'We Play For The Bird': Orland's Eagles Hockey Program Turns A Corner

ORLAND PARK, IL — Mike DiStefano has been around hockey long enough to know what kind of an effect putting a winning product on the ice can have in changing the fortunes of a program looking for a fresh start.

So, when DiStefano — who has been around the game for 50 years and worked as an off-ice official for the National Hockey League for a decade — took over the Eagles Hockey Club before last season after the program lost 15 players from the previous year, he knew he had his work cut out for him.

But for a club hockey program that has been affiliated with high schools from the Orland Park area since the early 1980s, finding traction within the community has always represented a bit of a challenge. Because the Illinois High School Association does not sanction hockey as it does other sports and because the program is not an official varsity sport at Sandburg, garnering support within the school – and around town — has sometimes been a difficult ask.

Just ask Anthony Gambino, who was named the Eagles Hockey Club marketing director prior to last season. Gambino has always been partial to hockey — a sport he enjoys at a variety of levels ranging from the NHL to the sport’s youth programs. But as DiStefano discovered when he took over as the Eagles’ program director and varsity head coach prior to last season, Gambino says that marketing hockey to the masses isn’t always an easy sell.

“We’re not football, we’re not basketball — we’re not even soccer,” Gambino told Patch on Wednesday. “It’s a unique situation because we wear the logo on our jersey, we call ourselves Carl Sandburg Hockey Club, but it is a unique situation where we are constantly trying to get fans to come out and watch these boys play.

“These boys will always play their hearts out and they wear the jersey proudly and these boys will always jokingly say, ‘We play for the bird.’”

The bird, in this case, is the Eagles Hockey Club, which was founded in the 1980s and centered around players from Sandburg, Stagg, and Andrew high schools and was originally known as the D230 hockey team. Eight years later, as the popularity of hockey began to evolve in Orland Park and around the Southland, the Eagles became purely affiliated with Sandburg only.

While other programs around the region continue to draw from multiple schools, the Eagles Hockey Club continues to only include Sandburg students who comprise the club’s junior varsity and varsity programs. Despite the sport’s popularity, however, Gambino says that growing the club’s fan base has been difficult for myriad reasons — including non-traditional game days that often make it challenging to draw big crowds despite having more traditional game events such as Homecoming and Senior Night.

The program has also raised money for local charitable organizations in hopes of being a good community partner that continues to introduce hockey to local players. Yet, the challenge in promoting the local program around Orland Park has more to do with raising awareness that the team exists than anything else, Gambino said.

“I would hope to think we’re not an after-thought,” Gambino said Wednesday. “But I think part of it is being open to letting students and parents that we’re part of the high school. We’re here, too.”

But that’s where DiStefano’s efforts have paid major dividends. DiStefano, who played high-level hockey throughout his own career and who has coached a variety of youth organizations, including in Orland Park, ushered in a new culture of winning hockey when he took over the Eagles program last season.

He inherited a program in which half the team’s players had competed in higher-level club programs while others had played lower-tier house league hockey at local rinks. However, with strong recruiting efforts and an emphasis on improving the culture of the program, Distefano began to see gradual changes.

Through his hockey connections, DiStefano was able to replace the talent that was lost to graduation and attrition with a fresh influx of new players. Within a short period of time, the Eagles began to compete in ways they hadn’t before. They knocked off perennial powerhouses such as New Trier and other top programs while the new head of the program brought in a style of disciplined hockey that helped the Eagles to quickly turn a competitive corner.

The program posted wins over other schools the Eagles had never competed with, setting the stage for bigger and better things in the upcoming season.

“(Success) makes it 100 times easier,” DiStefano told Patch on Wednesday. “People see us win and then word gets out and kids are telling other kids.”

He added: "I think Orland Park and the Carl Sandburg School, we're getting the kids out and they're coming. We put a good product on the ice and it's fun."

Players bought in and suddenly, a program that has struggled to find success in the past was playing a different brand of hockey. The team jumped 14 spots in the state rankings and posted its best finish in five seasons with a 14-11-0-3 record, marking the first time in five seasons the Eagles posted a winning record.

Even with playing with a vastly underclassmen roster, the Eagles rose to new levels under DiStefano who saw immediate results as he set out to establish a new tradition. The Eagles qualified for the gold tier level – the spot reserved for top programs in the league.

By growing expectations within the program, DiStefano says the club also witnessed a new level of respect which, in turn, has improved the program’s visibility not only within Orland Park but within the greater hockey community.

“It was unbelievable — we started getting fans,” DiStefano said. “Winning is just contagious and now, we’ve turned Sandburg into a destination spot. We’re beating championship teams.”

The Eagles varsity program begins the new season on Sept. 17 when DiStefano hopes his team can springboard off of last year’s success. And while the on-ice progress continues on a program that only lost four seniors, those who work with the program like Gambino also hope support away from the ice also continues to grow.

The program will host its biggest fundraiser of the year on Oct. 1 at Bourbon Street, when team officials hope to raise support financially for a program that is on its own when it comes to remaining self-sustaining. Yet, like with growing awareness for the program, keeping the program’s collective head above water faces challenges of higher costs for ice time, league fees, and other costs that make hockey economically difficult for many.

That’s where the independent nature of the program presents unique challenges.

“Without a doubt, we are on our own,” Gambino said. “Every dollar that comes in is from a family member or fundraising. We don’t acquire any financial support from the school, the district, the state and so yeah, we’re really on our own.”

He added: “Everything keeps going up and we’re constantly trying to find ways to offset that.”