Housatonic co-op makes best of challenging preseason
LAKEVILLE — There are hockey pictures, newspaper clippings and a framed hockey jersey covering the walls of Deano’s Pizza in Lakeville. Old trophies gather dust on top of the Coca-Cola cooler.
There is a hockey stick signed by the 2016 Housatonic team hanging over the glass counter where the various pizza slices of the day are displayed.
This is where Dean Diamond, who owns the restaurant in Lakeville, can be found 60 or 70 hours a week. In his free time, he coaches the Housatonic co-op ice hockey team, which has players from Housatonic Regional, Northwestern, Wamogo, Litchfield and Torrington.
That’s complicated enough in a normal year, but this year is anything but normal. Housatonic’s home rink is normally at the Hotchkiss School but the rink is closed to outside teams due to COVID-19. Diamond has been spending a lot of time trying to find ice time for his team and is planning on having some practices outdoors.
“I was thinking about doing it last Sunday but it was 10 degrees,” he said. “I didn’t want the kids getting frostbite.”
Diamond was able to get some practice time at the International Skating Center in Simsbury, which is over an hour away. The team has had two practices there (their first scheduled practice was snowed out) and has two more this week.
The high school ice hockey season starts Monday; Housatonic’s first game is Saturday.
“We’re scrambling,” Diamond said. “It’s going to be late nights — we’ll go out there for a 9:20 practice, get home at 11:30 at night.”
The rest of the time, the team will head outdoors to practice, at a rink at Trotta Field in Salisbury Sunday, maybe at an outdoor rink in Goshen, maybe at Twin Lakes, where his in-laws have a house.
“They have a little dock, the kids can put their skates on on the dock,” he said. “We’ll make them do some long sprints — end of the lake and back.
“They’re never going to forget it: Remember the time the coach made us skate across the whole lake? It’ll be interesting.”
Diamond is also planning on some floor hockey practices at the high school. The team has had Zoom practices. He’s confident they’ll have enough practices before their first game against Tri-Town.
Housatonic has eight games scheduled, all away, from Enfield to New Milford.
The players aren’t fazed; they’re just happy to play.
“For me, it hasn’t been very different,” said left wing Zim McAuliffe, a junior at Housatonic Regional. “I used to play travel hockey and we’d travel to Enfield. The only thing that’s really different for me is getting dressed in the parking lot, which isn’t very fun but …”
While the hockey preseason has been challenging due to the pandemic, business at Diamond’s pizza restaurant - unlike some other restaurants in the state which have struggled is booming.
“It’s actually been beneficial,” he said. “We did takeout. I never had to shut down. The private schools [Hotchkiss and Salisbury] were already going on break when this started. Usually March is my slowest time of the year. The day after they left, they shut everything down and all the New Yorkers who have second homes up here moved up like the next day.
“March is usually my worst month of the year and it became my best. They’ve been up here ever since and they order out all the time.”
Diamond is from Brooklyn, N.Y., his pizza New York-style. He learned to make it when he worked at King Umberto’s, a celebrated Italian restaurant on Long Island.
He and his wife met at Hofstra, married and moved to upstate New York where he opened a succession of pizza restaurants. Deano’s has been around since 2006.
Diamond played street hockey growing up in Brooklyn but never ice hockey. His three boys did and he coached them in youth hockey, starting in 1996. He became the head coach of the Housatonic team in 2005 and all three sons played for him, while his youngest daughter Jillian was the manager. Jillian was the only non-hockey player, opting for volleyball.
Everything worked smoothly for Diamond when his team practiced at Hotchkiss; he could get through the dinner rush at the restaurant, drive over to the school for practice at 7:45 p.m., finish at 9:15, come back to the restaurant, make the pizza dough for the next day and close up.
Now Jillian has to help close up so Diamond can go to practices.
This year has been all about making the best of things. This is what Diamond — whose 15th-seeded team upset No. 2 seed Newington in the first round of the Division 3 state tournament before the season was shut down — likes to tell his team.
“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “There’s no [state tournament]. So my attitude is, ‘Let the kids play, it’s a learning experience. Don’t worry about the wins and losses. Just enjoy the season.’
“As competitive as I am, you got to put it in perspective.”