History

It was the late 1970’s, Steve Lloyd then a student at the University of Delaware, started an in-house developmental ice hockey program. The program was supported directly through the New Castle County Department of Parks and Recreations. The program was held on Saturday mornings beginning at 6am. Since it was strictly skills development, no games were played. The program was named the New Castle County Hawks. The name “Hawks” was given by Steve Lloyd as he was from the Chicago area and this was his favorite hockey team.

After Steve Lloyd graduated from the University of Delaware, the program was taken over by another UD student named Larry Webber around 1981. Larry saw the passion in the kids and started to schedule games. Larry entered the Hawks in a tournament in Easton, MD, which was the first ever for the Hawks. Players such as Jim Garvin, Pete Bovankovich played with the team and actually won the tournament.

At the ripe age of 3, Keith Collins enrolled his son into the program. The year was 1984. Keith (Sr.) was a local hockey guy and Larry asked him to assist. Together, they were able to continue scheduling games for the kids with Chester County and Wilmington Wheels hockey clubs. But again, they were basically in house teams. Larry graduated from the UD and moved on and Keith Collins applied for the job of “New Castle County Ice Hockey Recreation Specialist”. The County was looking for someone who would remain with the program and had hockey knowledge. Keith was offered the job and started on his own later in 1984.

The program was growing and more ice-time was needed. An hour and a half of ice time was added to Saturday mornings, giving three hours of total ice time. More games were added for the kids which included games against Easton and Baltimore along with Chester County and Wilmington. The games were limited and the organization only had kids to play Squirt, PeeWee and Bantam. Players quickly became very loyal to the organization, the rink and The University and they were not interested in going to other programs offered by Wilmington or Chester County.

The program was continuing to grow so much that in 1986 the New Castle County P&R hired Jerry Truitt as an assistant coach. The Bantam team at the time was very talented. Players such as Dennis Garvin, Chris Brinton, Eric Dobrzynski, Zane Collings, Tim Roman, Paul and Pat Guyer, just to name a few were representing the club. The Hawks entered the Bobby Clarke Challenge Cup, in Voorhees, NJ, against other travel teams such as the Gladiators, Bristol and Wintersport. They did not think they had a chance going up against these established teams and programs. They won it all. They came back the following year and won it again. That’s when things really started to take off.

The Hawks became a Member of the Capital Beltway Hockey League (CBHL) in 1988- 1989 and were the furthest team North in the League. While in the CBHL the Hawks participated and won several 1 on 1 shootouts at the Cap Centre, league playoffs and tournaments which players such as Bryan Sheftz had lots of success shutting down teams like the Cap Boys and the Montgomery County Blue Devils.

In the late 80’s and early 90’s the NCC Hawks supported every level of play from Mites to Midget. The Hawls had numerous players that went on to play Junior or College.

In the mid 90’s Jerry Truitt continued with the program after Keith Collins moved on. Jerry changed the name and face of the organization to the Jr. Blue Hens and the colors went from Chicago’s Red and Black to UD’s Blue Gold and White. The Logo went from a screaming hawk to a crazy blue chicken.

The Jr. Blue Hens joined the Delaware Valley Hockey League (DVHL) after taking on their new identity.

To date our club has been very successful, we’ve weathered adversity and continue to show pride in our community on and off the ice.