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Hockey director was a late bloomer
Sunday, February 21, 1999 By Bob Batz Jr., Post-Gazette Staff Writer
How did Joanne DeFazio become a "director of hockey," when the sport remains so dominated by men?
It started with her late blooming as a hockey mom when her son Paul decided to play at age 10.
That was in 1987. DeFazio, formerly a substitute elementary teacher who was raising her three boys in Peters, hates to admit that she thought hockey was "disgusting" - mostly just rough stuff and missing teeth.
But she and her husband, John, supported Paul. "We'd get up at 3 to go down to the South Side so he could practice at 5."
That's A.M.
As Paul entered the amateur leagues, the couple wondered where he'd play in high school, since Peters' program had been disbanded. They and a group of other parents got together and put up fliers to round up other area kids. By '91, Peters had a team.
DeFazio had gone back to school at night to earn her special-education certification, then went to work as an early intervention therapist at ARC-Allegheny (the agency that supports children with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities). But helping run Peters hockey became nearly a full-time job itself, so she stopped teaching. In part because it too involved teaching children, hockey hooked her.
She's also just started advertising to find out if there's enough interest to start a similar "Fathers of Hockey" class there, for, as the flier puts it, "gentlemen who may have never played the game but would like to learn in a noncompetitive, fun environment."
That flier is blue.
If you're a female who's interested in starting a similar program at the Airport Ice Arena in Moon, call general manager Harold Jones at 412-264-2222.
"I could cry," she says, remember what she describes as "a phenomenal experience. ... We stressed the character, the discipline. We truly believed in it."
Pause.
"We lost every single game."
But like a "Mighty Ducks" movie, they didn't give up after that first year. They let everyone play. "We stressed skill development. Skill, skill, skill. Because you never know what kid will turn out to be a great player."
The team improved so much that, by the time Paul was a junior, they reached the state playoffs.
"It was very rewarding," says DeFazio, who served the organization in many roles, including secretary, while her husband was its president. They left when Paul graduated, but John stayed on as president of the South Hills Interscholastic Hockey League.
That's how, in '94, she found out about a job at the not-even-built-yet Iceoplex, helping its first director of hockey (and Mario's brother), Alain Lemieux. When she started, they worked in trailers on the site. When Lemieux left for another job about a year and a half ago, she was asked to take over.
As for her title, "What that means is, I administer and oversee all the hockey programs" - something she can do nicely from her office, with its big netting-protected window that overlooks the rink.
From here, she does the off-ice organizing of everything from learn-to-play programs to hockey camps, plus the heavy schedule of games. And she's always starting new projects, from the ongoing "Mothers of Hockey" to a March 20-21 tournament for "mini mites," who are as young as 4.
"Anything we can do for the betterment of youth hockey, that's what I do."
Needless to say, she long ago changed her initial opinion of the sport. "It takes so much courage and finesse. I absolutely admire all the kids who play it."
But she hasn't changed her basic beliefs, such as the importance of stressing basic skills to start. For example, in her upcoming spring leagues, "I tell coaches, 'No one sits on the bench.' "
She also tells all the teams that she won't tolerate abuse from the stands - a worsening problem, as in many youth sports, that particularly concerns her.
Once, she ordered some parents to leave the stands and watch from her office. "I did it nice," she says, with her frequent, easy laugh.
She's thinking about starting a monthly forum for parents, coaches and others to work on such problems "and just to talk about what's going on in hockey."
Above all, she says, hockey at Iceoplex should be fun.
"I want it to be a family place," she says, adding, "That's how a woman sees it."
She does believe that being a hockey mom and having "a woman's touch" helps her in certain situations, such as empathizing with parents' problems.
The current SHIHL president agrees, and not just because she happens to be a woman, too.
Bethel Park's Kathy Santora, who oversees 30 high school programs, and who frequently works with DeFazio, says, "She pays attention to all the details, which - not to sound chauvinistic - women do, but men don't always seem to think to do."
That includes "little things" like genuinely listening, which is one reason that the soft-spoken DeFazio's reputation is so nice.
Santora often refers callers to DeFazio because of her knowledge of local hockey programs, as well as her "personal touch. She just cares about people."
She also really, really cares about hockey.
"I love hockey," DeFazio says. "I just love my job. I can't see doing anything else."
Her aim can be summed up in a favorite quote of hers, from American Hockey Magazine: "Fostering a love for the game ... for its speed, its finesse, its teamwork, its courage required, and its discipline under adversity."
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