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‘Hockey is for Everyone’ alum Duante’ Abercrombie begins climb up coaching ladder

15 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Duante' Abercrombie, Fort Dupont Ice Arena, Graeme Townshend, Neal Henderson, USHL, Washington Little Capitals

As a kid, Duante’ Abercrombie dreamed of playing for the Washington Little Capitals, a youth hockey program with a track record of developing players for junior, college and professional hockey teams.

Duante’ Abercrombie becomes head coach in a hockey program that helps develop players for collegiate, junior and pro hockey.

Almost after each practice with the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club – North America’s oldest minority-oriented youth hockey program – Abercrombie would ask his mother if he could join the Little Caps, too.

“We just didn’t have the money,” he recalled. “Coming from a family that knew absolutely nothing about hockey, it was hard to justify paying as much as it cost to play hockey when I was already doing the same thing with Fort Dupont.”

Abercrombie, 31, finally joined the Little Caps last week as the new head coach of the Washington Little Capitals 16U National Team. The appointment fulfills the Washington, D.C., native’s dreams of being affiliated with the program and pursuing a career in coaching that he hopes will lead a National Hockey League job someday.

“It’s just amazing how I’ve come from a time and place when I couldn’t even afford to try out for the team to now being the head coach of arguably the most critical age group they have in the U16’s,” he said. “It’s an opportunity that I don’t take lightly.”

Neal Henderson, founder and head coach of the 41-year-old Fort Dupont hockey program, was all smiles about Abrercrombie joining him in the head coaching fraternity.

Fort Dupont is part of the NHL’s “Hockey is For Everyone” initiative that provides support and unique programming to some 30 nonprofit profit youth hockey organizations across North America, offering kids of all backgrounds the opportunity to play the game.

Duante’ Abercrombie, right, with Neal Henderson, founder and head coach of the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club, the nation’s oldest minority-oriented youth hockey program (Photo/Courtesy Duante’ Abercrombie).

“It’s an honor to have had the opportunity to work with Duante’, and teach him, and put him on his first pair of skates,” Henderson said. “It’s an honor to see him progress the way he has, play hockey the way he has, and climb the ladder the way he has, and to stick with a trade that’s very difficult to maneuver through.

The Little Caps, a member of the Atlantic Youth Hockey League, has a proven record of developing players who go on to NCAA hockey programs, American Collegiate Hockey Association club teams, and junior leagues like the USHL.

Its most notable alum is Jeff Halpern, who had a lengthy NHL career with the Washington Capitals, Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Los Angeles Kings.

“It was a no brainer deciding that this was something that I had to be a part of,” Abercrombie said. “My plan is to teach my players how to use their individual skills within a team structure that not only leads to eventual team success on the score sheet, but also prepares them individually for what’s expected at the next levels.”

Hockey took Duante’ Abercrombie from Washington, D.C., to New Zealand and the U.S. minor league hockey towns. Here he’s facing off as a member of the Brewster Bulldogs of the Federal Hockey League (Photo/Courtesy Duante’ Abercrombie).

With his appointment, Abercrombie begins a journey to one of the final frontiers for people of color in hockey – the head coaching ranks.

There were no minority head coaches in the NHL in the 2017-18 season. Calgary Flames Assistant Coach Paul Jerrard was the only black NHL coach working the bench during games.

The NHL’s other minority coaches can be found on the practice ice or in the video room. Fred Brathwaite is the New York Islanders‘ goaltending coach and Sudarshan Maharaj tutors netminders for the Anaheim Ducks. Frantz Jean is the Tampa Bay Lightning’s goalie coach and Nigel Kirwan is a video coach for the ‘Bolts.

Little Capitals management considers Abercrombie “a rising star in the hockey development scene.”

“Talk to him for five minutes and you can feel his excitement and energy for this job,” said Little Capitals Hockey Director Matt Thomas. “His ability to develop players is a great asset to our organization, and particularly for our 16U team during this critical stage. I look forward to working with Duante’ to help our talented group of 16U players advance in their careers.”

A graduate of Gonzaga High School, Abercrombia had a brief professional career playing for the West Auckland Admirals in New Zealand, the Steel City Warriors of the Federal Hockey League, and the FHL’s Brewster Bulldogs.

He’s even skated for the Jamaican ice hockey Olympic team effort coached by

Graeme Townshend, the NHL’s first Jamaican-born player, and Cyril Bollers, director of player development for Canada’s Skillz Black Aces program.

He developed an appreciation for hockey training and coaching through participation in rigorous conditioning programs like BTNL and Twist in Ontario and serving as an instructor for three years in a hockey school in Maine run by Townshend.

For the last two seasons, Abercrombie served as a hockey coach for Georgetown Preparatory School.

“Having scouted and been a skills consultant at the ACHA and NCAA levels, I will spend time developing the skills and habits that junior programs and colleges look for, and my ultimate goal is to teach (players) how to play the game with a ‘Winning Attitude’ all the time,” he said.

Abercrombie said he stands on the shoulders of other black coaches who’ve mentored him – Townshend and Henderson – and credit them for his progress.

“Duante’ is one of the best instructors I had,” Townshend said. “He comes from a background where there wasn’t a lot of hockey. He’s come a long way just because of that (Fort Dupont) program there. He’s always studying the game, he’s always learning and improving his craft. All those reasons make him a good coach.”

Thompson believes that the sky’s the limit for Abercrombie now that he has his foot in the coaching door.

“He’s now definitely in that realm where he’s going to start meeting people and start working his way up the ladder,” he said.

Henderson predicts that other Fort Dupont pupils will follow in Abercrombie’s  path and become bench bosses for teams.

“Coming out of our group, for as old as it is, you’re going to find more doing it, such as Ralph Featherstone, and other men who have gone on in hockey to reach certain pinnacles in it,” Henderson said.

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Rink fire can’t extinguish the hockey desire of Maryland’s Tucker Road Ducks

07 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Fort Dupont Ice Arena, Georgetown Titans, The Gardens Ice Hosue, Tucker Road Ducks

This is a story about fire and ice, hockey homelessness, and black players in pink jerseys.

The Tucker Road Ducks, a three-year-old team  made up of African-American boys ages 11 to 14, had a healthy slate of games this season, its first ever road tournament coming up in March, and tons of practice time at the Tucker Road Ice Rink, its home barn in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

Then an electrical spark ignited a two-alarm fire that raged through the roof of the rink on January 4, severely damaging the building, ruining  thousands of dollars worth of donated hockey equipment down to the team’s signature pink and black jerseys, and leaving a fledgling minority youth hockey program wondering how it will go on without a place to play.

Proud and pink. The Tucker Road Ducks of Prince George's County, Maryland are practicing wherever and whenever they can after a January fire severely damaged their home rink.

Proud and pink. The Tucker Road Ducks of Prince George’s County, Maryland, are practicing wherever and whenever they can after a January fire severely damaged their home rink.

The rink remains closed more than a month after the blaze. Prince George’s County government officials say it will be rebuilt, but haven’t given a timetable for repairs. In the meantime, Ducks players are among the hockey homeless – nomads in search of ice whenever and wherever they can get it.

The team appears to be down, but they are by no means out. Resolve has kicked in, from players to coaches to parents.

“Tucker Road is the place I call home,” Ryan Hamm, a 13-year-old Ducks center/defenseman told me recently. “I see the fire as obviously emotional,…it’s kind of tragic but it’s also motivation for me to get better at hockey.”

Team Coach Rahman-Rahim B’ath, borrowed a line from the sage Bluto Blutarsky, the John Belushi character in “Animal House,” when he described the  Ducks’ fate: “Nothing is over until we decide it is.”

On scene with units, 2nd alarm at Tucker Road ice rink – evacuation tones, no injuries at this time pic.twitter.com/BTgArlhbrJ

— Marc Bashoor (@PGFD_Chief) January 4, 2017

Just heard Tucker Road Ice Rink is closed tough for DMV high school hockey. @allmetsports @SAINTS_sports @HockeyMSHL https://t.co/BJNX30o872

— The Purple Puck (@NCHT_DCHockey) January 5, 2017

“It’s not going to be ‘Oh well, Tucker Road burned down and that was the end of their program,'” B’ath, also known as Coach Rock, told me recently. “When everything is cut and parents are, like, ‘Alright, we’re done,’ then we’re done. But right now, the kids are pushing, the parents are pushing, the coaches are pushing. We have their backs – no matter what.”

The Tucker Road Parents Hockey Organization, a nonprofit 501c3 entity, started a GoFundMe page to raise $10,000 to help with the sudden expenses that the program dedicated to helping make hockey affordable and accessible to families now faces.

“We’re hanging in there, doing what we can,” parent organization president President Alexandria Briggs-Blake told me. “Our kids don’t know what to do with themselves now on Saturdays and Sundays. They’re, like, ‘Is Tucker Road fixed yet?'”

Ducks player Ryan Hamm, 13, can't wait for Maryland's Tucker Road ice rink to be repaired so the team can have its home rink back.

Ducks player Ryan Hamm, 13, can’t wait for Maryland’s Tucker Road ice rink to be repaired so the team can have its home rink back.

The Washington, D.C.-area hockey community has pitched in to help. When word spread about the fire, the Knights – an Arlington, Virginia, youth hockey team  – offered to share some of its ice time at  The Gardens Ice House in Laurel, Maryland.

The Georgetown Titans also opened its practice ice at the District of Columbia’s Fort Dupont Ice Arena, to Ducks players.

With a tournament in York, Pennsylvania, looming next month, Ducks coaches hope to supplement the donated ice with rented ice time – if they can find any in the youth hockey-mad D.C., Maryland, Virginia area.

“The times they have to practice are going to be pretty horrible for the rest of the season – 10:45 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. or like 6:30 a.m.,” Coach Rock said.

A Tucker Road Ducks player ready for action.

A Tucker Road Ducks player ready for action.

Still, Koi Hamm,  Ryan’s mother and Secretary/Treasurer of the parent organization, is grateful for whatever the team can get and is overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from the local hockey community.

“We’ve just received so much love from our neighboring rinks…people have been really embracing us,” Hamm said. “It’s just a testament of how closely-knit hockey families are.”

Local rinks and opposing clubs love what the Ducks have accomplished in giving minority and low-income kids the opportunity to play hockey. The team is an offshoot of the Tucker Road rink’s “Give it a Shot” initiative, which provides equipment to kids interested in learning how to play hockey.

The initiative created a critical mass of players three years ago, enough to field a pee-wee/bantam team under the tutelage of Coach Rock and a cadre of parents like Hamm, who skated at Tucker Road in her teen years.

The team makes hockey accessible by making it affordable, charging  parents $200 a season, a fee that includes gear. Other youth teams in the area charge two or three times that amount for a season.

“Hockey is one of the most expensive sports, so you don’t see too many low-income kids playing the sport,” said Max Levitt, executive director of Level the Playing Field, a program that’s provided donated equipment to the Ducks over the years. “Tucker Road (rink), like Fort Dupont, is in a unique situation in that you don’t see sheets of ice in generally minority communities. Anytime you go to an ice rink and see 10 African-American players on the ice at one time, it’s pretty unique.”

Ducks players learn about the game of hockey, but they also learn life skills through the sport. They must maintain their grades or they can’t set foot onto the ice. They also learn to interact with others beyond their neighborhoods.

“Hockey’s a predominantly white sport, but I try not to think of it so much as color because when the kids play, they don’t think of it that way,” said Briggs-Blake, whose 17-year-old son, Antonio, skated for the Ducks. “My son, he’s the only African-American on his junior hockey team now, and these kids don’t even look at that. They love each other, talk to each other, hang out, go to each other’s houses.”

Briggs-Blake dreams of the day the Ducks go back to their house – the Tucker Road ice rink. Parents are bird-dogging the Prince George’s County government, trying to insure that the rink is a front-burner issue and will be rebuilt sooner rather than later.

And while the construction workers have their hammers out, Briggs-Blake has one suggestion.

“What about building two sheets of ice?” she said. “We have dreams and visions.”

 

 

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Fort Dupont’s “Kids on Ice” program gets NBC star treatment

23 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Fort Dupont Ice Arena

In life, you crawl before you can walk. In ice hockey, you’ve got to skate before you can play.

For years, the Fort Dupont Ice Arena in Washington, D.C., has helped transform kids from clumsy, crawling novices to confident skaters. Some grow confident enough to take the next step and join the Fort Dupont Cannons, the nation’s oldest minority-oriented youth hockey program run by longtime Head Coach Neal Henderson.

NBC takes a look at Fort Dupont Ice Arena's Kids on Ice program.

NBC takes a look at Fort Dupont Ice Arena’s Kids on Ice program.

Fort Dupont and its free Learn to Skate program, a magnet for families of all stripes in the District-Maryland-Virginia area, was featured recently in a profile aired during NBC’s telecast of the 2015 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Greensboro, N.C.

Prudential recently awarded the Kids on Ice $10,000, which will be used to help enhance and expand its synchronized skating program. Part of the funds will be used to send the synchronized team to Hershey, Pa., next month for its first-ever competition.

Fort Dupont skater gives an up-close and personal interview to NBC.

Fort Dupont skater gives an up-close and personal interview to NBC.

From the outside, the Fort Dupont rink doesn’t look like much – a non-descript 1970s-style structure in Southeast Washington. But the rink is one of Washington’s gems. It’s the only indoor skating facility in the District, more often than not has the fastest sheet of ice in he District-Virginia-Maryland area, and offers the most stunning views of Capitol Hill in the city.

Fort Dupont kids go from the  ice to the cameras in NBC feature on the rink's skating program.

Fort Dupont kids go from the ice to the cameras in NBC feature on the rink’s skating program.

One of the few ice rinks in America located in a mostly-minority community, Fort Dupont serves beyond its neighborhood boundaries. Several of the District’s private and Catholic school hockey programs call the rink home, as do several area colleges and universities. Law enforcement hockey teams, from D.C.’s police department to the U.S. Secret Service, have also practiced and played at the rink.

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