By Brittany Burke
For the past 20 years hockey has been life. Family vacations were considered to be time spent in a hotel room during a hockey tournament and when other kids were out playing other sports, Joe Dabkowski knew that hockey was it.
That is why when Dabkowski, the former captain of the CCSU club hockey team, graduated last May he knew not playing hockey was not an option.
“You should absolutely have a plan to fall back on, like I have my degree and can go out and fend for myself if I need to,” Dabkowski said. “But having it in my head that it wasn’t an option not to play made me work that much harder to make sure I made it a reality.”
Dabkowski’s new reality is the life as a professional single A minor league hockey player.
Early fall Dabkowski was signed as a center for the Danbury Whalers, the newly formed minor league team as part of the Federal Hockey League.
Dabkowski’s contract is for the season and when it comes time he will either be resigned or will move on to the next step of his career, but right now he’s focusing on getting better and advancing his game.
“I have a little bit of a learning curve to get through,” said Dabkowski. “I’m still learning and I’m a little behind because a lot of guys have played in Division 1 schools and professionals, but it’s one day at a time and hopefully I’ll pick up something get myself better each and every day so I can go out and perform.”
The process began in March, following the Blue Devils’ run at nationals. After hearing about the open try out, Dabkowski sent in his information, attended and got the call back for training camp. Training camp led to minicamp, then main camp and eventually after months of training and preparation he made it through and was officially signed as a Whaler.
“I was shooting 1,000 pucks a day and that’s what’s gotten me to this point,” said Dabkowski. “I continue to do it, I just love to be at the rink. Some people like to play other sports or do whatever, but I just like being at the rink.”
As a Whaler, Dabkowski takes to the ice each home game in front of a crowd like none he has ever played in front of before. A typical Saturday night game can draw in 2,200 fans to the Danbury Ice Rink. Fans who attend the games in green and blue, who make noise even when the team skates out for warm ups and who wait in line after for autographs.
The entire atmosphere still remains bizarre for Dabkowski, who still can’t fathom the idea that someone other than his family wants to wear his number 20. However skating on to the ice in front of the home crowd and pulling on a jersey with his name plate on the back for the first time makes all of his hard work worth it.
“I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be, especially first year pro,” said Dabkowski. “Get a lot of support from the city. They want us to do well and it’s just a great place to be. There’s a lot of other places, even other places, higher levels than what I’m at right now that don’t have the same environment and I’m grateful for that a game like tonight I loved going out and competing with everybody, just building off their energy.”
As the season wages on and Dabkowski works to get back on track from injuries acquired early in the schedule, it is evident that there is nothing he would rather be doing than playing. While his parents were telling him to go to college he knew in the back of his mind that hockey was the only option, and being a part of the Whalers is the next step in his career.
“They’re very supportive and I appreciate all the support they’ve given me because it’s been my dream,” Dabkowski said of his family. “A part of me does it for them too…and the biggest thank you I can give them is to keep playing and keep having fun with it and keep getting better, leave it all out on the ice when I can.”