Christian Long, Head Coach
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
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!