Al Montoya is one of a number of professional hockey players who played hockey for the Glenview Stars. Al was recently in town with the New York Islanders to take on the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center. The following excerpt is from the Glenview Patch. You can read the full article on the Glenview Patch website.

Glenview Native First Cuban-American in NHL as NY Islanders' Goalie

As a child, Al Montoya found his calling as a local sports star. Now playing in the NHL, Montoya talks with Patch about family roots and following his hockey passion.

By George Castle, Glenview Patch, December 21, 2011

Al Montoya is proud to be a Cuban-American--the first to play in the National Hockey League--but his sports upbringing is definitely classic All-American.

The Glenview native, now a goalie with the New York Islanders, played a little bit of everything growing up. He might have soccer practice in the afternoon, then after a quick break Montoya would don the padding of a goalie to play at Loyola Academy in the evening, having started his on-ice career with the Glenview Stars youth program and coach Myles Gottainer.

Somehow he squeezed in a youth baseball career and freshman football at Loyola. If he wasn’t toughened by both the physical contact and managing his hectic schedule, nothing would have done it.

In the end, he developed the mindset of a goalie – all armored up with pads and a facemask. You have pucks flying at 100 mph-plus and bodies desperate to score, crashing into you.

“My athleticism was a little bit above the kids my age level,” Montoya, now 26, said in a recent wide-ranging phone interview from Long Island, where the Islanders are based in Uniondale.

“I always kind of shouldered it, wanted it. I wanted that pressure, I wanted (to be) that last line of defense when there was going to be a mistake made, I have the opportunity to (stop) it. I had that from an early age.

Read the complete article and see additional photos on Glenview Patch.