Spending early mornings alone in Cool Insuring Arena is comforting for Glenn Merkosky.

“You sit at six o’clock in the morning and the lights are dim, you see the ice. It’s a pretty peaceful place to sit back and reflect on all the things that have happened at the Civic Center,” Merkosky said.

At 61 years old, he still finds time to get on the ice and reminisce about his playing days.

“We had a rink across the street when I was 4 years old, and my mom and dad used to put my skates on me. I’d walk across the street and skate by myself and walk back home," he recalled. "My mother said that’s where I first learned how to swear.”

Merkosky’s track record speaks for itself. The former Adirondack Red Wing is the team's all-time leader in just about every major statistical category, and earned a spot in the America Hockey League’s Hall of Fame in 2018.

While his playing days might be over, he’s not done with the game yet. Merkosky will return to the arena this fall as head coach of the Adirondack Junior Thunder, a team that has been desperately needed in the area since the Capital District Selects left in 2012.

The league is comprised of players ages 16 to 20 who are looking to take the next step in their playing careers.

“Local kids for the last several years have had to move away to play locally," Merkosky said. "We have Shawn Weller now, who was a young player here. He played in Albany and went on to college, and since that team left Albany years ago, there just hasn’t been a whole lot of local options to take you from junior into college. So we hope our program can slowly develop into that.”

He’s ready to bring championship level hockey to the team, but even more, teach a new generation the game he loves.

“You’re getting players coming into juniors for the first time in their careers out of minor hockey and youth hockey, and they really don’t know what it’s all about. And the opportunity to teach them and show them how to do things is a real great experience, and it bonds you for a long time," he said. "I want our team to work hard, but not work hard out of a form of punishment. I think you teach them how to work hard and make it fun and enjoy it.”

Merkosky hopes to bring the best the area has to offer. He said the bulk of the roster-building won’t occur until summer.

“It’s going to be a chance for all the best kids in the area to get together on one team and all of a sudden, instead of playing against each other, they’re all going to be teammates,” Merkosky said.