Video and story contributed by UNE Intern Paul Guglietta.

BIDDEFORD, Maine – Without conference competition this fall the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) has decided to recognize a "CCC Person of the Week" during each week in the fall semester. The series will demonstrate that competition is only a small part of what our student-athletes, coaches, and administrators do and serves to highlight the great things they are doing on their own campuses and beyond.

This week we feature Curry men's ice hockey student-athlete Timmy Kent (Parkland, Fla.).

Kent took his love of hockey to the next level as he brought athletes from all around Southern Florida together to help form the South Florida 3v3 League. The league gives the tight-knit hockey community in South Florida an opportunity to get together to compete in the summer months. Participants in the league are current or former student-athletes at both the DI and DIII levels and includes seven NHL draft picks, plus three with playing experience in the sport's premier league. Kent and his partners, who also play in the league, have put in a lot of work to growing the organization. They have built an Instagram (@soflo3v3league_official) audience of more than 300 followers, worked out sponsorships, and navigated through the challenge of running a sports league during a pandemic.

Can you get into the South Florida 3v3 Hockey League? What is it?

TK: The South Florida 3v3 Hockey League started with me and two of my best friends. Not last summer, but a couple of summers before that we would just get pickup 3v3 games going. Last summer we started attracting some good players and we had a lot of demand for it and what's cool about the 3v3 is that Florida is a really tight-knit hockey community. There's a lot of really good players down there but before we started the 3v3 league everybody was kind of scattered playing men's leagues, private lessons but we didn't really get all the good players out there together in one setting. What we did with the 3v3 is we wanted to incorporate that tight knit hockey community and make a league where everybody could see each other and compete against each other. We wanted it to be a place where not only we could go and compete and play the game we love but we could develop and get better and see the guys we grew up with even though we broke off a little bit at we all went our separate ways in high school. It's nice to have somewhere where we can go and get better together.

Who plays in it? Anyone a hockey fan may have heard of?

TK:  I don't think there's any notable names that people would know of, but as far as players we have seven NHL draft picks, three guys that have played in NHL games in the league, 17 DI players, and 15 DIII guys that are in the league. As far as junior leagues coming up there's 14 guys that have played in the USHL which is the best junior league in America. And then the second best junior league, the NAHL, there's also 14 that have played in that league, including myself.

Did you face any challenges starting up the league?

TK: Yes. So this was the first official year where we had five teams. We had a GM/captain on each team and we had a draft this summer and we enacted trades. When we started out this summer it was a machine. It was rolling. Every week there were two games per team and it was really rolling, but with COVID we faced a lot of challenges especially south Florida was a really high-risk area so we ended up having to shut down the league for two weeks and made everybody in the league quarantine. When we started back up, we made everybody get tested once a week and that's how we dealt with that. It wasn't like a bubble per se like a lot of the professional leagues did, but we administered tests once a week and asked guys to be careful and cautious. We knocked down how many times each team played to once a week and that's how we dealt with that challenge. There were some other challenges but none as big as COVID.

What were the logistics you had to figure out to make the league a reality?

TK: There were five different GMs/captains that we implemented, myself being one of them. The two other guys who I started up the league with are GMs as well. It was on the GMs to communicate with their teams. The three owners of the league dealt with delegating the scheduling. We have an Instagram account that we would communicate with everyone on what the schedule was for the week. It wasn't too serious but it was definitely 50+ people in the league, so communication and organization was key. Having the Instagram account really helped us get out there and communicate with people in a timely manner.

How did your sponsorship with BARDOWN Hockey come about?

TK: This summer the league really took off as far as the level of guys we had in there and BARDOWN reached out to us through a mutual friend. One of the GMs had a relationship with the guys from BARDOWN. The guy from BARDOWN jumped onto his podcast and we ended up collaborating with them through that. This was really good for us because they have over 100K followers on Instagram and they were able to shout the league out and put some videos of the league on their Instagram. It was great that we were able to make this connection through a mutual friend and BARDOWN liked what we were doing in South Florida. It was a great opportunity and we couldn't miss it.

What are your duties with the league?

TK: Besides being a GM and Captain, me and my two friends who created the league have to collaborate with each other in unison to schedule and logistics. It's a three man job, it's not just me. I work with Cole Kodsi (Boca Raton, Fla.), who goes to and plays at Bentley, and Mark Cheremeta (Parkland, Fla.), who goes to and plays at Ohio State. Without those guys this league wouldn't have been able to get put together.

Q: Where do you see the league in five years?

TK: Guessing that the world will be Corona-free, the opportunities for the league could be endless. I could see the league having 10-12 teams in five years. And especially with our partnership with BARDOWN Sports and the social media following that we've gained just through our partnership with them. The opportunity is endless. I don't want to put a number on the league or make any outlandish goals, but I definitely think that the opportunity for the league to grow and to get more competitive is definitely going to happen. The potential for the league is definitely through the roof. The league notoriety in terms of people knowing about the league is definitely going to grow each summer and we look forward to try to continue to bolster that.

What would you like to do after graduation?

TK: Ideally at some point I'd like to start my own business, but if I could I'd really like to go play hockey overseas and play a few years pro.

What They're Saying:

"Timmy loves the sport of ice hockey and to help grow the game in a non-traditional market such as Florida is an amazing accomplishment. It shows he has vision and the ability to work and execute that vision. It also highlights the growth of the game as there are many elite players from the area that play in the league. I think it's awesome!"
–TJ Manastersky, Curry Head Men's Ice Hockey Coach

For the latest on Curry Athletics, follow the Colonels via social media on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.