The Goalie Trainer
By DAVID J. HILL
(The Sun News of Hamburg)
A Hamburg man's passion for playing hockey has expanded into a year-round business dedicated to teaching youth how to be better goaltenders.
Since 2000, Anthony Micucci has offered goalie camps, clinics and one-on-one training specializing in "European style goaltending," which focuses on "controlled butterfly," better rebound control and "power pushes" (when a goalie pushes off one leg to get across the goal crease).
Anthony Micucci's Goalie School consists of 10 instructors, including Micucci, a Frontier High School graduate who went on to play both Junior B and Junior A hockey in Deerwood, Minn. He was a member of the Junior A Deerwood Devils national championship team.
Micucci even had a short stint with the now defunct Buffalo Wings professional roller hockey team. "After (playing with the Wings), I contemplated retirement from hockey and started focusing more on training goalies," said Micucci, whose 8-year-old son Trevor was the goalie for the Hamburg Hawks Mites Major Travel AAA team coached by Tom Kaleta, the father of Patrick Kaleta, the Lake Shore graduate drafted two years ago by the Buffalo Sabres.
Trevor soon will be playing for the Brantford, Ontario-based Regional Express 1997 Gold spring hockey team, "the most elite team you can get on in the spring," Micucci says.
Micucci said he wanted to open up a goalie training business for two key reasons.
The first was that "goaltenders never have proper training during practice," he said. "They're just looked at as targets." Secondly, Micucci simply enjoys working with children and young adults.
While there are other goaltender training schools in Western New York and Southern Ontario, Micucci says his is the only one focusing on European style goaltending.
"No one specializes in that from the Buffalo area as far up to Calgary," he said. As a point of reference, some examples of NHL goalies who epitomize this style are Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers; the Montreal Canadiens' David Aebischer; and Antero Niittymaki of the Philadelphia Flyers.
There are some recognizable high school goalies Micucci has mentored, including St. Francis Prep's Max Besch and 2005 Frontier graduate Rick Scarsella.
Perhaps the Micucci's most notable "graduate" is Brett Bennett, a phenomenal talent from Williamsville who is currently a member of the U.S. National Team Development Program and will be playing for Boston University.
Micucci has several one-week camps scheduled for the summer as well as a seven-week clinic that meets one day a week at Holiday Twin Rinks in Cheektowaga, the Amherst Pepsi Center and Leisure Rinks in Orchard Park.
The camps and clinics are designed for male and female goalies of all ages and skill levels.
For those interested in one-on-one training, Micucci will come to an ice rink nearest the goalie's house. The clinics run for six hours. Half of that time is devoted to on-ice training.
A typical clinic day begins at 8:30 a.m. with a 90 minute on-ice session, followed by classroom instruction and videos. Afterwards there's a break for lunch, then it's back to the ice for another 90 minutes.
The on-ice program works on, among other skills, glove control, five-hole work, proper angles, poke checking and mobility.
Also mixed in is 45 minutes of dryland "intense core training," where the goalies work on their strength and conditioning and also do hand-eye coordination drills and work with memory boards.
"This dryland (training) will test the student's desire to be an elite goaltender, no matter what level they play at," Micucci said.
For more information on Anthony Micucci's Goalie School call 627-7090 or visit www.micuccigoalieschool.com.
(The Sun News of Hamburg)
A Hamburg man's passion for playing hockey has expanded into a year-round business dedicated to teaching youth how to be better goaltenders.
Since 2000, Anthony Micucci has offered goalie camps, clinics and one-on-one training specializing in "European style goaltending," which focuses on "controlled butterfly," better rebound control and "power pushes" (when a goalie pushes off one leg to get across the goal crease).
Anthony Micucci's Goalie School consists of 10 instructors, including Micucci, a Frontier High School graduate who went on to play both Junior B and Junior A hockey in Deerwood, Minn. He was a member of the Junior A Deerwood Devils national championship team.
Micucci even had a short stint with the now defunct Buffalo Wings professional roller hockey team. "After (playing with the Wings), I contemplated retirement from hockey and started focusing more on training goalies," said Micucci, whose 8-year-old son Trevor was the goalie for the Hamburg Hawks Mites Major Travel AAA team coached by Tom Kaleta, the father of Patrick Kaleta, the Lake Shore graduate drafted two years ago by the Buffalo Sabres.
Trevor soon will be playing for the Brantford, Ontario-based Regional Express 1997 Gold spring hockey team, "the most elite team you can get on in the spring," Micucci says.
Micucci said he wanted to open up a goalie training business for two key reasons.
The first was that "goaltenders never have proper training during practice," he said. "They're just looked at as targets." Secondly, Micucci simply enjoys working with children and young adults.
While there are other goaltender training schools in Western New York and Southern Ontario, Micucci says his is the only one focusing on European style goaltending.
"No one specializes in that from the Buffalo area as far up to Calgary," he said. As a point of reference, some examples of NHL goalies who epitomize this style are Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers; the Montreal Canadiens' David Aebischer; and Antero Niittymaki of the Philadelphia Flyers.
There are some recognizable high school goalies Micucci has mentored, including St. Francis Prep's Max Besch and 2005 Frontier graduate Rick Scarsella.
Perhaps the Micucci's most notable "graduate" is Brett Bennett, a phenomenal talent from Williamsville who is currently a member of the U.S. National Team Development Program and will be playing for Boston University.
Micucci has several one-week camps scheduled for the summer as well as a seven-week clinic that meets one day a week at Holiday Twin Rinks in Cheektowaga, the Amherst Pepsi Center and Leisure Rinks in Orchard Park.
The camps and clinics are designed for male and female goalies of all ages and skill levels.
For those interested in one-on-one training, Micucci will come to an ice rink nearest the goalie's house. The clinics run for six hours. Half of that time is devoted to on-ice training.
A typical clinic day begins at 8:30 a.m. with a 90 minute on-ice session, followed by classroom instruction and videos. Afterwards there's a break for lunch, then it's back to the ice for another 90 minutes.
The on-ice program works on, among other skills, glove control, five-hole work, proper angles, poke checking and mobility.
Also mixed in is 45 minutes of dryland "intense core training," where the goalies work on their strength and conditioning and also do hand-eye coordination drills and work with memory boards.
"This dryland (training) will test the student's desire to be an elite goaltender, no matter what level they play at," Micucci said.
For more information on Anthony Micucci's Goalie School call 627-7090 or visit www.micuccigoalieschool.com.
