Chris Banyas

Staff Writer

A young man forced to move as his family relocates finds himself cut-off from the thing he loves the most: hockey. It would be one of the most difficult times of his life.

This sounds like something you would see late at night on ESPN but it is the very real experience of James DiSanza, and also why he is so passionate about hockey and supporting it.

“When my family was in Ohio I had to move, my sophomore or junior year, to California,” said DiSanza. “And that was before the roller hockey boom. That was before ice hockey was as massively popular as it is now, so I basically had to quit, and it almost killed me.”

DiSanza currently serves as the chair of the newly formed James E. Rogers Department of Communication, Media and Persuasion at Idaho State University.

This is not the limit of DiSanza’s activity. He has also been the driving force behind the construction of the only ice hockey rink in Pocatello, and acts as the chief and coach of Idaho for USA hockey.

During the department merger, DiSanza spent countless hours overseeing an upgrade to the hockey rink, mostly during evenings and nights, that would allow for refrigerated ice to be maintained.

“It’s been a tough semester. I do not want to repeat my fall semester,” said DiSanza. “Working through the department merger, and we’re making four hires this year, and every evening out at the rink until 11 at night.”

DiSanza is not a professional  rink builder and has not done this before.  He and his team learned what they were doing as they went along, and had to deal with several substantial setbacks.

Between the torrential downpours of late August and early September which damaged essential equipment, and having to track down the necessary components, DiSanza has kept it  together.

“I think I do this now because I don’t want any other kid in Southeast Idaho to have to quit playing hockey because there’s nowhere to play,” said Disanza.

There are many aspects of the game which DiSanza cites for making it the greatest. The speed, the enormously high skill set of the players, the low impact nature and the community surrounding it are but a few.

“There really is something special, perhaps because hockey is the red-headed step-child,” said DiSanza. “There’s an enormous community amongst hockey players and hockey people. It doesn’t matter where you are, that community is there.”

Over the course of the rink construction, this community came together many times to help in many ways, from offering insight on design to helping with materials.

Not only did DiSanza make hockey possible here, he brought that community into our community.