Daniel Deacon is a third year law student at the Washington College of Law who plays center on AU’s club ice hockey team. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Deacon roots for the NHL’s Buffalo Sabers. He scored five goals and had two assists in AU’s win over William and Mary on Oct. 11 and added a goal and an assist in AU’s loss to Old Dominion University on Oct. 12. Deacon is in his third and final season of club hockey as he is planning to graduate law school this May.
Daniel sat down with The Eagle’s Jennifer Reyes and talked about hockey, being a club athlete, and his team’s performance.
Eagle: At what age did you start playing hockey?
Daniel Deacon: I’m from Buffalo, New York so hockey is the main sport up there. I started playing probably when I was three years old. As soon as I could walk my parents had me on skates.
E: How long did it take you to become skilled hockey player?
DD: Hockey is so ingrained in your mentality in Buffalo that you just keep working at it. I was on the ice maybe four days out of the week as a kid. When I was in high school I was skating everyday. But yeah it took a lot of work over time.
E: How was your team’s performance last weekend?
DD: Last year we had a really good team and we lost a lot of good players. We moved into a new conference. This year’s competition is a lot better. Our team is doing really well for the loss of so many people.
Last weekend we had two games, one against William & Mary, one against Old Dominion University. We won vs. William and Mary 9-5, second game we lost 6-4. But both were really good games. The team is really coming together. It’s a good season so far.
E: How was your performance in last weekend’s games?
DD: I got five goals in the first game. The second game was actually pretty frustrating for me because I couldn’t score though I had a ton of chances. The goalie just kept stopping me. I felt like we should have won the second game, we had a lot of chances but we just didn’t put it in the net.
E: What is club hockey’s schedule like?
DD: We practice twice a week, and have one or two games on the weekend. We have a couple tournaments or overnight trips. We’re going to Philadelphia in a month.
E: Can you talk about some of the difficulties of being a club athlete, like having to schedule your own game, provide your own transportation?
DD: We’re actually having a lot of problems with transportation, because apparently a bunch of guys on the team that were certified for the AUTO vans they messed that up and now aren’t certified. So that’s tough slamming three guys into a regular car with three hockey bags. But we have a really great club president who takes care of a lot of the logistics, setting the budget, setting up transportation, scheduling games and practices.
E: Anything about club sports would you change?
DD: I definitely think club sports should be supported a little more. When I played in undergrad we just showed up, we didn’t have to pay for anything. We practiced three times a week, we had buses for all the game, and we didn’t pay a dime. And now we have to pay almost $1,000 to play, we have to drive to all of our games. It’s an administrative hassle figuring and a challenge for a student to come up with a thousand dollars just to play club sports.”
E: What would you say to a person who was interested in playing club hockey at AU?
DD: I would say come out. We have a bunch of different skill levels on the team from beginners to kids that have been playing for over 20 years, like myself. Everyone gets on the ice, every gets to play in the game. It’s a good time everyone has fun. We’re not just in it to win every single game; of course that’s the goal but we’re also just trying to have fun.
