Mike Rosen thinks that his son, Dan, decided at age five to become an ice hockey goalie because he liked all the cool gear.
But his decision was a natural outgrowth of his family’s love of the sport.
Indeed, Dan started skating at age two. His father was a goalie on his college hockey team at State University of New York-Brockport and, in addition to working as a sales manager, still serves as a referee.
Three of the four Rosen children, Dan, 17; Ben, 15; and Rebecca, 13, play hockey and aspire to play on college teams. Only the youngest, eight-year-old Emily, has chosen softball instead.
Dan’s love of the sport brought him away from his family home in Long Island to Ashwaubenon, Wis, just outside Green Bay, to play for the Green Bay Gamblers Hockey Team.
And for Dan, this is one crucial step on his journey to playing college hockey.
“Colleges look for their players to season themselves before going to college.”
The best way to do that, he said, is to play for a developmental league team for a couple of years.
The Gamblers is one of 11 teams, all located in the Midwest, that make up the United States Hockey League, the best of the college prep leagues in the country, according to Mike and Dan.
With a 4.0 grade point average and membership in the Cum Laude Society, Dan said he hopes to play Division One college hockey at an Ivy League school.
And, according to both Rosens, several Ivy League colleges have already expressed interest in him. The former head coach of the Harvard team, Mark Mazzoleni, had been writing to Dan on behalf of Harvard shortly before he moved to Green Bay to take over as head coach of the Gamblers.
He was also recruited by Portledge School, a private preparatory with a strong hockey team. As a student there, Dan not only became starting goalie but also served as student council president and class president for the past two years.
After his sophomore year there, in the summer of 2003, Dan came to the Gamblers tryout camp in Green Bay. Mike said that there were 62 goalies at the camp but by the last day they had been narrowed down to four, including Dan.
Though not selected for the team that summer, “I did well and [the Gamblers] stayed in contact with me all last year. [They] were keeping an eye on me and because of their interest, I decided to attend the camp again [in the summer of 2004],” said Mike.
At about 8 p.m. on the evening he returned from Green Bay, he received a call offering him a spot on the team. And the family’s response was quick: “The whole family jumped in the car and drove out to Wisconsin,” to meet the Straini family in Ashwaubenon, chosen by the team to be Dan’s host family, Mike said.
While here, Dan’s mother also “took the initiative … to find a synagogue [Congregation Cnesses Israel]” Dan said, and according to his father, [Rabbi Shaina Bacharach] invited Dan over for dinner and made him feel very comfortable.
Dan expects to play in Green Bay for two years before going to college. And, according to both Dan and his father, the family has known for years that Dan would have to make this move to realize his dream.
“We were prepared and we support him completely,” Mike said. And Shelly Rosen, Dan’s mother “is about the best hockey mom you could have.”
“I cannot say enough about Dan.” Mike says. Dan is talented, “a workaholic” and a genuinely nice person. “If we had to write a script for Dan for this year, [we couldn’t have done better].”
But Dan realizes it may be difficult being so far from his family. “Of course I’m going to think of them,” he said. “The homesickness will probably hit me [in] about another month, [but] the team is already such a close-knit unit. We’re friends and we hang out together.”
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