While Adamski was busy answering the phone and communicating with staff members Friday, grade schoolers wearing protective helmets were whirling around the rink. At one point, Adamski, also director of the Old York Road Raiders youth hockey program, stepped outside and asked an Associated Press photographer not to capture the faces of the youngsters as they walked from a school bus to the building.
"This is crazy," he said. "Those kids are just here to skate. People outside the hockey community really don't know anything about this."
On Wednesday, following an investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the U.S. Attorney's Office filed charges alleging that Pravilov transported minors across the state lines for illicit sexual conduct.
"From what I know, a lot of rinks in the area would give him free ice time," Adamski, 39, said. "We were just trying to do a good thing. This rink is all about the game and letting the kids play hockey."
Members of Pravilov's program, also known as Druzhba '78, practiced at the rink Friday. The youngsters were wearing the club's white, powder blue and yellow jerseys with "Ivan Pravilov's Unique Hockey School" on the front.
"It's a team of 12-year-olds, I think," Adamski, 39, said. "We're letting the kids skate because it's the right thing to do. They didn't do anything wrong."
"They practiced this morning," he added. "They're leaving and going away for a tournament. I think they're going to Quebec."
A hockey parent from Media, Delaware County, said she hosted two boys from Pravilov's program last year "for a couple of days."
"His kids skated [at IceWorks in Aston] a little bit," said the woman, who requested anonymity, "but I don't think he ran any clinics there. My son's team scrimmaged his team once."
Adamski's mother, Marie, is the office manager at the Rink at Old York Road. Through her son, she declined comment.
"She's real upset about it," Justin Adamski said, "but she's been told [by the rink owner] not to talk about it."
Adamski, a father of five from Horsham, oversees seven club teams, with players ranging in age from 4 to 17, at the rink. Last year, a 14-and-under Raiders squad claimed the Tier II 3A Division national championship by beating a team from Santa Clara, Calif.
"Everyone who works here, from the managers on down, has to pass a background check," the Cardinal Dougherty High School graduate said.
Contact staff writer Rick O'Brien at 610-313-8019, robrien@phillynews.com, or @ozoneinq on Twitter. Read his blog, "The O'Zone," at www.philly.com/ozone.
