OK, but if you only started playing ball hockey at age 15 and started skating at age 16 were you really a "ball hockey player"?
In my limited experience as a beer leaguer, someone who understanding the game and knows where to position themselves on the ice can still be a meaningful contributor, even if they have lousy skating. The counter example - someone who knows how to skate, but doesn't understand the game, doesn't know where to position themselves, and is constantly going offsides, is not going to be much of a meaningful contributor.
I had a buddy who was a few yrs older than me, he was a ball hockey player only. He introduced me to a lot of ball hockey guys I ended up getting to know well.
My buddy played on an unreal ball team that won something like 5-6 city championships in a row…
I’d go and watch these guys play and they could do insane things with the ball.
I was maybe, 14 at the time and they were 16-18 year olds…
One day my buddy asked if he and 7-8 of these guys could come down to the lake and play against me and a few of my ice buddies who had been skating forever.
Apparently many of the guys who wanted to play us from his ball team had started playing roller hockey a couple yrs back and had been on the pond a bunch learning to ice skate.
It was… ugly. These guys could skate some and handle the puck ok, but we had to give them our best player to even make it somewhat competitive.
Eventually our guy we gave to them halfway through whipped his stick across the ice and screamed “can any of you f***ers give me some help!”
I felt bad and kept apologizing, but the ball hockey guys basically said they felt humbled.
I’ve seen this kind of scenario play out a ton over the years when strictly ball hockey players try to take up ice/roller, but don’t quite understand the years of hard work it takes to learn to skate and handle the puck at high speeds.
I always encourage people no matter what age to get in skates and have fun, but to try and keep their expectations in check so they don’t get upset and enjoy the game.