FAU Ice Hockey Club

Christian Long, Head Coach

Christian Long joins Florida Atlantic University Ice Hockey Club with over 28 years’ experience in hockey. Most recently, Christian served as FAU’s Assistant Coach for the 2022-2023 season, helping to oversee forwards and special teams units. Christian has previous experience coaching across numerous levels of hockey from youth up to college ages which began as early as 17 years old. After graduating High School early and beginning college courses, Christian founded a student-athlete advisory service catering to aspiring NCAA athletes. Christian represented and advised 12 future NCAA student-athletes including 1 NHLer and 3 future hockey professionals. Outside of coaching FAU, Christian is heavily involved in coaching youth hockey, including helping guide Team North America Selects U15 to a Silver Medal at the most recent BAUER World Cup of Hockey in Aosta, Italy in April 2023. 
 
Christian’s playing career includes 4 years at Colgate University (NCAA Division 1 – ECAC), which was followed by moving to Hong Kong where he worked as a Private Equity Analyst for Excelsior Capital Asia while simultaneously playing semi-professional hockey in the China Ice Hockey League (CIHL). Christian earned a First-Team All-Star selection while also serving as the CIHL’s Community Relations Manager to promote hockey/athletics, fitness and nutrition in the Greater Hong Kong and Macau regions.
 
Before attending Colgate, Christian was a two-time Ohio High School State Champion for St. Edward HS (Freshman & Sophomore years). As a Sophomore, Christian led St. Edward HS in Goals, Assists, Points, Game Winning Goals and +/- during the 2004-2005 season enroute to an Ohio First-Team All-State selection. The following season, Christian moved to Junior ‘A’ hockey in Brockville, Ont. for the Brockville Braves, recording over a point-per-game in his Jr. A career before earning a scholarship to Colgate University.

Christian earned his Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University in 2013, Double-majoring in Economics & Sociology. In early 2021, Christian founded and is the current CEO of Ace The Text, an education technology company.

Erik Kirtman, Assistant Coach

Born and raised in South Florida, Kirtman has over 30 years of experience in the game of hockey. Kirtman began playing youth hockey for the Sunrise Golden Blades and South Florida Golden Wolves.

From 1998-2005, Kirtman was a member of the Miami Dolphins Equipment Staff where he learned how to responsibly organize, repair and distribute various pieces of sporting equipment for a professional sports team.

From 2002-2005, Kirtman played defense for the FAU Owls during their first season in the American College Hockey Association.  Following college, Kirtman began a career in law enforcement with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department in late 2005. During his 18-year career, Kirtman has worked as a patrol officer, served as a detection K-9 handler, and currently a Detective assigned to the Violent Crimes Unit.

Coach Kirtman is entering his third year as a member of the FAU Owls coaching staff prior to joining the Owls, Kirtman served as an assistant coach with the North Broward Preparatory School where he began his coaching career while learning under Ray Sheppard and Marco Sturm. During his tenure at North Broward, he coached middle school students and eventually moved up to high school where the team earned a state title in 2019.

Kirtman resides in Palm Beach, FL with his wife and three children.

Josh Haverstrom, Assistant Coach

Josh Haverstrom grew up playing hockey in Orlando Florida. Josh went on to play in the WSHL and NAHL for the Idaho Junior Steelheads and Wichita Falls Wildcats. Winning a National Championship in Idaho. Josh continued by playing collegiate hockey at the University of Massachusetts Boston where they went onto play in the 2015-2016 NCAA Frozen Four.

Mykael (Kyle) Cromie, Assistant Coach

Mykael “Kyle” Cromie joins FAU in his first year coaching at the collegiate level after relocating from Canada to the United States for work this year. Born and raised in Kitchener, ONT, Canada, Mykael brings over 30 years of playing and coaching experience. Mykael met FAU’s current Head Coach, Christian Long, while playing together for the Brockvile Jr. ‘A’ Braves. During his playing career, Mykael amassed over 180 Jr. ‘A’ games in Canada as a defensive defenseman, which was followed by 3 years of Senior ‘AA’ Hockey in Ontario, CAN. 
 
Following his playing career that was cut short due to injury, Mykael immediately began coaching U16 & U18 players in Ontario, primarily focusing on Defensive units and Skills Development. This tenure included coaching teams that featured the likes of future NHL / Stanley Cup Champion, Nic Hague (Vegas Golden Knights), along with countless future NCAA – D1 and Canadian Major Junior players.
 
Mykael is excited to bring his wealth of knowledge and experience to South Florida, where he will be the Assistant Coach – Defense, helping to form defensive systems and Penalty Killing units.

Pasquale (Patrick) Pasquale Spano, Goaltending Coach

Patrick Spano is a native of Montreal, Quebec. He played his minor hockey in Canada until the age of 15, at which point he received a scholarship to attend the Westminster Prep School in Simsbury, Connecticut. After a successful prep school career, Patrick played Division 1 College Hockey at Yale University. Upon graduating in 2017, Patrick played 3 seasons of professional hockey: 1 season in the SPHL and 2 seasons overseas (France and Belgium). He retired in 2020 and moved to Florida in 2021, where he has been coaching goalies ever since. Patrick has over 15 years of goalie coaching experience at every age level; he enjoys sharing all the knowledge and expertise he has amassed over his playing career and also has a passion for helping the next generation of young goalies.”

Mike Flaherty, Trainer

Mike had completed his USA Hockey 4 certification and is currently a firefighter/paramedic with an AS in EMS and has spent two seasons as the Medic/Trainer for the Palm Beach Hawks Junior Hockey program. Mike began coaching roller hockey 8 years ago and progressed to recreational ice hockey and finally youth travel hockey. Knowing the importance of physical fitness in high level, competitive hockey, Mike focused his efforts on coaching strength, speed, and conditioning; creating off ice workouts, dynamic game day warm ups and intense full-day beach workout programs. Mike is excited to be part of FAU Hockey organization!

Scroll to Top