High School Ice Hockey: Hoboken-Weehawken-Secaucus Ice Hockey Head Coach Damien Arnone Does Double Duty, January 11, 2026
Coach Damien Arnone left his office in Hoboken at 1 p.m. and hopped into his Chevy Trax.
He hustled down the turnpike to meet his hockey players at the Woodbridge Community Center for a 3:15 puck drop.
Two hours later, he got back in the car after a 2-1 loss and made the sluggish 27-mile trek up the turnpike during rush hour to American Dream Mall.
On this trip, a Spittin’ Chiclets hockey podcast killed the time.
After grabbing a bite to eat and watching St. Peter’s Prep practice, he greeted more of his players to prepare for an 8:30 start time.
This wasn’t a doubleheader for a hockey team but it was for him.
It was just another long day at the rink for Arnone, who simultaneously coaches two high school hockey teams, one boys team and one girls team, for the Hoboken-Weehawken-Secaucus tri-op, which consists of players from those three schools.
The nightcap’s result was a more enjoyable 11-1 win over Randolph for the girls team, and then it was back in his Chevy just after 10 p.m. for the final trip back home to Hasbrouck Heights.
“I just started leasing it about seven months ago,” he said. “It’s pretty up there, I have 8,000, 9,000 miles already.”
He left home that day at 7 a.m. and returned almost 16 hours later. That’s when he logged onto Instagram to post the latest news and game posters that he makes himself on Canva for both squads.
Four days later, he pressed one foot on top of the boards, the other on the bench and gazed at the far end of the ice.
Daylight broke through the open end at Warinanco Park in Roselle and looked down on the girls team — tired, pinned on defense, in need of a change. Just three players stood beside him on a mostly-empty bench. Fresh legs were hard to come by.
Fatigue was slowly setting in, so he’d have to push all the right buttons if his team was going to preserve its lead.
Four hours passed. Blue skies had given way to a cold January night and Arnone now stood behind his boys team on the same bench, trying to find a way to coach them out of a three-goal hole.
At least on that day, both games were in the same place, but it was the third time this season Arnone had coached twice in one day.
For him, pulling double duty is a new endeavor.
While the boys team is in its third year of existence, it’s the inaugural season for the girls, but Arnone had been working on the girls team years before the first puck hit the ice.
“When we started the boys program, year one we had three or four girl skaters,” Arnone explained. “So, we knew there was interest there. And just talking with families in the district, we knew that there were players coming up in the elementary, middle schools.”
Once enough girls signed up, the team joined the NJIIHL, where 15 girls teams played in three divisions for the 2024-25 season.
When it became time to find a coach for the new girls team – the first girls team in Hudson County – Arnone leaned on conversations with Hoboken’s superintendent, Christine Johnson, a former basketball coach.
“She knows (coaching) is my passion. She knows that I could take it and run with it and grow it,” Arnone said. “It was a simple conversation with the superintendent, and then it just led to a conversation with (Hoboken athletic director Jack Baker). And then we all came together and just agreed that I would monitor both programs this year.”
Once the boys’ 2024-25 season ended, Arnone gave himself a month off to decompress and get ready for the challenges ahead.
Scheduling immediately became an understandably complex undertaking. While the team’s home games are at American Dream Mall, practices are at the Secaucus Ice Rink.
Arnone tried to line up as many back-to-back boys and girls practices on Mondays and Tuesdays as possible, but in the end, he had to settle for boys practice at 5 p.m. on Mondays and girls practices on Tuesdays at 5 p.m. On Thursdays, the boys practice at 5 p.m. and the girls follow at 6:15.
High School Boys Ice Hockey: Hoboken vs. A.L. Johnson on January 11, 2026
He even organized a pre-holiday tournament for the girls, a rarity for the sport.
“Let’s just add more to the plate, you know? But I do it all – one, because I want the program to grow. And two, the girls deserve it,” he said. “The girls in the state deserve it. The girls need to be known and hockey needs to be on the map.”
So far, from a coaching perspective, juggling both teams has gone well.
The girls are off to a 9-3 start and will be a strong contender for the Annis Cup in February. The boys team is 6-8. For the most part, Arnone has avoided both teams playing games on the same day.
After months of work and scheduling to get the girls team on the ice, both squads had a holiday break that stretched from Dec. 22 to Jan. 3.
“The winter break was a big relief for me. I needed the rest. I just needed to unplug because it’s taxing,” Arnone said. “It’s taxing with the full-time job too, and with a family – definitely taxing. And the bug was going around in the locker room and of course there’s sicknesses, but I feel refreshed now that we’re in the second half of the season.”
He also tries to unplug on Saturdays, but during the week, it’s almost impossible. During lunch he’s breaking down footage, prepping for practice or games.
“I’m YouTubing. I’m analyzing. I’m trying to break down what I see,” he said. “The conversation just continues every day. It’s like Groundhog Day.”
The first part of the season was also a learning curve, as Arnone had nine years of high school coaching experience on the boys side but this was his first year coaching girls. He leans on assistant coach Pete Haglund, who coaches in the Devils Youth organization. While Arnone drives to all of the games, he leaves Haglund in charge of making sure everyone makes the team bus. Robert DeSanti does the same for the boys team.
“(Haglund is) familiar with a lot of the girls but just watching his interaction with the girls, (I’m) just trying to model that. And (with) the initial conversation with the girls, I knew that they actually listen,” Arnone said. “They listen – and what you say to them, they absorb it and they actually follow through with it.”
High School Girls Ice Hockey: Hoboken vs. Cranford on January 11, 2026
Arnone’s daughter, who’s in kindergarten, made an appearance at several games. While he spends countless hours each week at the rink, Arnone still is able to pick her up from school a few times a week. He put gaps in his schedule on Wednesdays and most Fridays to pick her up. He also has a stepson at Don Bosco Prep.
He’s also relied heavily on his wife, Nicole, throughout the entire process and her support has helped him push through a lot of those long days.
“I’m very blessed and thankful, but I’m always there for her, whatever she needs,” he said.
Though she’s been in attendance at times, she hasn’t gotten on the ice herself yet, which is something Arnone hopes changes with time.
“She sized out of three skates already and she hasn’t hit the ice yet,” he said. “She’s coming to the games, which is good. She’s seeing the girls, which is helpful. She’s a soccer player. She played three years of soccer and dance. So if she skates eventually that’ll be fantastic.”
As the second month of the season comes to a close, Arnone is still enjoying the ride.
Long term, he’s unsure how many years he’s going to be able to double dip and coach two high school programs at once, but he at least wants to see the first freshman class on this year’s girls team graduate.
“I’d like to see this class exit. It’s a very special group,” he said. “I’m 44 right now. I have a growing family, so I would say at least just to see this class through. I think I’ll be here coaching both, managing both, which is unheard of. I don’t think there’s many that have taken that on.”
There certainly aren’t, but Arnone has an incessant drive to grow the sport wherever he can.
Brian has been reporting on high school sports since 2015. He specializes in field hockey, ice hockey and baseball coverage. He's also worked with MLB.com and MLB Network since graduating from Michigan State…
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