Coach Ari Esmi brings high-level playing experience—from travel hockey through Penn State’s D3 club team—to his role developing player skills with the Pittsburgh Emperors. He loves seeing the kids’ smiles and sharing the pure joy of playing hockey. Born and raised in East Pittsburgh, Ari now works as an electrical engineer and stays active in adult-league hockey. Off the ice, he’s also a music producer, guitarist, and touring musician whose band has been featured on 105.9 The X. His advice to young players: Remember that hockey is fun—enjoy the game and celebrate every new skill you learn.
Years Coaching Hockey: 1
High School travel hockey, Penn State D3 Club Hockey
Seeing the smiles on the faces of our kiddos, and getting to share in the joy of playing the game of hockey
N/A
Born and Raised in East Pittsburgh. Lived in the South Hills for a few years and then moved back to East Pittsburgh a couple years ago.
No Kids, But my wife and I have a 4 year old Boxer named Duncan and 2 Cats, Vera and Birkenstock!
Penguins ofcourse! But I do enjoy watching the Penn State D1 hockey teams (both mens and womens)!
I work as an electrical engineer for Bechtel Plant Machinery. As for hobbies, I do enjoy getting to play hockey in adult leagues to stay active. I do music production and have produced several bands across the US and Canada. I am also a guitarist and back-up vocalist for a band, and enjoy touring to different states to play shows!
Playing Hockey
Chicken Parmesean
Blue (although 97% of all the t-shirts I own are black)
I had a Darth Maul StarWars lightsaber that I absolutely loved growing up.
Teleportation. Being able to travel place to place at the blink of an eye would be such an efficient use of time.
The very first time I had a blue-line slapshot go bardown. As a very young player at the time, achieving a skill that I worked very hard to master will forever be a core memory.
My band has been regularly featured on 105.9 The X, and parts of our songs have been used for their promotional segments airing atleast a couple times a day. Our debut EP has surpassed 1.5 Million streams.
Try to remember that hockey is fun! Its a game! While its easy to get frustrated when learning new skills, try to remember the joy of the game and how happy you were the last time you learned a new skill.
Im going to take one from the Penguins playbook... Sad But True by Metallica
I love getting to talk to people, whether it be about hockey or anything in general. Please feel free to come up and chat if you see me!
