Meet Casey Rooney | Owner at ReadReact Hockey

We had the good fortune of connecting with Casey Rooney and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Casey, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The most important factor in success for ReadReact Hockey is a focus on helping parents to raise solid hard working , non-entitled adults for the future. Hockey is the vehicle we use to do this. It is more of a mentorship program than a hockey program. The hockey is easy, if you follow these steps and you may have a chance to play at the professional level. That success doesn’t come even if you are the best player around. The athlete still has to be a good person. We add value in this way helping players become leaders. Things like how to deal with adversity in a healthy way, seeking to make everyone one better around them by bringing positive light in any situation. Those are just a few examples, but the idea is that they can bring these principles and tools beyond hockey and be successful in anything they pursue. Hockey is great, but the people involved are the most important.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
A big thing that sets us apart from others having a people over money mentality. We treat our customers very well, go above and beyond for them. Even through adversity, we work to be solutions based. This lends itself in most cases to become a blessing to our business. Those clients then sing our praises and bring more clients. This is a major factor in our growth. I started with just one other coach and now have a staff and now have a staff of 15 with coaches and administration.
Key hires have also helped propel us forward. My first administration hire was marketing and web administration with Jess. She has brought us online private lesson booking as well as a professional look to our brand. This was 7 years ago and Jess is still doing a wonderful job. The next key hire was AJ Bucchino. AJ has helped me stay organized and has a great business mind. He picks up where I lack and that leaves me to be creative and do the things I’m good at. I now don’t have to be bogged down with details of putting programs together. We get to share ideas and he puts them into action. I love to serve our clients by being on the ice. He is the hands and feet to expand our reach.
For a long time I tried to do it all myself and control everything. I dropped the ball a lot, and was very overwhelmed. I had to take a step back, look at what I’m good at and not good at, and make key hires. Now that this is in place, we have been able to scale the business. This cut the stress and helped me reclaim time to my family. Now we are growing fast, and I have a much better work life balance.
I’m incredibly blessed to have my passion be my job and business. I get to do what I love and make a great income doing it. More so, the biggest blessing is being able to help influence so many young people. I take the leadership role very seriously. That is my driver, to influence young minds to bring leadership, confidence, personal responsibility, kindness, along with mass amounts of fun to the world around them.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We definitely would have to go to the rink and play some hockey. Depending on the time of year makes a difference. If it were summer we would spend some time in my backyard by the pool, swimming and playing sauce hockey. In the winter we would definitely be rippin wheelies on my snowmobiles, and the a little skiing.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
First, my father helped me grow a passion for the game. He always made it fun and now we are passing this on to our athletes. I have had many great mentors. Zach Sikich taught me all about the goalie position and how to dominate the market in my backyard. Sean Skinner helped me get a new prospective to the player side of the game and how to gain markets around the world. Through these influences ReadReact Hockey now has 12 coaches at home and I have had the opportunities to train players in Italy, Switzerland, China, Kazakhstan, Canada, as well as all over the United States.

Website: www.ReadReacthockey.com

Instagram: @readreacthockey

Other: TikTok: @readreacthockey