On February 25th, the Nassau County Lions introduced the first ever “Pride of the Lions” Award, an honor given to players who have spent their entire youth hockey career (8u-18u) as a member of the Nassau County Lions.

The inaugural award was presented to 18u co-captains Miles Hochman and John Dunn, both of whom began their respective travel hockey careers back in 2011 as 8U players.

In addition to this, Miles and John were presented with a citation recognizing their achievement from Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.

Pictured here are the Hochman family, the Dunn family, Nassau County Director of Hockey Mark LaMarr, Nassau Lions President Scott Gerstner, Administrator Eric C. Peck, bookended by the boys' first coach Rob Hoppe and last coach Ian Clugston.

The weather was crisp and the greens were smooth as the Nassau County Lions made a return to Hauppauge's Wind Watch Golf & Country Club for the program's 2023 Golf Outing. More than 100 golfers hit the greens for the 7:30am shotgun start and enjoyed a day on one of the Island's finest courses, competing for a good cause with all proceeds benefiting the Nassau County Lions Hockey program. 

Golf was followed by a luncheon in the spacious Windwatch Restaurant, as raffle winners were selected and prizes distributed to many in attendance.

Many thanks to the volunteers who donated their time for the day and made the event run smoothly from start to finish. Many thanks as well to the many sponsors for their generous support of the event.

Nassau County Hockey's Mission and Vision
The Nassau County Hockey Program operates under the auspices of the Nassau County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Museums and exists to serve the interests of the residents of Nassau County.  Over the last quarter century, we have built a strong tradition of quality hockey programming.  Our staff has brought us to the respected position we now hold in the hockey community.  We are proud of that heritage and are committed to achieving even greater success.

Our Mission Is To Become The Best Hockey Program In The Nation
By the best, we mean a rapidly growing organization that provides innovative programming of the highest caliber for the youth of Nassau County.  Our goals go far beyond merely developing the athletic ability of our participants.  We want to help develop the character and interpersonal skills of each of our boys and girls in such a way that participation in one of the Nassau County Hockey Programs will benefit them long past the time when they hang up their skates.  Our aim is to develop first-class citizens for our county, as well as first-class athletes for our hockey teams.

People Are Our Most Important Asset
It is important that we:

• Attract, motivate, and retain the most talented people in our hockey community for both our professional and volunteer staff.
• Provide the opportunity for all employees and volunteers to develop their potential and make the best use of their abilities.
• Promote mutual trust and respect for each other.
• Practice open and timely two-way communications with the expectation and confidence that well-informed people will do the right thing.

Excellence Must Become A Way Of Life
This demands that we:

• Define excellence as performing up to the public’s expectations and then doing more.
• Maintain a dynamic growth-oriented environment that promotes teamwork and encourages individual initiative.
• Provide leadership that will motivate both employees and volunteers to practice excellence in every dimension of their assigned responsibilities.
• Pursue functional excellence as an integral part of our total program performance.
• Take pride in all the programs and services that we provide to the citizens of Nassau County.

We believe that if we live and work by these values, we will establish Nassau County as the premier hockey program in the United States of America.