Hockey New Jersey Turns Players Into Coaches in Newark
A seven-year partnership with the Devils brought 40 young players to Prudential Center this summer while creating a path for former participants to coach.
Ana Mota first found Hockey New Jersey as a young player looking for a place to improve. After volunteering and spending afternoons at the rink, she returned as a coach to give younger players the support she once wanted.
That progression is central to the Newark-based program, which works with the New Jersey Devils to make hockey more accessible. This summer, 40 players under age 12 spent a week at Prudential Center, skating three times a day and taking part in off-ice activities, locker room tours and other experiences inside the Devils' home arena.
Dennis Ruppe, Hockey New Jersey's manager of hockey operations, said the goal is to help children picture a future for themselves in the sport. He also described a rink where families from different backgrounds and languages now gather together.
Devils youth hockey and fan development manager Casey Kildow-Weir first met Mota four years ago, when Mota was a high school freshman. Kildow-Weir said watching her grow into a coach shows younger players that they can follow the same path.
The Devils and Hockey New Jersey partnership is in its seventh year and has helped more than 1,000 children play hockey. Program coaches also work with Devils staff on ways to welcome more families into learn-to-play and ball hockey programs.
