Today we’d like to introduce you to Lou DeLuca.
Lou, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in Brooklyn and played all kinds of ball, you name it, in the streets and parks and one day in the eighth grade a classmate invited me to the side street where they play roller hockey after school every day so I got out my skates went down and was hooked. It soon became my primary sport. Over 50 years later I’m still playing and coaching ice hockey now here in South Florida. I got to play Junior B hockey for the Brooklyn Stars in NY and captained the team at Queens College (QC Athletics Hall of Fame for Baseball and Hockey) and after that got to play semi-pro for the NJ Rockets and some others.
Now I play at Palm Beach Ice Works and Glacier in Pompano and tournaments all over.
I started coaching as a 20-year-old in the Greater NY City League when my coach suggested it – as a Physical Education major it was a natural progression. I’ve coached some college, high school, summer camps and had some championship prep teams on Long Island over the years.
About 18 years ago, I was teaching hockey and skating on Long Island and I noticed that so many rinks and programs paid so much attention to the advanced and travel players and there was hardly a way for young players to get started in the game so many of us love. It’s such a fun game to practice or play and kids immediately love the action – so different than baseball or football. The group skating lessons were boring after a while and kids would just quit on go on to something else. So, I rented a couple of hours of ice time and recruited little one’s parents right out of the groups and public sessions…. like “instead of just skating back and forth across the ice how would you like him/her to learn to play hockey”. Some I took by the hand out on the ice for the first time. So I started the Dix Hills Mites on Long Island as a pioneer in the cross-ice hockey movement in 2000 making a smaller more manageable playing surface for little ones and it soon grew to 6 teams with 72 kids and 14 coaches with a waiting list to get in every season. I still help to run it with a partner up there on ice for me. Some of those kids have gone on to play high level high school and college hockey after starting as 4-year olds with me.
Recently, my wife and I (a former nationally ranked figure skater and coach) – I know, kind of cliché, hockey player marries figure skater…happens a lot – moved here to Boynton Beach. On Long Island we would make frequent trips into Manhattan for shows and restaurants and now we do the same with trips to Miami or Palm Beach or just hang in Delray, we really enjoy it here.
Through a series of events I got to meet the new rink owner Randy Lamming who made it possible for me to start a similar program for 4-8-year-old boys and girls right here at Glacier Ice and Snow on US1 in Pompano Beach. Nowadays the NHL sponsors an introductory 6 session ‘Learn to Play’ program with the Panthers and I volunteer there and get to move those kids right up into our beginner program with teams and coaches and games and practices – the emphasis is away from competition and more ‘Fun with Fundamentals’. We play cross-ice hockey so the kids are always involved they get plenty of puck touches no matter their skill level and we use age appropriate drills and games – everything gets scaled down to little kid level. If kids are active and having fun they will learn to love the game and want to build their skill level. And obviously it’s a lifetime sport as evidenced by the many adult leagues right here in South Florida.
It makes so much sense because no one gets cut and they are allowed to progress at their own rate so out of a base of so many kids and coaches, whom we make sure to get screened and certified.
Has it been a smooth road?
When I started in NY some coaches and programs were threatened even though I only took up two hours of ice time a week. They wanted a monopoly and it wasn’t till someone who knew me stood up at a meeting and said if someone wants to help more kids play hockey why would we stop him – and as I said why not expand the pool of available players – still some voted against my program’s entry into USA Hockey.
As a not so funny side, the Gay Men’s Ice Hockey League was voted in unanimously that year.
For years figure skating coaches told kids they shouldn’t play hockey till they learned to skate….this was pretty self-serving since they were teaching all the lessons and it could take a long time with rudimentary 20 minute lessons – we take kids as soon as they can “move on their own and get up if they fall”…by the end of the season they are flying around the ice and loving every minute.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
As a former teacher and physical educator, like so many of the coaches in Europe, I was able to give an extra perspective to teaching young athletes.
I am proud that so many of the kids we started as beginners, with their equipment still wrapped in plastic, go on to play at higher levels even some in Division I NCAA hockey.
But more than that over the years those kids soon populate all of the rink travel and rec teams and the coaches who we get screened and certified also move up to coach those teams. From time to time I will line up for a face-off in tournament or adult league game somewhere and my opponent will say “Coach Lou you were my coach when I was starting out” – it’s actually gratifying to see them still playing the game we love.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Glacier Ice and Snow was a great location with new ownership and a need for a good foundation – the 4-8 year old age group is a great place to start. I’m told that the area east of 95 has a great population of school age kids. I know that the Panthers Learn to Play program which is 2 or 3 times/year fills up almost immediately so things are picking up pretty quickly for beginner hockey players and they need a place to play.
Pricing:
- Full set of equipment can run about $200 or more but with the Panthers “Learn to Play” they get 6 sessions and some really nice new fitted equipment for $150.
Contact Info:
- Address: Glacier Ice and Snow
4601 N Federal Hwy.,
Pompano Beach, FL 33064 - Website: www.leaguelineup.com/glaciericeandsnow
- Phone: 631 944 1857
- Email: coachlou@glaciericeandsnow.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Glacier-Mighty-Mites-Hockey-231341657324327/
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