Freeport boasts safer hockey warning track
The Freeport Recreation Center, its manager says, has the first hockey rink in the state with a "Look-Up" warning track, designed to reduce serious injury to players who slam into the boarding and glass.
"I did a lot of checking and nobody else in New York has it [the 40-inch-wide orange-yellow line around the edge of the rink surface]," said Vickie Dinielli, manager for the center, which began its hockey season Sept. 8.
"Typically, the line is painted on the ice. Here, it's under it," she said. The job included $600 worth of paint.
The professional-size rink on East Merrick Road is one of the most heavily used hockey sites on Long Island for school and minor league teams. It is the home rink for Farmingdale State College's Rams hockey team.
Its director of hockey, Jon LaRochester, recommended the line after returning from a schools hockey conference this summer.
LaRochester said former minor-league hockey player Thomas Smith, who was seriously injured twice in hockey games, talked about the line that he devised in 2012 and has been campaigning to have installed in hockey rinks nationwide. "I was immediately taken with the idea," LaRochester said. "I think that this line will be mandatory [nationally] within a few years."
According to a recent national study on sports-related concussions in youth, ice hockey is among the male sports in the country -- including football, lacrosse, wrestling and soccer -- that "consistently are associated with the highest rates of reported concussions."
The intent of the Look-Up Line is to warn players to keep their heads up in order to decrease head and neck injuries on the boards and to not hit opponents there from behind.
Freeport Mayor Robert Kennedy said: "It is our duty . . . to be . . . open to ways to secure a safer environment, especially where children are concerned."
Not everybody likes the line.
"I find it distracting," said Nick Garcia, 12, of Amityville, with the Arrows, a youth hockey team. "What happens if everybody hates it?" he asked.
"Some people just dislike change," said James Beauford, a senior recreation leader at the center. "It takes time for them to adjust."
Joe Mocniak of Massapequa, who was at the rink with his son Joe, 11, said he doesn't think his son notices the line yet. "He has been playing for five years, and I still play myself. I think it's a good idea."
Vivian Sasson of Merrick, whose son Steven, 12, plays with the Arrows, said "it's a safety feature I like."
Matt Getter, an Arrows coach, said there is some concern that referees "might penalize more [often] in the Look-Up Line area."
"It doesn't bother me too much. Just got to get used to it. I've seen it in one game, and it did not seem to make a difference. It probably will be a good thing."
LaRochester said the line, approved by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and championed by USA Hockey for amateurs, is expected to be at about 200 sites nationally this month.
"Safety, always a priority at the Freeport Recreation Center, made the Look-Up Line an easy decision [here]," Dinielli said.
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