WAVY.com

HRS: Meet ODU Men’s Ice Hockey Coach Adam Danforth

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – Fire and Ice have always co-existed in Adam Danforth’s world. While he’s played ice hockey his entire life, he also pursued firefighting as a career.

On the ice and in the battalion, his teams have faced challenges, but none as extreme as the challenges he’s faced as a father. He’s received devastating medical news about both of his children. When younger, his daughter suffered an injury that left her blind in one eye. She persevered and ended up hitting the ice with her father as her coach. She pursued the sport of ice hockey as a goalie.


Danforth’s son is a pediatric cancer survivor. The hockey community rallied around him as professional athletes wished him well and even his team of surgeons had ties to the hockey community. Now a healthy adult, Danforth currently coaches his son on the ODU men’s ice hockey team and his players are ready to step on to the ice and make a difference for other families facing a similar diagnosis.

The Monarch’s Fight Cancer game against VMI benefitting CHKD will be held Saturday, Oct. 26 at Chilled Ponds Chesapeake. Learn more in this week’s I Am Hampton Roads by visiting the team’s website.