Deans, Steven Andrew

BORN JUNE 18TH 1982 in Hornsby Hospital, Sydney, he attended Belconnen High School then Hawker College in the ACT. He started skating at a young age and represented the ACT in Aussie Skate national competitions when he was just 6 or 7. At 8, he was a member of the Kinetic Kids with his sister Melissa, the ACT’s precision figure skating team for eight to fourteen year-olds coached by Gwen Peterson. He represented the ACT in the Australian National Ice Skating Championships before he was 10 years-old. He joined the Senior Precision Team Knightmoves, represented Australia in Finland and Sweden in 1996, and went on to become the Australian National Intermediate Men's Figure Skating Champion at 16.

A product of the local junior ice hockey development program, at 9 he was a graduate of the 1991 Hyperdome Ice Hockey Development School, a 10-week program sponsored by Tuggeranong Hyperdome, designed to introduce youngsters to the game. He represented the ACT in the 1991 President’s Cup (U13), where he was runner-up to New South Wales and received one of two tournament encouragement awards. ACT coach, John Woodman, said at that time, "We only have 16 players to pick from for the tournament compared to NSW’s 200 so, the ACT players really did cover themselves in glory."

Still only 10, he made history the next year with the state ice hockey team when the ACT snatched victory from New South Wales in the 1992 President’s Cup Grand Final in Adelaide. This time, two locals coached, Jason Thewlis and Michael Sutton, the first Australian’s to coach an under-14 team to a national title. Five of his teammates were Australian Allstars, MVP Richard Moon, Best Defenseman Adam Symonds, Shaun Elliot, Josh Pettiford and goalie Nat Button. He and his brother Mark joined the WA Defris team (U15) in Sydney one year when the ACT did not compete, and defeated NSW in the grand final. A short time later he stayed with the King family in Perth, joined the WA team again, and played in an Australasian Tournament winning games against the national teams of Thailand and New Zealand.

One of the young players recruited and developed by the Canberra Knights ice hockey club when John Raut was manager, he grew into a 167 cm, 83 kg forward who played in jersey No 33 over a dozen straight seasons with the club. He was a founding player with the Knights in the AIHL in 2000, and probably played over 200 games. In his last eight seasons he scored 18 goals, 30 assists for an average of 0.31 points per game. In the late-90s, he was a player in the NJT Development program with Coach Botterill.

He represented his country at Youth (U18), Junior (U20) and Senior levels in about 25 games. First, in 1998 at the IIHF Asian Oceanic U18 Championships in Harbin, China. Then in 2000, again in China, where Australia again failed to qualify for IIHF World U18 Championships. That same year, he also played in Pool D of the World Juniors in Mexico City and returned in 2001 at Belgrade. The next year, he represented Australia at the senior level for the first time at Cape Town in South Africa coached by John Botterill, with ACT locals Mark Rummukainen and goalie Conor White. He returned in 2003 in Seoul with Rummukainen and David Batho, where Australia again finished fourth. He scored 4 goals, 8 assists in 5 of the 6 internationals.

In 2005, he won the Brown Trophy, a major contributor for South Australia, scoring one of the shootout goals in the Grand Final. In 2007, he helped coach South Australia to runner-up against NSW at the Brown tournament. He retired from top-level ice hockey in 2011 when he was 29. Currently working with the Department of Education and Training in Canberra, his career on ice here developed locally and spanned 25 years or more.