RINK OWNERSThis is a tough business. Whether you are looking to reduce your energy costs, increase the number of ice hours sold, or if you are looking for someone to take over the management of your facility, we have the expertise and experience to craft a solution just for you.

The Haviland Family Hockey Experience

With about two hundred years of hockey experience, the Haviland’s know hockey. This experience tells them what will work in most situations. Whether its player development, rink management or in coaching plans, they have the depth of knowledge to determine the right answer for the given situation. But just in case, this family always has a trusted expert close by to consult with.

George Haviland Sr.

“Big George” grew up in New York City playing roller hockey. At 17 he played his first organized ice hockey at the Junior Level for the “West Siders”. He then played Minor League Hockey for the Privateers Hockey Club. His coaching career started in the early 1970s for the West NY Raiders where he was also president of the club until he resettled his family to Middletown New Jersey.

In Middletown, George established a local roller hockey program which in 5 years grew to be the largest program of its kind in the state. He then started the Monmouth Hawks ice hockey program in 1974. Through this team he began to serve the New Jersey Youth Hockey League, and served as its President for 3 years, in 1977, 1978, and 1979. As a member of the Atlantic District of USA Hockey he was the founder of the District’s Festival Program, and also held a position with USA Hockey for 10 years. George spread hockey throughout Central New Jersey in the 80s and 90s, including founding Monmouth College Hawks Hockey (now Monmouth University), Marist High School Hockey, and the Garden State Games for Hockey as well as the New Jersey Junior Titans Hockey Club with son George Jr. In 2006, George and his wife Margaret relocated to Florida where he is now running the Florida Junior Hockey League, which is a recent addition to the Met Junior League.

George Haviland Jr.

“Little George” started playing hockey at 6. He has been deeply involved in it ever since. He played at a time when there were few opportunities for good hockey players in the area, so after George played Junior Hockey with the NJ Rockets and Golden Blades as a young teen he headed off to Canada to play 2 seasons and played Minor League Hockey there.

Following his playing career, George returned to his Native New Jersey, and took a job the local ice rink in Shrewsbury where the Monmouth Hawks youth team made their original home. He took to coaching as well as rink management, and soon found himself behind the bench, as well as behind the front office desk and the Zamboni. He has a love for teaching the game which comes out in the results he achieves with the players he coaches. Over 100 of his former players have moved on to play prep school, college and professional hockey, and countless others have been positively impacted by their time in the game under “Coach Haviland”. Like his dad, George has an ability to draw people to the game, and as a result he has worked in both start-up rinks as well as moving into struggling facilities, increasing the hockey population by 2 to 4 times and with it the revenue for the rinks he has managed. Time and time again, George has gone into a facility, and drawn hundreds of players to a facility. He gets it done by leaving no stone unturned. As a player George was a “grinder”, always looking to go into the corner and earn that next inch of ice. As a rink professional and franchise owner, his style is the same. He puts in tireless hours, constantly building, and looking for ways to expand the game he loves and the number of players in it. This past year it was JV Hockey, and suddenly Central Jersey has a league playing at the rink he manages. You might find him out on a roller rink, looking for 10 year old players to convince them to try it on the ice, or at a school board meeting helping high schools without programs to convince their constituents the benefits of a hockey team for their students.

George has wide range of rink management skills including ice making, rink installation, scheduling, developing non-hockey revenue improvement programs like parties, laser tag, group/school skating outings, establishing learn to skate at all age levels, converting roller players to ice, and adding leagues for adults, travel players and recreational skaters. This has led George to develop Iceworld Consulting, a firm that is hired to manager rinks, run hockey programs, and consult players on college and junior placement. George’s success as a youth and Junior coach over the last 24 years has also lead to developing significant contacts in the hockey world, that prove invaluable in running a rink, developing players, and implementing programs. Whether he is putting together a tournament, seeking to get a coach to look at a promising prospect or looking for rink equipment, George usually knows the person in the hockey world who can help.

As a coach, he has been to National Championships 9 times medaled in 4 of them. He has medaled in the prestigious Silver Sticks Tournament 3 times, won league championships, made playoff appearances and won district titles consistently throughout his coaching history. He also has applied his coaching skills to his Eastern Showcase clinics and tournament teams as well as a 5 year stint as a head instructor at the prestigious Huron Hockey School. As a hockey director and coach, he has built a 15 team program with the 12 year old New Jersey Junior Titans, one of the few clubs in New Jersey to skate a Junior Program as well as Tier 1 (AAA) and Tier 2 hockey.

Mike Haviland

Mike has a reputation as tenacious player and fierce competitor. After learning to play with his brother George he went off to Toronto during High School to play Juniors. As the only American on his squad had to claw his way to respect, and he eventually earned the captaincy. Later, he became a high scoring forward and 3 time ECAC Champion as a player at Elmira College (NCAA). Mike was drafted 15th by the NHL Devils in 1990. His playing career was cut short after only 20 professional games by a shoulder injury. He returned to Elmira to finish his degree in Marketing Advertising and secured a scouting and assistant coaching position with the Soaring Eagles.

Mike found his way back to New Jersey as an assistant with the Trenton Titans for two seasons and he then became Head Coach of the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies where he was named ECHL coach of the year in his first year as Head Coach in 2001-2002. The next season he coached the Bullies to the 2003 Kelly Cup Championship. Moving back to Trenton, Mike headed up the Titans, where in 2004-2005 he won his second ECHL championship in 3 years bringing home a Kelly Cup to Trenton. Winning with 2 different clubs lead to his promotion to the AHL and his ultimate induction in the Titans Hall of Fame.

The Chicago Blackhawks hired Mike to run their top AHL affiliate, which initially was the Norfolk Admirals, and is now the Rockford Ice Hogs. In 2007 Mike was named AHL outstanding coach of the year, the Louis A R Pieri Award for his 50-22-6-2 season. Other winners include Frank Mathers (1969), Fred Shero (1970), Al MacNeil (1972, 77), Floyd Smith (1973), John Muckler (1975), Jacques Demers (1983), Larry Pleau (1987), Mike Milbury (1988), John Paddock (1988), Marc Crawford (1993), Barry Trotz (1994), Robbie Ftorek (1995, 96), Peter Laviolette (1999), Claude Julien (2003), Claude Noel (2004), and Randy Cunneyworth (2005), Kevin Dineen (2006). Overall Mike has a winning percentage of .631 with a record of 265-132-35-16 in six years as a professional coach. The Ice Hogs barely missed an opportunity for the Calder Cup in 08 after losing a Western Division game 7 to the eventual champion Chicago Wolves. Following the 08 season, Mike was moved up to the NHL Blackhawks where he is the Assistant Coach to Joel Quenville. Mike still lives in Central NJ where his kids skate for brother George’s hockey club.

Rich Haviland

The little brother with the constant smile played his youth hockey in New Jersey, but then, like his brothers sought out more competitive hockey environments. He played Junior Hockey for a New York Islander National Championship team and then went on to play for the Wheatfield Blades a Junior Franchise out of Buffalo NY. SUNY Plattsburg (NCAA) was his choice for collegiate hockey, and afterward Rich returned to New Jersey to join the family business. He worked in rink management at Proskate in South Brunswick for 3 years, and has been coaching hockey for over 9 years.