LIU Calls Islanders Apply Rink Dwelling, Any Probability of Personal Barn?

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It’s the midway mark of the season for Lengthy Island College Males’s and Girls’s hockey packages. NYI Hockey Now’s Joshua Linsenberg caught up with the person in command of Sharks Athletics, LIU Athletics Director Dr. William E. Martinov Jr., for an unique interview on the state of LIU Hockey, its future path, and extra.

Martinov Jr. was accountable for hiring Coach Brett Riley for LIU’s males’s program and Kelly Nash for LIU’s ladies’s program.

“I’ve some buddies from my time at Notre Dame from the hockey workforce that I knew that I may depend on to get some perception on some candidates. Whereas I used to be utilizing their experience, we had some nice candidates apply. And on the finish of the day, what Brett introduced was… he had began a program. He’d already began a program from scratch,” Martinov shared.

“In different phrases, he had that have as a younger coach to know what it’s like to begin from the bottom up. And I believed that was an amazing high quality to have. Additionally, what stood out was his background from his household expertise and being concerned within the sport of hockey his entire life. So Brett introduced an amazing deal to the desk, and he’s utilized that since he’s been right here. He’s been an amazing addition.”

Beneath the course of Brett Riley, LIU’s males’s program this season has put a report of 6-15-1, whereas Kelly Nash’s ladies’s workforce has gone 14-10-2.

“Brett’s achieved an amazing job of getting the precise children right here to play, and we admire what coach Riley’s achieved. And Kelly Nash got here in over the summer season. She brings that nationwide championship-winning competitiveness and expertise to this system. I believe she’s achieved an amazing job of including to the workforce that we’ve had. She’s added to it by her teaching, her demeanor, and her capacity to translate her championship expertise to our youngsters right here,” Martinov stated.

Nice coaches are important, however what about amenities for the packages? LIU Hockey has a novel residence at Northwell Well being Ice Heart, the official follow facility of the New York Islanders.

“Proper now, we’re engaged on making an attempt to construct some locker rooms over there [at Northwell Health Ice Center] to assist make it a extra everlasting residence, however between Northwell and Syosset Ice Works, we’ve had each amenities in use for our groups over the past three years,” Martinov stated.

Whereas calling an NHL follow facility residence is superb, the largest query we all the time get from readers is about this system’s future.

Now, clearly, there are lots of younger packages on the market, and one most intently associated to LIU is Arizona State, a workforce that practiced and performed at a rink very a lot much like LIU, and now they’ve their very own area.

So why can’t LIU have its personal barn?

“Properly, I believe something’s doable. I believe we’re making an attempt to construct a house at Northwell. However I believe what I’ve realized is there’s lots of curiosity by folks on Lengthy Island for hockey. I imply, is it doable? Positive, however it might take years for that to occur, in all probability. And I believe with our relationship with Northwell, the thought is to construct the locker rooms right here and to be an amazing companion with them over time.

With that being stated, that begs the query of LIU having any talks or negotiations of LIU Hockey making an attempt to name the Nassau Coliseum residence.

On Thursday morning, information broke that Las Vegas Sands, the on line casino and resort firm, has proposed a proper play to construct a privately-funded, multibillion-dollar tourism vacation spot on the location of Nassau Coliseum. Sands officers stated the corporate has secured agreements and is pending approval by the Nassau County legislature.

If the Las Vegas Sands deal does undergo, we may nonetheless see Nassau Coliseum used as an occasion and live performance venue. If that is the case, perhaps the present tenants, the Lengthy Island Nets, the NBA G League affiliate of the Brooklyn Nets, and the New York Riptide, a workforce within the Nationwide Lacrosse League, are compelled to depart Uniondale.

May LIU have had a future on the Coliseum earlier than this current growth? Had been there talks?

“We did play ladies’s hockey there a few years in the past. We performed Wisconsin there in 2019. However for the sake of it, Northwell has been an amazing facility for us. So if it was at Nassau Coliseum, it might in all probability should be like a novel occasion. Perhaps like a university showcase or one thing, however I’m unsure we might simply play there sooner or later except it was a novel occasion,” Martinov stated.

Moreover a brand new barn, the opposite massive query surrounding LIU Hockey is when the boys’s workforce will be a part of a convention. It appears we’re mighty near discovering out, in accordance with Martinov, and LIU would possibly begin their very own convention.

“Yeah, I imply, there are all the time conversations we’ve had completely different ones, and for the sake of confidentiality, there are groups which can be very eager about it, groups not solely within the tri-state, area footprint but additionally throughout the nation, so I believe all people at LIU and others that wish to create a convention, there are conversations which can be occurring, I believe we really feel like we’re near one thing,” Martinov stated.

“However once more, for the sake of these others which can be concerned, I’ll depart it at that.”

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