William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles John F. Kennedy Jr., who has spent more than a decade in Australia growing the sport as a player, coach and co-founder of a hockey academy.
John F. Kennedy Jr. says the NHL Global Series – Melbourne preseason games between the Arizona Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings in September is still the talk of Australia.
“The country is still buzzing about the games and the highlights from the weekend in Melbourne,” said Kennedy, an Australia transplant from Saginaw, Michigan. “We are hopeful that the NHL comes back in the near future, and I hope we can ride this wave to grow the sport down under.”
Kennedy has been working to grow hockey in Australia for more than a decade as a player, coach, and co-founder of the National Sport Academy (NSA) that helps and advises the country's top players in their efforts to be recruited overseas and operates performance camps and skills clinics from Melbourne to Brisbane.
“Right now, I'm doing my bit to grow the overall knowledge to help develop players and well as coaches to leave a legacy," Kennedy said.
“From a young age, I guess around my teenage years, I wanted to do ice hockey development, I wanted to be coaching, but more than anything, I would say I wanted to be more skills development. I wanted to help provide players with the tools they needed so they could become better players and climb the ranks.”
Kennedy also teaches by doing. The 36-year-old defenseman plays for the Australian men's national team. He had four points (one goal, three assists) in five games at the 2023 IIHF World Championship Division II, Group A in Madrid, Spain, April 16-22, and was named Australia's top player at the tournament.