“Be the change” | Black hockey flourishes in Harlem, N.Y.

Tuesday, when the Buffalo Sabres host the Anaheim Ducks, the team will host a Black History Celebration at KeyBank Center – the perfect time to celebrate programs like Ice Hockey in Harlem.

Since 1987, the organization has introduced Harlem, N.Y. youth to hockey and fostered their growth through the sport. From their first time on skates through high school-level competition, Ice Hockey in Harlem (IHIH) provides full financial support for life-altering experiences.

On Jan. 17, a group of Ice Hockey in Harlem participants traveled cross-state to Buffalo. Their three-day stay in Western New York, filled with ice time, education and exploration, began at KeyBank Center as the Sabres faced the Pittsburgh Penguins.

During the visit, three IHIH members sat down with Sabres.com to share their stories.

Malik Garvin

Malik Garvin developed a passion for hockey before he’d ever hit the ice. At age three, he followed his mother and older brother, who was enrolled with Ice Hockey in Harlem, to the rink. Too young to participate – the organization accepted children beginning at age four then, five now – Garvin grew attached to a pair of Fisher Price over-the-shoe roller skates. For the little boy in Harlem, it was love at first skate.

“I refused to walk anywhere anymore,” he recalled.

Garvin swapped wheels for blades a year later and joined IHIH’s learn-to-skate program. Before long, his investment in the sport and his ultimate goal were well established.

“All I ever wanted to do as a kid was play college hockey,” Garvin said. “For me, playing college hockey was like making the NHL.”

At each successive level, his realizing that dream presented new challenges – first in the form of late-night bus and subway rides to and from the rink, later in the form of unfamiliar surroundings. During two years of hockey at Maine’s Hebron Academy, Garvin watched his well-off, boarding-school teammates, one after another, go on to play junior and college hockey.

Garvin proceeded to The Harvey School in Katonah, N.Y., where he captained the hockey, lacrosse and football teams; that school had little history of producing college hockey recruits. He then enrolled at Western New England University in Springfield, Mass. and joined the hockey program as a walk-on.

In Garvin’s dreams, college hockey was the NHL. In hindsight, he takes it one step further, likening the difficult journey – from Harlem to Springfield, Mass. – to winning the Stanley Cup.

“I love the game, I stuck with it and it taught me so much,” Garvin said. “It literally made me who I am.”

Now in his 30s, Garvin serves as Ice Hockey in Harlem’s executive director.

In addition to hockey, IHIH offers educational sessions, homework assistance, guest speakers, a college exploration series – including a January visit to Buffalo State – and more. The programming as a whole, in Garvin’s words, “improves life outcomes for kids.”

Thanks to financial support and equipment donations from various foundations and the three New York City-area NHL clubs, along with a series of annual, self-run fundraisers, IHIH provides everything free of charge for 50 new families each year.

Under Garvin’s leadership, Harlem’s next generations are fulfilling their dreams, on and off the ice.

“Everything that I was able to go through, [I] share with them and let them know that anything is possible for them,” Garvin said.

Dariel Morejon

High school senior Dariel Morejon estimates he was nine years old when he saw an Ice Hockey in Harlem poster in his apartment building. Hockey?

Unfamiliar with the sport, having been raised in a basketball household, he asked his mom and, soon enough, found himself enrolled. His first time on skates, Morejon recalls, he couldn’t stay on his feet. He admired his already-skilled peers, many of whom had begun skating at age five.

Now, at their level, Morejon reflects fondly on the support he’s received while developing as a hockey player.

“They don’t just treat me like another player in their program – they treat me like I’m worth it,” Morejon said. “Throughout this whole experience with Ice Hockey in Harlem, it’s just been nothing but pure love.”

Morejon relishes the opportunity he’s been afforded: to stand out in his community without getting involved in “other things.” Hockey, he feels, has been a lesson in perseverance, discipline and responsibility, among other traits.

“To know about hockey [as] an Afro-Latino man is a blessing,” he said.

“Hockey really put me together. I found brothers. I found a community that I’m a part of, and I really appreciate that.”

Amani Dao

Amani Dao, meanwhile, has experienced a less linear hockey journey.

Like Garvin, she followed in an older brother’s footsteps and joined IHIH at a young age – five years old, in her case. And like Morejon, she initially struggled to grasp the sport; Dao remembers struggling with the learn-to-play stage and needing to revisit learn-to-skate.

She holds vivid memories from those early days: the nighttime chill at the rink, the weight of her equipment bag and, most valuably, the feeling of growth.

“When I was younger, hockey was not my favorite, I’m not even gonna lie,” Dao said. “But when you grow into it, you learn how to play more and you build friends and community around you, you become more comfortable with it.”

Dao took a three-year hockey hiatus amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon returning to the ice a year ago, while adjusting to new teammates and coaches at the high school level, she felt as supported as ever.

Away from the rink, however, a Black woman in hockey is a foreign idea to some; when Dao lugs that heavy bag to school, it turns heads – “shocks” people, as she put it.

“It’s because you don’t see a lot of Black people that play hockey,” she said. “When I say I play hockey, when I talk about it, people see it as weird, in a way.

“But I appreciate it, because people of my color are getting more exposure to hockey… I get excited when I talk about it, too, because I’ve been playing it for so long. It’s a big part of me.”

Getting there

Hockey may be free for a fortunate handful in Harlem, but it isn’t easy.

For four years, IHIH’s home rink – Harlem Meer Center, formerly called Lasker Rink, at the northern tip of Central Park – has been undergoing renovations. In the meantime, IHIH has bussed its participants once a week to World Ice Arena in Flushing, Queens, and back, all while managing rising ice and transportation costs.

New York City traffic sandwiches 90 minutes of ice time; on a typical night, the bus returns to Harlem around 11 p.m. Players like Morejon and Dao, undeterred by such an unforgiving schedule, have excelled on the ice and emerged as stars in the Harlem hockey community.

“These two particular kids here, one of the reasons I’m so proud of them is that there’s just nothing that stops them,” Garvin said. “They just keep going.”

It’s a two-way street; IHIH players recognize the effort Garvin, who previously worked in finance, pours into raising funds, coordinating hockey sessions and facilitating their athletic and personal growth.

“At the end of the day, he doesn’t have to do this,” Morejon said, “but he chooses to put in work – day and night, all the time – just to put a smile on my face. Just to continue to help me become the best version of myself.”

Growing the game

Harlem sits a few hours from several major northeastern cities. So why visit Buffalo?

Western New York’s hockey-rich community is home to youth groups like Hasek’s Heroes, a program comparable to IHIH that introduces underprivileged, Buffalo-area children to the sport. The organizations met one another and skated together at Buffalo State on Jan. 19.

“For these groups of kids to have the chance to interact and see that there are people like us out there – that is powerful,” Garvin said.

While IHIH fills its spots with ease each year, building off decades of hockey culture in Harlem, diverse representation at the collegiate and professional levels remains relatively sparse. Still, Garvin feels local success stories like Ice Hockey in Harlem are stepping stones toward the growth of Black hockey nationwide.

And while a lack of representation may be discouraging, it can’t stop Black and minority hockey players in Harlem and beyond from pursuing their dreams.

“I simply tell our kids to be the change they want to see.”