need of players who come from areas and programs where the talent level is uneven.

He will test himself at the junior level and hope to grow there as a player.

For Maine fans, the Black Bear program that started with the hope of retaining the best of Maine’s high school players long ago extended itself to wherever the talent can be found.

With some luck that means Texas, come 2009.

bdnsports@bangordailynews.net