Kyle: I was born in Hutchinson, Minnesota. It is about an hour west of the Minneapolis area. That is where I consider my home. Just recently, in last June, we moved to a suburb of Minneapolis.

Steve: Tell me a little bit about your family, your brothers and sisters.

Kyle: Well my brother is 22. He plays at the University of Notre Dame and is a junior. He played two years in the USHL with the Twin Cities Vulcans. My sister is 15 and is a freshman at Benilde- St. Margaret’s High School. My dad is an insurance agent for State Farm, and my mom helps out at home.

Steve: So you are a native of Minnesota then?

Kyle: Yep.

Steve: Why did you decide to move to the Minneapolis area?

Kyle: My dad works in the metro area and he has been commuting for like 12 years. My sister decided she wanted to go to a different school.

Steve: Is that the same school Troy Riddle went to?

Kyle: Yeah.

Steve: So they have quite a hockey program there?

Kyle: Yeah. She plays hockey there for the girl’s team.

Steve: Good for her! So when your parents moved, had you already been playing somewhere else besides in the Minneapolis area?

Kyle: Last year I played for the Twin Cities Vulcans. Then I made the change down here. Once Tom Carroll got the job, I thought it would be a good place to be and moved down to Des Moines, Iowa.

Steve: Has your family been able to see you play here as a Buc yet?

Kyle: Yeah, in the fall they came down to most of the games. Then my brother started playing and they started watching him, and my sister started. So they kind of balance it out. But I haven’t played in the last couple of months. I had knee surgery over Thanksgiving.

Steve: How is that going?

Kyle: It’s all right.

Steve: What did they do?

Kyle: They took out five pieces of cartilage. I have been in rehabilitation for the last couple of months. That was my first game back on Tuesday against Sioux Falls. I saw a couple of shifts but I’ve got to work my way back.

Steve: How did it feel?

Kyle: It feels good. It gets sore every now and then, but it’s probably going to be that way for the rest of the year.

Steve: You said a little bit about where you’re from. How did you start playing hockey? What are the various teams you’ve played for?

Kyle: I started playing hockey when I was four, and I just worked my way up through the youth leagues in Hutchinson. I played high school varsity hockey for four years.

Steve: In Hutchinson?

Kyle: In Hutchinson, yeah. After that, like I said, I started up in Bismarck and played eight games up there. Then I moved back down and played with the Twin Cities Vulcans for the remainder of the season.

Steve: So how did you like it up there?

Kyle: I hated it.

Steve: Really?

Kyle: I didn’t like it at all. It’s out in the middle of nowhere. Our shortest bus ride was eight hours, the shortest. We had a couple bus trips where we left and it was an eight-day road trip. It was a 24-hour bus ride and you would play four games. I decided it wasn’t for me.

Steve: So you played up there and then you made the switch to the Vulcans. How did that happen?

Kyle: Well, I knew Jim Hillman and Jim Johansen from when my brother played there. I asked them if I could start skating with them, and they said yeah. I started practicing with them and I played 30 games from Christmas on.

Steve: How did the change to the Bucs come about?

Kyle: That came about this summer when I was left with the decision of where I wanted to do. Jim Hillman left it open to me if I wanted to go somewhere else. Once I heard Coach Tom Carroll was coming to the Des Moines Buccaneers, I contacted him and came down to the tryout camp here and made my decision to stay here.

Steve: What is the best thing about being a Buc?

Kyle: You get treated real nice down here; I like it. There is more exposure, a lot of fans. People, you know, want to get to know you and they like coming here. At the Twin Cities there is not much of an atmosphere. The guys are a little closer knit because they come from all over. You know, they latch onto each other and everyone is kind of friends here. Unlike the Twin Cities, the guys all live at home so they see their friends from high school. As soon as you leave the doors from practice, you don’t see each other much.

Steve: I see. How about Bismarck, were guys coming from all over to play there?

Kyle: Yeah. They were from all over up there too.

Steve: What are your plans for hockey in the future? How long can you play for the Bucs?

Kyle: I think this will be my last year. I turn 20 on January 16th. So I could play a half year next year, but I’m not. This is it after this year for juniors. I am hoping to attend college. I would like to play college hockey, but we’ll see how it goes.

Steve: In all the years you’ve been playing hockey, what is one of your greatest athletic moments?

Kyle: I would have to say my freshman year. We went to the state tournament for Class A and that was the first time Hutchinson had ever gone to the state tournament in hockey. The two-class tournament made it possible for smaller schools to participate. Like Benilde-St. Margaret’s is a Class A school. We won the consolation that year. We were 24-0 and we were the only undefeated team in the state going in. We thought we were the best team in the state, and we got knocked off by a team we beat 8-1 two weeks before.

Steve: Really?

Kyle: But that was the highlight making it to the state tournament for the first time.

Steve: What’s the most embarrassing thing that happened to you in all those years playing hockey?

Kyle: That is a tough one. I don’t know. I would say the only one that strikes my mind is like when I was in pee wees; I was probably about 13 or 14. We were playing at a game and I was skating full speed down the ice trying to beat the puck. The puck was slowly creeping towards the crease, and I wanted to pick it up and go in on a break away. I just missed it and flew into the boards going full speed from about six feet away. There was no one around me. I just tripped myself right into the boards. That’s probably the only embarrassing thing I can think of right now.

Steve: Do you have a nickname?

Kyle: Not really. It bounces back and forth. Some people call me Doldes or D. But otherwise, nothing as stuck. Unlike some people and that’s all you call them is by their nickname, but nothing has stuck for me.

Steve: Do you have any other hobbies besides hockey?

Kyle: I like all other sports and then jet skiing, snowmobiling, hunting, fishing, stuff like that, outdoor stuff.

Steve: If I won a million dollars, I would . . .

Kyle: I would buy a new car and then I would probably invest it somehow. Make the million into more than a million. I am still young. I could keep that and pay for college.

Steve: Sure. Your favorite toy as a child was what?

Kyle: Probably a Big Wheel.

Steve: Were you crazy on it?

Kyle: Yeah. We would play like bumper cars and we would smash up. We would get a couple guys and we would smash their Big Wheels together. That was always fun.

Steve: I can’t imagine living without . . .

Kyle: I don’t know. Sports probably, I guess. I can’t stand not doing anything and just sitting around.

Steve: The fans probably don’t know that . . .

Kyle: That I play the guitar, not very well.

Steve: Electric or acoustic?

Kyle: A little of both.

Steve: Any type of music you like better?

Kyle: Well, I like the blues but it’s real tough to play. I’m starting to learn now to play that stuff. Otherwise, you know, more like Dave Matthews and mellow rock type.

Steve: Is there anything else that you would like to tell the fans in your interview?

Kyle: Thanks for clicking on the web site and checking us out.

1/6/00