Newtown’s Day And LaRocque On Board With New Whalers Hockey Team

By Andy Hutchison

It’s the hottest, stickiest time of the year, yet the excitement of a sport played on ice — professional hockey — is very much on the minds of some this neck of the woods. The new Danbury Whalers of the Federal Hockey League recently held tryouts and the team is gearing up for its first season at the Danbury Ice Arena.

Among the organization’s off-ice employees are two Newtown residents — Lee Day and Chris LaRocque — both of whom are helping promote the team as the Whalers prepare to skate, shoot, and score in front of area hockey fanatics. Day is the team’s medical team director, and LaRocque is the vice president of business operations. Both are excited about the inaugural, 60-game, independent league season, which will get underway in October.

Day, 53, owns AON Physical Therapy and Wellness in Brewster and White Plains, N.Y., and manages Agility Physical Therapy in Danbury and Ridgefield. A trainer for more than two decades, Day is in charge of picking out the many medial staff members needed to keep the players healthy, or return them to tip-top shape as quickly as possible following injury.

“In hockey you need ophthalmologists, dentists, chiropractors, massage therapists, orthopedists, primary care physicians — there’s just a whole slew of people you have to get together to support these teams and to keep them healthy, and keep them on the ice,” Day said.

Day said the role of the medical team will range from helping the skaters overcome bumps and bruises from their everyday activity to doing what it takes for them to recover from various injuries as quickly as possible.

Day will have the Whalers use physicians from Connecticut Family Orthopedics and, while he puts together the rest of the staff, is also hard at work promoting the team along with LaRocque.

Along with other Whalers’ employees, including CEO and Managing General Partner Herm Sorcher, Day and LaRocque have been out in Danbury and surrounding towns to promote the team.

“Our goal is to try to get as much recognition for the team as possible and fill the seats every night,” Day said.

“Right now it’s a really exciting time for the Whalers,” said LaRocque, adding that the blue and green is returning to the ice for the first time since the Hartford Whalers of the National Hockey League moved from Connecticut to Raleigh, N.C., in 1997.

Sorcher approached the Hartford Whalers Booster Club, which for years has pushed for the state to get an NHL team back in the capital city, and was granted permission to use the Whalers name, Day said.

Day works with the players themselves and LaRocque has a different behind-the-scenes hand in the team’s day-to-day operations. LaRocque, before joining the Whalers’ staff, worked at the University of Hartford in the Institutional Advancement office. He previously did financial and strategy work with the Department of Defense for Deloitte Consulting in Washington, D.C., after earning his undergraduate degree at George Washington University.

“I’m really Herm’s right-hand man when it comes to running the daily operations of the club, managing the staff,” LaRocque said. “I’m working with our sponsorships and our marketing. So far, it’s been a lot of fun.”

The Whalers will host First Annual Danbury Whalers Youth Hockey Jamboree on September 11, and there are considerations for a winter pond hockey tournament involving the Whalers and youths on area ponds, Day said.

Connecticut already has two minor league teams: The American Hockey League’s Hartford Wolf Pack and Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

Danbury has hosted pro hockey teams in recent years, with the Trashers of the International Hockey League calling Danbury Ice Arena home before the Mad Hatters of the Eastern Professional Hockey League played each of the past two seasons.

New Haven had several minor league teams, primarily the Nighthawks, for about three decades before teams relocated and disbanded and the old New Haven Coliseum was demolished a few years back. Day and LaRocque will help try to make the newest Connecticut team, which will feature young skaters trying to make a name for themselves, a success.

“I think we’re going to have a really great product on the ice — really high caliber hockey,” LaRocque said. “So it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Check for team updates, including schedule information, as the season draws closer, online at http://danbury whalers.com.