Norwich — Wayne Sheehan is Norwich Free Academy's campus safety director, the former chief of police in Kensington, N.H. He was also a hockey guy growing up in Tewksbury, Mass., a forward at Worcester State University, who engaged in some fierce street hockey battles with his brothers and cousins.

NFA, meanwhile, hasn't drawn as many international students to its campus since COVID-19 struck.

Sheehan had an idea to fix that.

The Norwich Hockey Club is now in its building stages. Sheehan was on the ice Monday afternoon at the RoseGarden Ice Arena with several prospective athletes. Members of the NHC, being recruited from all over the United States and Canada, would attend NFA and live with host families while competing for the Tier I hockey team.

The team would be independent, unaffiliated with the NFA athletic program and any of its CIAC-sponsored sports.

"I knew that other schools in Massachusetts like Matignon and Mount Saint Charles were implementing this model," said Sheehan, the team's head coach. "I put a package together and said if we want to try to maybe restart our international student program — because it was very robust before COVID — I would be willing to see about getting hockey off the ground, a high-level hockey program. They said, 'Let's give it a shot. Let's see what we can do.'

"Right now we seem to have a ton of interest. We have 19 players who are in the application process and all but like four of them are from Canada. So that's pretty exciting."

Sheehan has made two trips to Montreal to scout at hockey showcases. He said he's gotten a verbal commitment from a player from Newfoundland and a player from Arizona has indicated that NFA is his top school.

"Right now it's working," Sheehan said. "We have interest. We just have to get commitments from kids who want to come to school here. Universally, they love the campus and it is beautiful."

Sheehan pitched the idea for the NHC to Dr. Brian Kelly, NFA's Head of School, and Richard Freeman, the school's director of finance and human resources. Kelly, in attendance Monday for what was the third in a series of campus visits/ice time for prospects, said the program "accomplishes a lot of goals" at NFA.

Ultimately, the NHC aims to feature four teams, with 18-and-under and 16-and-under teams for both boys and girls, but it will start with the U18 boys beginning in September of this year. A season featuring 40-or-more games will run from September through March, encompassing what would be the normal fall and winter seasons for high school sports.

Athletes who are recruited to NFA for the purpose of playing hockey would not be eligible to play any other CIAC-sanctioned sports at the school, athletic director Roy Wentworth said Monday. Wentworth also said that NFA will keep its cooperative status with the Eastern Connecticut Eagles, a CIAC-sponsored program made up of players from nine high schools in the region.

The NHC will be affililated with the Southeastern Connecticut Youth Hockey League, which is sanctioned by USA Hockey. Sheehan said he expects Norwich to play against other Tier I teams from around the Massachusetts and New England districts.

Working his campus safety job at NFA in addition to his hockey responsibilites, Sheehan said he hasn't slept much but called it a "labor of love, for sure."

"It's very different for high school (in terms of recruiting). Hockey's just a little different," Sheehan said. "I think it's going to add to the rich, diverse nature of our campus right now. If we can make this all happen and it looks like it's all falling into place, it's going to be super exciting.

"It's a long season for these kids but it's the development time that helps them get ready to play juniors and to play college hockey."

v.fulkerson@theday.com