The business of hockey: Training facility launches

Chris Gianatassio always wanted to be a hockey coach. And for 10 years, including a stint as the Wakefield boys’ head coach, he fulfilled that dream.

But after years of focusing on the off-ice grassroots of a successful program, as well as working at a large collection of skills camps all over the North Shore, and even just struggling to find local ice time as a coach, he formed a new dream.

Gianatassio – along with fellow former hockey standouts Joe Whitney and Steve Saviano – wanted to create a new area to train, dedicated to building and mastering fundamental skills within a lighter environment. Whether it was mites starting out, high schoolers in search of some sharpening, or professional athletes looking for some work; they felt there wasn’t really a place around their area that provided it.

Until now.

The three came together as business partners to bring just that to their community, opening their Boston Hockey Skills facility in North Reading on April 1.

“We all have kids that are just entering (hockey) and we feel there was a gap – there was a need for a place like this,” Gianatassio said. “It’s basically to get (players) out of the rink. To get them in a fun, positive environment that can challenge them to work on the skills that you don’t have time to work on in practice. … To make (training) fun for kids and they’re still getting better, there’s nothing like that.”

Gianatassio, Whitney and Saviano play in a men’s hockey league in Reading after finding success in their younger playing years. Gianatassio played Div. 3 hockey in college. Saviano followed up a legendary career at Reading by playing at UNH and then professionally, while Whitney was a two-time NCAA champion at Boston College before a long professional career.

The vision for Boston Hockey Skills was just an idea rather than an actual plan for years, until Saviano and Gianatassio decided they wanted to take the plunge in August 2023. They got Whitney on board, formed an LLC in October, signed a lease in February, and put a significant amount of money toward a six-week build-out of an empty warehouse.

“We said, ‘Alright, do we want to be the people that say we’re going to do it, or do we want to be the guys that actually go and do it.’” Gianatassio said. “It’s scary but we wouldn’t change a thing. We’re very happy. … We wanted to build a place that was an amazing place to go to. We went all in. We spent the money, every resource we had we used to make an unbelievable facility.”

That money built a 3,200 square-foot space to train, with 600 square feet of turf and an area of synthetic ice about as large as a third of a playing rink.

With it, they welcome players of all ages to come work on basic but vital skills – shooting, passing and stick-handling. A main goal is to have fun with it, breaking outside of the serious hockey setting to improve without burning out. They wanted to make it affordable with a wide-array of different types of sessions available, and they have a diverse set of seven coaches to run camps, small group sessions, team sessions or one-on-one training.

That coaching staff includes former Reading and UNH standout Sean Collins.

“We want to provide a place for kids to go to work on the skills. Families are in rinks for hockey season – hockey is very intense where it’s almost year-round now – so everyone’s in a rink,” Gianatassio said. “They’re doing team situations, they’re doing drills, team drills, situations. They’re not practicing shooting the puck, passing the puck as much as we practice. … For example, in a practice, a kid might take 10 shots in one practice. Where, for us, they’ll take 300.

“We want it to be fun. There’s enough seriousness in hockey. Obviously you want to get better, but we have music going, it’s a fun atmosphere.”

So far there’s been a positive response. Their first school vacation camp, which ran for a week for ages 5-12, was sold out. Teams have booked sessions, and the rest of their eight-week spring session’s birthday parties – two per weekend – is also fully booked.

“The first three weeks, we’re like, ‘Let’s just throw a couple classes, see what happens,’ and those all filled up,” Gianatassio said. “The response has been great. The demand is there. The whole reason we built it is because this area is very – Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield, Wilmington, Tewksbury, North Reading, Lynnfield, Andover – very hot hockey.”

The first birthday party they booked was for Gianatassio’s 6-year-old son, one of his two kids that were a major motivating factor in opening up the facility in the first place.

Now, a whole community can reap the benefits of a new place to train. They’re also trying to create jobs for college and older high school players by hiring them as junior coaches for sessions and camps, which in turns connects the community even more.

That’s exactly what the trio was going for.

“The goal is to have the kids come in, and have such a good experience … work hard, leave with a smile on their face, and want to come back for more,” Gianatassio said. “To know that we’re successful is that we’ll have the same kids coming back, year after year. … Basically repeat clients all the way through because they’re so happy with the experience and they see the results, too.”