BROOKLYN, NY – He has been a Dragon, an Ice Miner, a Steelhound, a Mad Hatter, an Ace, an Aviator, one of the Icemen and a Barracuda but none of the children Andrew Scampoli works with as the program manager of the extended education program (after school program) at the Aviator Sports and Events Center at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn is the least bit intimidated by him.
Working with as many as 32 children and a staff of five or six adults, the 5’10”, 195-pound Scampoli runs a happy, child-friendly, relaxed program where homework is done with or without help as needed, games are played, snacks are eaten and where activities such as gymnastics are provided.
One minute Scampoli leans over a table and helps a young girl with a vocabulary word and then answers another who asks about the activities for that afternoon.
Andrew Scampoli (left) battles a Danbury Whalers%27 opponent (photo courtesy of NY Aviators).
But that is later. Meanwhile, there is still school work to be done and children to be attended to. As one of three adults in the room at the time, Scamps -as he is called by his teammates – picks up a young boy reluctant to leave the room and asks him if he wants to go to gymnastics or sit in his chair for an hour. The boy chooses his third option -the game room.
A few minutes later, Scamps helps another child with his spelling list, calling out the words. Another boy says to anyone that will listen “once in second grade I ate glue”.
“I’m here to dish out life lessons to the youth,” Scampoli said with a note of humor in his voice.
Shortly after that, Jennie Schmidt, an assistant with the program, playfully throws a piece of popcorn at Scampoli who replies in a mock scolding voice “Children”. The same assistant questions why Scampoli calls it his “pre-game” meal when it’s 4:50 and the game is not until 7:05.
“Because it’s before the game,” he said.
The “real” pre-game meal is a grilled chicken sandwich and a hot dog purchased at the food court. Federal League cuisine. Maybe the surf and turf next time, a fish sandwich and a burger.
“Even in juniors [playing for the Hudson Valley Eagles from 2004-2006] I was a teacher’s assistant for kids with mental and social disorders,” he said. “I always seem to be finding these jobs working with kids and I always seem to have fun because I can basically act like a big kid and who wouldn’t want to do that for a little while? I really do enjoy it.”
Scampoli enjoys his ice hockey too, loves it actually.
“I just have a general fun in playing,” he said. “There could be two people here and I’m going to love playing hockey. I love skating. If I could skate around to do errands, to go to the store and stuff like that, I’d do that.”
Bill Scampoli, Andrew’s father and the timekeeper for most Aviator home games, tells the story of how his eight-year-old son had to go to all his team’s games even after having surgery to repair a double hernia. It was a two months the elder Scampoli won’t soon forget.
“He didn’t want to miss a game. He made us take him everywhere,” Bill Scampoli said. “New Jersey, Massachusetts, upstate by Albany. He wanted to root on his teammates (so) he sat on the bench, got them water, opened the door for them. The doctor wasn’t happy but he was.”
After a year of Division Three hockey at Becker College in Worcester, Massachusetts in 2006-2007 where he majored in criminal justice and scored eight goals and ten assists in 22 games, Scampoli signed a professional contract with the short-lived Indiana Ice Miners of the Mid Atlantic Hockey League. He had 26 points (five goals, 21 assists) in 26 games for the Ice Miners before the team and the MAHL folded.
During his time in Indiana, Scampoli was called up to the Youngstown Steelhounds of the Central Hockey League for eight games over the course of three weekends, scoring one goal. He finished the 2007-2008 season with the Jacksonville Barracudas of the Southern Professional Hockey League, tallying four goals and six assists in 11 games.
The following season (2008-2009) began with Scampoli joining the Danbury Mad Hatters of the brand new Eastern Professional Hockey League. He was there for only three games before being traded to the Brooklyn Aces as a defenseman. Scamps had an opportunity to play overseas and left for Holland in December, returning to the Aces in late February when the Utrecht Dragons’ 24-game season ended. His time with Utrecht was fruitful as Scampoli posted 12 goals and 15 assists.
“I got a phone call to go to Europe to play and at the time I jumped at it,” he said.
Last year he played 15 games for the Evansville Icemen of the All American Hockey League. He averaged nearly a point per game, scoring six goals and 11 assists in 19 contests for the Icemen.
When asked about the best part of his game, Scampoli said that it probably is his skating ability.
“I had a very, very good skating instructor. Her name was Barbara Williams (and) she did stuff with the Islanders. She’s done (some) coaching with a few guys in the NHL. She taught me a lot on my skating ability,” he said. “I’ve always been able to skate fast north to south [the length of the ice]. My agility east to west is fairly good, that and my sense of the game. I think I know where to be (and) when to be there. I’m able to read the play pretty well. I think my ability to skate, my ability to read the game keeps me in a job.”
The job has been well done so far this season as the Islip, Long Island native has scored 50 points (18 goals, 32 assists) through 45 games and has a plus-18 rating.
Scampoli, who will turn 26 on February 25, 2011, is realistic about his professional career and has no illusions as to where or how far it will go.
“Consistency. That’s probably been the biggest reason why I never got too much higher than single-A as far as professional hockey goes. I mean there’d be times where I could do something that I never thought I’d be able to do whether it’s a move or a shot or something. Then if I tried it 20 more times I wouldn’t be able to do it,” he said. “I mean, that’s a lot of problems at this level. That’s definitely one of mine. The difference between us and the double-A hockey players is the play we make four or five times is the play they make nine or ten times. I’m definitely one of those players (single-A).”
Scampoli’s plans for the future include going back to school to solidify his post-hockey life.
“I have a lot of connections through hockey as far as physical therapy and personal training goes and stuff like that so I was thinking of starting with that and taking it from there,” he said. “I can either start doing that as my career or I can do that on the side. I have support from my family and a whole bunch of other people that are behind me on me getting ready for life after hockey. I’ll start with school next year and see what happens.”
He may still play some hockey while going to school if it works out that way.
“I’ll be in the area (he lives in Rockaway with his girlfriend) so if next year I went to school full time and wasn’t able to come here and practice every day, I’m sure I’d still be able to do stuff on the weekends if Miller (head coach and team president Rob) would let me,” he said.
Talking about how the season is going and how things may wind up, Scampoli is very optimistic about the Aviators winning the inaugural FHL championship.
“We’ve been playing really, really good hockey,” he said. “You got a team that’s possibly got home ice advantage [in the playoffs] and we could easily come away with this – take the whole thing.”
Marc Spitzer is an off-ice official for the New York Aviators.
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