Atlantic Youth Hockey League

LORTON, V.A. — Doug Plocki, Executive Director of the Washington Little Capitals, recently sat down with the AYHL to discuss coaching strategies, philosophy, training methods, and more.

The Little Caps are a shining example of the league's standards and goals; focusing on training and developing young athletes to excel at the highest levels of the game. But Plocki believes that developing his players as people is just as sacred a responsibility as helping them perform on the ice. "I think our job as coaches is to help develop these young men and women into good people first then good athletes along the way," he said of the club's approach to player advancement, both on and off the ice. "Our job is to deliver them to the next stage of their careers. As a club we take a holistic approach to making sure our players are prepared to advance and that is how we measure our success, our advancement record."

Plocki believes it’s important to establish an individual team’s culture, distinct from the rest of the league, explaining: "Internally we have defined what we think are the core habits and fundamentals we want our players to have and then the core attributes of an ideal Little Cap, and we try to build that messaging into whatever we are doing. Be it season planning or locker room talk before a game, we are constantly referring back to our core values to try and instill that message with our players on a consistent basis."

Plocki’s success speaks for itself, and we look forward to seeing the good work he and his staff do as the Washington Little Capitals take the ice this season.