Hockey league rolls to successful season

When the sun went down this summer, the lights came on and players from around Long Island came out to the village’s roller hockey rink for the first season of the new Valley Stream Roller Hockey League.

The league, which got the green light from village officials in February, wrapped up its summer season on Aug. 21 by crowning a champion from each of its two divisions. Jeff Kotcher, a 24-year-old Valley Stream resident and 2007 South High School graduate, started up the league last winter and oversaw its operation throughout the season. The league was open to players 18 years and older.

“It was extremely exciting to go down to the rink every single night and turn the lights on,” Kotcher said. “Some of my favorite and best memories were growing up playing hockey at Barrett Park and the [Valley Stream] rink, so to run the league years later, after the rink being idle for so long, was something I am very proud of.”

Prior to Kotcher establishing the league, the rink, which is located between Sunrise Highway and the Valley Stream Long Island Rail Road station, was where the village opened its skate park in 2011. The skate park, which features portable equipment, has since been moved to the concrete area in between the miniature golf course and the pool at Hendrickson Park.

Five days a week from June through August, the VSRHL and its 16 teams played games under the lights. In February, Kotcher said he was aiming to have eight teams in the league, but the response was nothing but positive, so he created two divisions broken up by talent levels. “This was all just an idea,” he said, “but I wasn’t sure it would ever get off the ground.” The league had more than 150 players this summer.

Sam Sherman, 21, of Oceanside, grew up playing hockey at the Valley Stream rink and played in both divisions this summer. With the creation of the league, Sherman said it brought back a lot of memories for him and his teammates. “So many of us were just so happy to be out there again,” he said.