Bill Naumann first began volunteering for Norwood Nuggets Youth Hockey back in 2005, as his son had just started playing the sport.
At the time, the program was in decline.
Naumann and other dedicated volunteers rolled up their sleeves and worked hard to restore the Nuggets program. By the 2016-17 season, they had become so successful that Massachusetts Hockey honored Norwood with its “Excellence in Growth Award.”
“We increased our numbers over a five-year period by around 165 players,” said Naumann, who served as Norwood’s president for nine years.
That was no small feat for a youth program that has no town ice rink and must travel to surrounding towns for practices and games.
“We were like wandering gypsies,” Naumann said.
The situation was nothing new for Naumann. While growing up in Norwood, he played for the Nuggets and later at Norwood High School.
So, how was the Nuggets program able to overcome such obstacles to achieve that impressive growth?
It started with recruiting parents. Naumann said a lot of the parents he reached out to didn’t know the “difference between a blue line and a clothesline,” but he offered them an affordable way to get their kids involved in the sport, which worked wonders.
Naumann and his merry band of volunteers introduced USA Hockey’s American Development Model cross-ice 8U programming, founded the Town Line League for 8U players, and built the girls program from the ground up.
“It wasn’t just me,” he said. “There were a lot of people that did a lot of pulling on the rope that enabled us to turn the program around because the program had fallen on hard times.”
In addition to his son, Naumann had three daughters pass through the Nuggets program. All of them played high school hockey, and two went on to play college club hockey.
Following the 2023-24 season, two years after his youngest daughter left the program, he finally stepped aside after 19 years as a volunteer.
“You get involved because you love the kids, and you want the kids to have a good experience,” he said. “It was certainly a labor of love. I loved doing it. I loved going to the rink and seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces when they got off the ice.”
During his time as president, he placed an emphasis on growing the learn-to-skate, learn-to-play, and 8U programs.
“We always said, look, that’s the lifeline of the program, and you need to focus on those programs,” he said. “Get them in at a young age, make it enjoyable, make it inexpensive for parents, and we’ll get them to stick.”
Norwood received a grant from the Boston Bruins Foundation and bought hockey starter kits. Children who signed up for the Nuggets learn-to-play program received equipment that they would return at the end of the year.
Nauman always reminded himself to keep the sport affordable and convenient. If he could provide kids with skates and a stick, he knew they would show up in numbers.
At one point while he was president, a parent was cleaning out his basement, came across a lot of like-new hockey equipment and offered it to Naumann. He took it, and the floodgates opened. People started dropping off tons of used equipment at his house.
“Word just spread,” said Naumann, who was especially interested in equipping girls because his daughters were players.
Parents who visited his well-stocked basement would joke that he had more equipment than a sporting goods store.
“Whatever I don’t have in my basement, then go get it,” Naumann would tell parents, who often wanted to pay him. “What I’d say to them is, ‘What you owe me is [to] pay it forward.’ I want more kids using this equipment and more kids playing hockey. Just get them playing.”
Though he has temporarily stepped away from the ice, the 56-year-old Naumann hinted that he might return one day to coach 10U girls once his youngest daughter goes away to college.
“I really do miss the interaction with the kids at the rink and in the locker room and on the bench,” Naumann said. “The kids generally were very appreciative over the years.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
Source: usahockey.com