College Hockey South (CHS) is a nonprofit hockey conference that hosts men’s and women’s hockey within the Amateur  Athletic Union (AAU). CHS hosts over 30 schools and 50 teams spanning eight southern United States. 

Florida Atlantic University’s own Division II and Division III hockey club teams make up a part of the conference. 

Last spring, CHS put together an All-Star team with players from around the conference to compete in a tournament against other conferences in AAU College Hockey explained Division II head coach Christian Long . If the team succeeded there were talks about them going overseas to Europe, but nothing was ever confirmed until this past year. 

CHS announced via Instagram on Dec. 3, that they would be partnering with Verbero Hockey, an equipment and apparel store located in Franklin, TN, to create a College Hockey South All-Star European team. 

With the partnership announcement, CHS posted their All-Star players via Instagram. The first player announced was Florida Atlantics’ Division II goalie, Rocco Bruno. Last season, Bruno was awarded CHS DII goalie of the year. 

Later in the day, CHS announced that Bruno’s teammate, forward Caleb Owens, would be joining the team as well. 

“I think that Rocco going definitely helps a lot in the terms that I get to go there, [and] experience something like that with him and come back and be able to play together again knowing we have this same shared experience,” Owens said. “It’s definitely something special that we get to experience, so I’m excited for that.”

Long was supposed to accompany Bruno and Owens on the trip but was unable to make it due to the recent birth of his daughter. 

“On the ice, they are the ultimate competitors, holding themselves to a very high standard, and that’s reflected in their play,” Long said. “But I also joke with them quite a bit.” 

Rocco and Owens, both sophomores, are falling more into a leadership role, with Rocco being Vice President of the Hockey club this year. 

Last April, CHS put two teams of All-Star players together that would be playing in the AAU College Hockey All-Star Games. 

Bruno and Owens were on that team, along with their FAU teammates David Israel and Matias Weir.  However Israel and Weir were unable to attend the trip to Europe due to scheduling conflicts.

CHS Commissioner Kyle Knell went into the locker room before the All-Star game and said that they were working to put together a Europe trip if the team won. 

“And to me, that was unbelievable, I really didn’t take it seriously at first,” Owens said. 

The CHS All-Star White Team went on to win the All-Star tournament with a record of 4-0-0 and 23 points.

Bruno started playing hockey in Springfield, Pa. when his grandpa bought him his first pair of skates at the age of six. Other than hockey, he played lacrosse and baseball growing up. 

After the three sports presented Bruno with a time conflict, he said that he decided on hockey and ended up playing on both his school and club team. 

When he was around the age of 12, Bruno’s team didn’t have a goalie so when asked different players would sub in. When it was Bruno’s turn to sub-in for goalie, he came to the realization that it was for him. 

A large role model to Bruno during this time was Jonathan Quick, who was playing for the Los Angeles Kings. Quick currently plays for the New York Rangers and has won three Stanley Cups.  

“[Quick] is a smaller goalie like myself and I really just thought I had a little bit of the same way of play as he does,” Bruno said. 

Bruno comes in at 5 foot 9 inches tall, compared to Quick’s 6 foot 1 inch height. 

Growing up, Bruno was able to travel to different tournaments, one in particular being the Quebec International Pee-Wee Tournament in Canada. According to the tournament’s website, this game was a very prestigious minor hockey tournament hosted over the span of 11 to 12 days. 

“We played in front of like 13,000 people; we were young kids, like 12, and that was such an incredible experience,” Bruno said. “We stayed with a host family for about 10 days, and it was really unreal, something I will never forget.”

Fast forward to Bruno’s senior year of high school, he wanted to move south to get away from the cold and in turn applied to many of the big Florida schools. Despite never visiting the campus he settled on FAU because of the school’s location. 

Before he got accepted into the university, Bruno said he was able to talk to the FAU hockey coaching staff at the time and get a feel for the team culture. Assistant Coach Dan Bouganim was a big factor in getting Bruno to join the program as he took Bruno on his initial tours of the campus after his acceptance into FAU in 2023.

“I loved everything about the area from what I was seeing and hearing,” Bruno said. “I just thought it was a really cool place to come and play hockey at.”

Owens had a less straightforward path into hockey. He started skating as soon as he could, but had to take a break at the age of five due to circumstances making it difficult for him to get to the rink. At the age of 10, Owens started back up with the sport.  Due to the break he had a lot of catching up to do, but it ended up only motivating him. 

“My parents brought me to the semi-pro team in the area, the Everblades, and they could just see how much I enjoyed being there,” Owens said. “Through those five years I wasn’t playing I was begging my parents to let me go back to hockey.”  

Growing up in Fla. makes his experience playing hockey more unique than most since it wasn’t a prominent sport here until more recent years. With more ex-professionals moving to Fla. and having kids, the hockey scene has become more competitive. 

Owens grew up playing for hyper-competitive teams which gave him the opportunity to compete in lots of championship games. According to Owens, his biggest moment was National Camp Tryouts, which put him up against the top 100 kids in the country. 

“I started from scratch when I was 10, and all these other kids had been playing since they were five, so that was definitely a big moment for me to get to that point,” Owens said.

Although he was never a hockey player, Owens’ dad is a big inspiration for him. His dad pushed Owens, but wasn’t like other hockey parents that are all over their kids about how they perform. 

From a hockey perspective, Owens’ biggest inspiration is Sidney Crosby who plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Crosby is a center who was the No. 1 pick in 2005. In his 19 years of playing professionally, he has lived up to his draft order and was deemed as one of the top 100 NHL players in 2017. 

“Growing up I had his fat head on my wall and I watched probably every YouTube video you could find on the guy,” Owens said “Even more than a hockey player. He is a humble guy and a leader by example and he works really hard.”

Owens played for tier two juniors hockey in Mass. and had been away from home since the age of 14; he was ready to come back to Fla. After deciding that he was going to come to FAU, the coaching staff reached out and he has been with FAU hockey ever since. 

“I was playing juniors, working myself day and out, taking it seriously and we’d have nothing but family members, billet parents and scouts watching,” Owens said. “So it was a shock to come here and experience so many people supporting and watching.” 

Rayne Welser is a contributing writer for the University Press. For more information regarding this or other stories, email her at rwelser2024@fau.edu or DM her on Instagram @_morgan.ray.