Team Home | Tri-County Saints Youth Hockey

Hello there parents and players! It’s that wonderful time of the year again! The weather is warm but soon we will be cooling down in the rinks and getting back out on the ice!

My name is Alex Roczniak and it will be my pleasure to be working with you this season. Taking a look at the roster, I have seen some names I'm familiar with from the past two seasons coaching, others I remember from some joint practices, and a few that I don't know at all but I'm looking forward to meeting!

I'm sure you're all wondering “who's this guy? Never heard of him.” Here's a brief bio:

I am from Attleboro and currently live in Providence. Growing up I played my pee wee, bantam, and midget hockey in Hyde Park, Massachusetts, spending 3 years on their U-18 National team. In addition, I played 4 years of varsity hockey at Bishop Feehan, leading to a D-1 scholarship offer. Unfortunately my knee didn't want to live in Erie, Pennsylvania, leading to a brief 3 year absence before returning to play club hockey at Rhode Island College for 3 years. I currently coach a hockey clinic with a former NHL skating coach and play men's league to keep active. As stated earlier, I have worked with a lot of the kids on the roster previously and am looking forward to continuing to develop them as players and myself as a coach, while also making an impact on the new players at this level. This will be my third season coaching with Tri-County and my first with the A level team. Outside of coaching, I worked with kids for about 10 years with the Boys and Girls Club of Pawtucket.

To start our season off strong, I would like to give you an idea as to my expectations for the coming practices and season:

Ask questions (players and parents alike). It's my third year coaching a team as opposed to a clinic. If I'm not explaining something clearly, ask. If you don't get the drill, ask. If you don't understand why something was done, ask. It’s inevitable that during the course of the next few months I will be unclear on something. Just like you guys are still learning, so am I!

Preparation for high school. I understand that some of you may not do high school hockey, but my focus is to get each and every one of you ready for tryouts post season. This means drills will be done 100%. I'll demonstrate drills once half speed, once full speed, and then have a player go. My goal is to help each of you make your varsity team this coming winter.

Positioning and hustle. You could be the greatest skater of all time, but positioning and hustle make the player, not footwork. Wayne Gretzky didn't become Wayne Gretzky with poor positioning. If you don't understand where to position yourself, refer back to point 1.

Having fun and developing a love for the game. For a lot of us, the NHL isn't a real aspiration, but having a game we love and can take with us through life is easily attainable.

Here's the boring part of the email where I have to bug you guys to get a few things done:

1) If you have not done so already, please finalize your tuition payment and obtain USA hockey number at https://membership.usahockey.com and forward that number to our registrar Gary Buseck at gbuseck@verizon.net.

2) For players 2003 and older, you will need to complete the mandatory Safesport module through the USA Hockey portal at https://www.usahockey.com/safesporttraining

3) In the meantime, please contact James Benting at jbenting@beacontelecom.com or at 781-686-4479 for a jersey number as soon as possible, and then use the link below to order with your team color and assigned number.

Jersey order site: https://tcsmidget20.itemorder.com/sale

4)Completing these tasks are mandatory prior to stepping on the ice.

With everything going on currently and Covid cases on the rise again, I am not sure what will happen between now and the projected start of the season. As of right now though, I have not gotten any notifications regarding a delay to the season, but I will keep you all updated to any new info I receive.

While I'm sure you kids have been keeping super active playing Call of Duty and Fortnite, but it's time to start thinking about some more challenging cardio. The youtube link below has 40 workouts you can do at home with no weights or additional equipment needed. If you finish with those exercises or you just don't like them, jump. Jump, jump, and jump. Then when you're sick of jumping, jump some more. It comes highly recommended from some friends of mine you'll see mentioned later.

Workout video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB6RBnIKbus&list=WL&index=10&t=0s

Parents, thank you for reading, but this next section is for the kids to fill out so I can learn a bit about them!

For all of you (including returning players) I would love to hear back from you guys on these 10 questions:

Name, age, height

What positions have you played in the last 3 year?

What would you say the best part of your game is?

What is the part of your game you most want to improve?

What is your favorite class in school (gym doesn't count!)?

What other sports do you play?

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

Favorite pre-game pump up song?

Favorite movie?

One interesting fact about yourself.

Here are my answers:

Alex R, 28, 6’0"

Defense, right wing, left wing, center

Passing, I see the ice well and will put it somewhere where only you can get the puck whether it means an indirect pass or threading it through some traffic.

Shooting and endurance. When it comes to shooting, I couldn't hit water if I was standing on a boat! I've been getting better but still some ways to go. As for endurance, I need to get back in shape and start roller blading again to get that back. #bladegang

Without a doubt history. So many things to learn and so many different perspectives to be had on events. The debates are endless!

Softball, golf and ultimate frisbee currently. When I was in high school, I played football for a couple years, and tennis.

I would love to be able to shapeshift. Having the ability to adapt to anything in a moments notice is super practical, not only for being a super hero, but also for hockey.

All Mixed Up by 311. Not your traditional "pump up song", but the line "you've got to trust you instinct and let go of regret, you've got to bet on yourself now star, 'cause that's your best bet" always stuck with me during game play. No time to feel dumb about a bad play, just get back in the play and make it up.

Wet Hot American Summer. It's a stupid cult comedy from 2001 with a young star studded cast, portraying the crazy last day at a camp in Maine.

A few friends of mine are playing professionally in either the NHL or AHL, including local "heroes" Noel Accari and Chris Wagner. I also played against Charlie Coyle, and if you think he's a physical guy now you should have seen him in high school!

For those of you I've coached in the past, I would like you to answer these questions for me as well.

1. Where have you seen the most improvement in your game since the start of the season last August?

2. What drills did you find most beneficial during practice/ (example: corner battles, iron cross, bear crawls, etc)

3. What would you like to see more of from me on the bench this season?

4. What are your growth goals for this year (academically, athletically, and personally)? Yes, this part requires three answers!

-Alex Roczniak, Head Coach