Colemans team up with Deron Quint Hockey, Ham Arena to offer summer camp [10/18/2003]

Camp Atahi on Lake Iona in Albany to provide overnight accommodations for hockey campers

"A good tomorrow starts with a good youth," Calvin "Buzz" Coleman said at a press conference at Ham Ice Arena Wednesday morning as he and his wife, Dixie, announced they were forming a partnership with Deron Quint Hockey Operations. The couple are making their 110 acre camp Camp Atahi on Lake Iona in Albany, available to the hockey program for a summer camp with overnight accommodations for those attending Ham Ice Arena."I can't tell you how excited we are to have Deron Quint and Tim Quint involved in hockey in this area," Coleman said. "Dixie and I have been very supportive and active in this building (Ham Ice Arena)... This actually all started when we were in the office talking about construction management and Bill Reny talked about how (Deron Quint, his staff and the campers) had to come in from a long ways away. We said, we've got just the place for you.""This is a win-win situation for everyone," Tim Quint, father of Deron Quint, who is currently skating for the NHL Chicago Blackhawks, said. "The gesture of the Colemans allows Deron Quint Hockey Operations a tremendous opportunity to do what we wanted from the outset and that was to help hockey grow here in the Mount Washington Valley... The camp is just 4.8 miles away from the arena the proximity is a great advantage. This is the biggest opportunity for Quint Hockey Operations to grow."Deron Quint Hockey Operations has run two weeks of camps at the Ham Ice Arena for the past two summers, but with Wednesday's news Quint expects to be able to offer at least three weeks of camps and maybe more in the summer of 2004.Bob Murphy, president of West Main Street Recreation, which oversees Ham Ice Arena, was pleased. "Tim has talked to me for at least three years about doing something like this," he said. "He kept asking, Where's a camp where we can go to make this happen? The one problem we kept running into was all of the camps were being used in the summer... This sort of all came out of the blue this summer. It's a perfect, perfect match. It couldn't be any better with the Colemans, who have been so supportive of the arena."Darrell Umlah, general manager for Ham Arena, thinks having Quint hockey's main base at the arena will be a plus. "The area has so much to offer," he said. "Your typical camps come in for a week at a time and everything is on the ice and then you're done. They don't even begin to scratch the surface of what this area has to offer. With this partnership, the kids are going to have a wealth of opportunities... It expands the wheel where camps can pull kids from... I can tell you Deron and Tim have been so well received here. The numbers have grown steadily in terms of campers over the past two years. There has never been a negative comment about the Quint camps, just the opposite the kids have a ball."Camp Atahi (which has been in existence since 1957) is special to the Coleman family. "It's how Calvin and I first met," Dixie Coleman, who grew up in Baltimore but attended the private girls camp in Albany, said. "I was the assistant director when Buzz and I got married. From the time I was in college we either owned it or were a part of it."Coleman said the camp features a good-sized main lodge and is surrounded by a dozen cottages and other buildings. At one time it housed up to 150 Girl Scouts, but he said its probably best suited for 100 hockey campers. With 3,000 feet of frontage on Lake Iona, the camp has two fields, a small baseball field, a basketball court and plenty of hiking trails. "There are dry land training areas," he said."He's getting the lingo down," Dixie Coleman said, laughing.Tin Mountain Conservation uses a portion of the camp for its summer programs and the Colemans said that will continue. "These programs will be able to coexist very nicely," she said.Quint, with his mom, Sally, on hand, said the more time he can spend in the area he grew up in the better. "This is the best," he said. "Deron actually had his first skate on the rink in Conway when he was 2 he fell in love with it... The hockey is the hockey, but now we'll be able to offer much more. What Dixie and Buzz have at the camp is just what we dreamt about when Deron was talking about setting up residential camps in Mount Washington Valley... We want to make the Ham Arena the permanent home of Deron Quint Hockey Operations this is where we want to be."Deron Quint Hockey Operations provides a variety of clinics and camps with these sessions staffed by pro, Olympic and collegiate players. High school coaches also participate. Instruction includes specialized segments on power skating, shooting, passing, stick handling and team play. Off-ice activities include conditioning programs, tactical positioning of the defensive zone coverage, breakouts, offensive zone play, forechecking/backchecking and special team play. For more on the programs offered by the Quints, log onto to www.DeronQuintHockey.com or call 868-7042.