2/11/99

Steve: Michael, this will be your first interview with the Buccaneers and so we would like to get a little background information on you. Tell me where you were born and a little bit about your family.

Michael: I was born in Urbana, Illinois which is about three hours directly south of Chicago. It is where the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign is located. I live about a block away from all the nearest sororities and fraternities so I am pretty close to campus. I have grown up in a family that has dealt with restaurants, owned and run restaurants, all my life. Just recently my parents have decided to move on to different jobs because they like these better. My dad, who ran and owned restaurants, decided to move into food service. He sells the food to the restaurants now, and he likes that pretty much. He gets to work out of the home. My mom was in the restaurant business with my dad. She went to school for law and so she became an attorney. She was a law teacher for a little bit at the U of I. She has got a job now back at home. So I have got two brothers, one sister. My brothers play hockey. My sister is very active in ballet, piano, and everything else.

Steve: Are you the oldest of the brothers and sisters?

Michael: Yeah, I am the oldest. I am four years older than my next, who just turned 14. He is off at prep school right now, the same prep school I went to.

Steve: What got you interested in playing hockey?

Michael: Well, actually it was my dad’s attorney. My dad went into his office, talked to him, and he had a picture of his two sons who played hockey. He said we had a nice youth hockey program at home, so my dad put me into it and it just kind of went on from there. I didn’t necessarily like it every year. I was always scared to go on the ice and play for the first two or three years. Then it just took off, I guess.

Steve: What age did you start playing?

Michael: I started at age five, I think. I have been playing every since. I started skating at four and started playing hockey at five.

Steve: Did you play any other sports when you were in high school or growing up?

Michael: I didn’t play any high school sports. I swam during the summer on the swim team. I played baseball when I was in middle school, soccer when I was a littler kid. I played basketball and tennis just recreationally but I really like those. It is fun to play with your friends.

Steve: Tell me about the teams you played for as you were coming up and growing up and how you decided to really pursue hockey seriously.

Michael: At one time I had baseball, swimming, hockey all in one. I thought baseball was the most boring sport ever. I had fun playing, you know, but just standing around was just kind of boring. You had to get up too early in the morning for swimming. I really liked hockey. It wasn’t as rigorous as a lot of other programs. We only had practice two times a week and games on the ice. Right when I was in about eighth grade, they changed the age level in determining whether you are a peewee or a squirt or a midget. They moved the date back, and my program wouldn’t let me skate up. I was always the youngest kid so I had to stay down with the younger kids. Everyone that I had always played with before moved on. My parents looked at getting me into high school early so I could play at a higher level, and we just decided to move to Chicago. Not my family, but me just to go and do like I am doing now in Des Moines. Live in Chicago with another family and play up there. So I went and tried out for two teams actually. I decided on one and found somebody to live with. Decided, you know, just to go out and went to school there and I just went from there.

Steve: Which team was that?

Michael: I played for the Northwest Charters. It is out of Rolling Meadows, Illinois. It is a AA program, and I played there my peewee year and my bantam year. So I was there for two years in a row. I got hurt my first year. I tore my ACL partially, so I was out for a month or two. It wasn’t that bad so I got back. After that I moved to Minnesota to prep school at Shattuck-St. Mary’s. I actually went to school with Noah Clarke both those years.

Steve: Up at Shattuck-St. Mary’s?

Michael: Up at Shattuck-St. Mary’s. Then I played with Noah my midget year. The first year I was there I played up on midgets. We didn’t play on the same team my second year there.

Steve: So what happened after that? Is that when you got on the USA team?

Michael: Yeah.

Steve: How did that happen?

Michael: My dad had gotten me into the regional USA Festival tryouts. So while I was in school, my dad had flown me home, you know, cheap airfare from Minneapolis to Chicago. I tried out there and I just made each level. Actually, after the regional camp Coach Owens had seen me and the draft was two days after the last camp and he drafted me. You know, I got a call from him. Actually, I was going to come here last year and I was planning on coming here until mid-summer when I went to Ann Arbor to the festival and they asked me to play there. You know, it was a tough decision. I just felt that the USA program would help me out individually. I liked Coach Owens a lot and I liked the whole atmosphere around here. I don’t know what it was. Just something said that I should pursue USA hockey. I got hurt again and broke my arm in the middle of December, so I was out for three months there.

Steve: Did one of the Bucs break your arm, if I remember right?

Michael: No, I was in Fargo.

Steve: Oh, okay.

Michael: I don’t like playing in that rink anymore. We got up there in a couple of weeks. I broke it there. I went to hit somebody and kind of had my arms up. It was the hand that is on the top of my stick, so my stick was kind of weighing my hand at a weird angle. When I hit the guy at center ice, it just snapped right away. I knew it was broken and I heard it snap and felt it snap. I went off and had to go get a splint on it and I had surgery the next Monday. That was on Saturday night and I had surgery on the next Monday.

Steve: Well, tell us a little about the Team USA. What is it like playing with them? Did you play out of the states? Tell the fans a little bit about that program.

Michael: Well, basically the reason why they started it is because we have the most people playing hockey. We have the most money to fund hockey, yet we aren’t doing well internationally. Like in world junior competition, we hadn’t done so well. I believe the program was started to develop kids for the international level for like world juniors and stuff like that, and also for college and so on. So that is basically the reason why. They gave USA a lot of money to build a great facility with, you know, great locker rooms and a boxing ring and a weight room. A lot of people think the boxing ring was to teach us how to fight, but it was more to make us mentally tough. You know, in a boxing ring it is just you and the other guy and you know you are going to get hit. So if you can take that, you know, you are obviously going to be able to take it on the ice.

Steve: So you had boxing lessons while you were up there?

Michael: We had them once a week on Wednesdays. We had a boxing instructor who taught us how to box. You know, eventually throughout the year half of us would do running on the treadmill or biking, and the other half would run through a circuit from the heavy bags to the speed bags to the double end bags, which is like a bag with two bungy cords, one from the ceiling and one from the floor. Then two people would spar or something in the ring. It was kind of fun. I never liked spar cause I hate getting hit in the face. I mean, I just hate getting hit. It is not a fun thing, you know. So we did that and we lifted twice a week. It was a new program so it was their first year last year so things were a little shaky, because obviously things aren’t going to go the way they planned but I think it is just going to get better and better. You know, last year I think four guys maybe didn’t get full scholarships right out of there. I don’t know how the other guys are doing. I think they are playing juniors. I think one kid went Division III. The point was to help us improve individually skillwise, teach us the game of hockey, you know, playing without the puck, playing with the puck. You know, learning how to play on the power play and the penalty kill and different situations, so it was all around. And you got equal playing time all the time, which unlike some junior programs, you have two lines that play a lot and the other two don’t play a lot. And the fourth line sometimes, you know, not so much here, but other places they don’t play at all, which was good for development. And also you had international play. Because I was hurt I didn’t get to go, but they went to Camrose, Canada which is above Calgary, I think. They went to Russia, around Moscow, and then Finland and Sweden. I am sure that was a great experience for them.

Steve: So how did you decide to come to the Bucs then after that year?

Michael: Well, I wanted a full scholarship but I didn’t have one. We went around and played USHL teams and I wasn’t really impressed with, you know, what I had seen. Because Coach Owens had shown interest in me before, I thought I might just keep my loyalty here. So that is why I came back, or he sent me back and I wanted to come back.

Steve: Now is this going to be your last year then for the Bucs?

Michael: Yeah. I am going on to the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, which I am happy and excited about that. Excited to go to school.

Steve: So you hope to play professional hockey then after Notre Dame?

Michael: Hopefully. We will see how things go, how I improve, how I develop, you know, if I get hurt or not. But that is what I want to do. I started early, left home early. I went to four high schools in four years. I kept my friends at home pretty well, but I never got to see them. I gave up a lot of my high school years to pursue this. Hopefully it is a possibility, a good possibility.

Steve: Great. Well, is there anything else you would like to tell the fans. This is your first and last interview with the Bucs. Is there anything else?

Michael: I had a lot of fun playing here. You know, it is always great for the home games when the fans are, I think our fans are the best in the USHL. It is just loud and our rink is good for a great atmosphere, great support from the fans. Hopefully they can keep that going after I leave.

Steve: Great. Thank you, Michael.

Michael: Thank you.