Devoted group of volunteers give youngsters an introduction to hockey.
Kamari Long, left, a member of the Central High Hockey team is a product of The Hockey Project. He is seen next to the ice with Evan Moorhouse during a recent session at the MassMutual Center in Springfield.
He wears a black jacket with his name and uniform number emblazoned on the right sleeve. The logo on the front reads “Central High Golden Eagles hockey.”
He wears it with pride, knowing that it symbolizes accomplishment for him, and hope for others.
Yes, Kamari Long of Springfield has become a role model to kids who take part in a worthy endeavor known as “The Hockey Project.” They look up to him as the program’s first graduate to make a high school varsity hockey team.
He’s a freshman at Springfield’s Sabis International Charter School. Since Sabis does not offer hockey as a varsity sport, he plays for Central as part of its co-op program.
“I love my team. I love the game. I’m a hockey player,” Long says with a winning smile.
“The kids here see Kamari’s jacket, and it means a lot. He’s an inspiration to them,” said Donnie Moorhouse, founder of the Hockey Project.
Among the new fans of Central High hockey is Joe Long Sr., Kamari’s grandfather.
“When I first heard he was playing hockey, I didn’t know what to think. But when I saw what it meant to him, I became a fan. I love football, but I got converted to hockey,” he said.
Five years ago, Moorhouse teamed with his wife Kate and Bill Foley, an old friend from their days in kid hockey, to organize The Hockey Project. They saw it as a way of making the sport available to youngsters who otherwise might never have the opportunity to be on skates.
Two-hour sessions take place once a week at the MassMutual Center, with a volunteer staff of instructors that includes Foley, Springfield Falcons employee Nick Catjakis and the Moorhouses’ sons – Evan, Sean and Ryan.
Catjakis and Evan Moorhouse are students at Westfield State University. Sean attends Westfield’s North Middle School in the eighth grade. Ryan’s a fifth- grader at Munger Hill Elementary in Westfield.
Evan, an all-star goaltender for the Springfield Pics of junior hockey last season, has taken over for his dad in running the Hockey Project sessions.
“One day last year, I was in the locker room, helping kids put on their skates. When I came out to the rink, Evan already had things going. He’s been doing it ever since,” Moorhouse said.
Evan’s younger brothers certainly are qualified to help rookie skaters. They’ve been on the blades since they could walk.
In daily life, Moorhouse serves as director of strategic sales for the Falcons of the American Hockey League. He might be better known to readers of The Republican for his 21 years of columns and reviews covering the local music scene. Foley might be better known for his 15 years as head supervisor of the Sabis school.
Beyond all that, though, these two qualify as blue-collar hockey guys. They love to be around the game. They love to work with young people. They are, in other words, ideally suited for The Hockey Project.
Their outreach effort comes free to the kids. The MassMutual Center donates ice time, and Moorhouse gets generous backing from the Ondrick family of Poly Plating in Chicopee.
“I know they’d rather remain anonymous, but I think it should be said that they pretty much fund what we do – skates, equipment, all of that. We wouldn’t be here without them,” Moorhouse said.
Hockey Project on-ice sessions, lasting two hours, will take place once a week through Feb. 26 for boys and girls 6 through 13.
“When we started, I remember saying to my wife, ‘Wouldn’t it be something if one of these kids turned into a player?’ Now it’s happened with Kamari, and it might be happening for others,” Moorhouse said.
Several Hockey Project graduates skate for the Springfield Capitals, a junior program based at Cyr Arena. One of them, R.J. Shubrick, recently was named player of the game after his team beat St. Albans, Vt., 5-1, in the Maple City Tournament at Burlington, Vt.
At Foley’s urging, Long came to the program in 2010 as a sixth-grader. Like every Hockey Project kid, his first day in the program was his first day on skates.
“Kamari hit the ice flying. He’s a natural,” Foley said.
“I just grabbed the puck and started chasing it. I loved it. Skating was something new, and a great feeling,” Long said.
Moorhouse calls that “hockey immersion,” which means Hockey Project youngsters don’t just learn to skate. They learn to do it with a stick and a puck. At the same time, they learn to compete.
“There’s a theory that hockey is all about skating, but to me it’s all about the puck,” Moorhouse said. “We don’t do drills. We feel it’s better for kids to start learning how to control the puck right from the start. We send them into two-on-two or three-on-three competition right away, tell them to put the puck in the net, and watch them scrap and learn.”
So it went with a newcomer named Noah Valentine, an 11-year-old third-grader at Sabis. In a three-on-three scrimmage, he kept digging for the puck, and finally got rewarded with a goal.
“Not bad for his second time on skates,” Moorhouse said. “That first goal is something Noah will remember.”
Kamari Long remembers, too. He remembers three years of Hockey Project work, leading to a place on coach David Doyle’s Central High School varsity.
Kamari proudly wears No. 22 – and he “hits the ice flying” in every game.