Color of Hockey: Kennedy co-founder of academy growing game in Australia

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles John F. Kennedy Jr., who has spent more than a decade in Australia growing the sport as a player, coach and co-founder of a hockey academy.

John F. Kennedy Jr. says the NHL Global Series – Melbourne preseason games between the Arizona Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings in September is still the talk of Australia.

“The country is still buzzing about the games and the highlights from the weekend in Melbourne,” said Kennedy, an Australia transplant from Saginaw, Michigan. “We are hopeful that the NHL comes back in the near future, and I hope we can ride this wave to grow the sport down under.”

Kennedy has been working to grow hockey in Australia for more than a decade as a player, coach, and co-founder of the National Sport Academy (NSA) that helps and advises the country's top players in their efforts to be recruited overseas and operates performance camps and skills clinics from Melbourne to Brisbane.

“Right now, I'm doing my bit to grow the overall knowledge to help develop players and well as coaches to leave a legacy," Kennedy said.

“From a young age, I guess around my teenage years, I wanted to do ice hockey development, I wanted to be coaching, but more than anything, I would say I wanted to be more skills development. I wanted to help provide players with the tools they needed so they could become better players and climb the ranks.” 

Kennedy also teaches by doing. The 36-year-old defenseman plays for the Australian men's national team. He had four points (one goal, three assists) in five games at the 2023 IIHF World Championship Division II, Group A in Madrid, Spain, April 16-22, and was named Australia's top player at the tournament.

Kennedy's hockey journey to Australia is a long one that began in Michigan when he saw a hockey commercial on TV and was intrigued by a goalie making an old-school kick save in the ad. Afterward, he begged his father to take him skating.

“At the end of the session there was a high school hockey game,” Kennedy said. “I peeked over the boards, someone gets checked right in front of me, looked at my dad, and said, ‘What's that?' He said, ‘It's hockey.' I said, ‘I want to play that,' and legitimately, it's been pucks and sticks flowing through my veins ever since.”

He played for U16 AAA hockey for Little Caesars and U18 AAA for HoneyBaked Hockey Club, each vaunted programs in Michigan, and for St. Louis of the North American Hockey League in 2006-07, winning the league's Robertson Cup championship under Jon Cooper, now coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“John F. Kennedy had that big smile. The boisterous laugh,” Cooper said. “The one thing about guys like Kennedy is that their sacrifice for the team is over the top. He probably wasn't the (most) gifted offensive player. But he would block every shot. If he had to get into a fight, he'd fight. If he needed to hit somebody, he was as physical as they came.”

Kennedy went on to play four seasons at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an NCAA Division I program in Troy, New York, from 2007-11 and was captain of the team in his final two seasons.

After college, he spent one season with Dayton of the Central Hockey League in 2011-12 when a buddy suggested he might consider joining him in playing in Australia.

Kennedy settled into the Australian Ice Hockey League, playing with Canberra and Newcastle from 2011-23. He had 112 points (25 goals, 87 assists) in 150 regular-season games and won championships with Newcastle in 2014-15 and 2015-16. He coached Newcastle in 2018-19 and 2021-22.

“I go to Canberra and within the first week I'm on the front cover of some free magazine, so I'm, like, ‘This is sweet,'” Kennedy said. “I ended up enjoying my time playing here. I ended up doing a coastal trip from the Gold Coast to down to Sydney in a camper van. And being a kid from Michigan, like we don't see the coasts, or I don't know what beaches are … I ended up staying, sinking my roots into Australia and building my life here.” 

Kennedy keeps track of hockey developments and trends back in North America. He's a member of the NHL Coaches' Association's BIPOC Coaches Program, an initiative that aims to support coaches of color in several areas, including skills development, leadership strategies, communication tactics and networking.

“They've changed their hours up on me so sometimes it's a struggle getting on those coaching calls," he said, "but the amount of resources and the information brought, and to upskill yourself at the cost of free with high-level coaches and having that access is awesome. I absolutely appreciate it.”

Cooper said he isn't surprised Kennedy is thriving in hockey, though he confessed that he's “a little surprised at where he is because he's on the other side of the world.”

“I would be surprised if he wasn't having success in life,” said Cooper, who owns one of Kennedy's RPI jerseys. “He's a leader of people, so right there that makes you a coach. That checks the box of the hardest thing being a coach -- being a great leader. ... So whatever he does, whether it's hockey or computers or ... politics ... I think he will always be a guy that rises to the top.” 

NHL.com independent correspondent Corey Long contributed to this report