After a sabbatical year spent developing the Little Caps from behind-the-scenes in his role as Executive Director, Plocki is set to lead the 15u squad for the 2019-20 season. This will be his 11th season with the club.

Plocki began coaching WLC Midget teams in 2009, and is proud of the players he helped develop, and the young men and women he helped to forge a bright future, on and off the ice.

“Doug is the most accomplished and decorated coach in the club—and it’s not even close,” says Hockey Director Matt Thomas. “Getting him back in the mix is a massive boost to our cadre of coaches and the 15u squad.”  

Plocki accepted the Director role two years ago, spent last season solely in that role to help the Club build for its future.  “It was hard to step away from the coaching role, but also very satisfying getting some projects off the ground. Going forward, I’m very excited to work with Matt [Thomas] and Lyon [Messier] on the hockey side, and our new owners on the business side, to help the Little Caps to national prominence.”

For the past two years, Plocki has focused on building a tool set to help stabilize the Club.  “We completely overhauled our internal processes, and re-wrote our contracts, policies, and budgeting platform.  We also built tools to improve hockey operations – the WLC Player Development Model, the WLC Coach Education Program, for example.”  The coming year will be spent expanding Club offerings, improving our coaching and development models, improving relationships with local hockey clubs, getting back in touch with our Alumni, and improving our marketing efforts.  Plocki also helps mentor and evaluate WLC coaches, and still jumps on the ice to run practices.  “I love being on the ice, and we are always looking for ways to improve what we offer our players.”

As a Little Caps coach, Plocki helped several Little Caps players reach their dream of playing college hockey, and placed players in top junior leagues in the United States and Canada.  His teams also collected some hardware along the way.  He helped Little Caps teams win four Southeast District titles in nine years, advancing to the USA Hockey National Tournament each of those seasons.   His teams have won titles in the Tier-1 Elite Hockey League, North American Prospects Hockey League (NAPHL), and National Junior Prospects Hockey League (NJPHL).  Players on his teams have been regular fixtures at the Atlantic Youth Hockey League All-Star games, and multiple league All-Academic Teams..

Plocki is a Pittsburgh native who began coaching in 1992 with the State College Youth Ice Hockey Association.  He returned to Pittsburgh to coach at his high school alma mater and the local Tier-I programs.  Plocki began coaching in the DC area in 2006 with the Kettler Capitals Iceplex youth program.  He helped coach Kettler's Tier-1 Development Camps beginning in 2008 before joining the Little Caps.  “These past few years we’ve moved players into the USHL, NAHL, OHL, multiple Division I and III programs, and have seen many young men and women earn college degrees and launch what are sure to be successful futures.  I’m looking forward to continuing that trend.”  Plocki is a USA Hockey Level 5 certified coach, and has coached at the USA Hockey National Development Camp for the past two summers.  “That was an awesome experience- to connect with so many talented players and coaches was a massive learning opportunity and a real honor.  I can bring what I learned there to the Little Caps.  It’s a great way to help our players and coaches.”   

Plocki graduated from Penn State University in 1996 with a BS in Administration of Justice, and earned his JD from George Mason University School of Law in 2002.  He owns and operates a law firm in Fairfax City, and lives with his wife Ayana in Arlington.