1/27/99

Steve: Landon, this is going to be your first interview for the Bucs so we need to know a little background information. Where were you born, where were you raised, and where do you call home?

Landon: I was born in Northern Minnesota – Moose Lake, Minnesota. I lived there for about a year and then my family moved down to White Bear Lake, where I am living now and have for the past 18 years. I grew up going to school there and started playing hockey at the age of ten. I played traveling hockey and high school hockey for White Bear Lake for three years. Last year was my first year of juniors. I played for the Danville Wings in the North American Hockey League. I started out there this year and got traded here. The rest speaks for itself.

Steve: White Bear Lake is a suburb of Minneapolis. Tell me about the hockey program there. It is pretty well known, isn’t it?

Landon: It’s really well known. It’s an association. The White Bear Lake Hockey Association is the biggest in the nation. I think it has around 5,000 kids enrolled. I am not too sure, but it has got a lot of kids in the program. It is really well known. I came up through it and a lot of pro players now have gone through White Bear. Brian Bohn and I think Matt Henderson, to name a few.

Steve: So when your parents moved down from northern Minnesota to White Bear Lake, it wasn’t necessarily for hockey was it?

Landon: No, my dad’s job got transferred. Otherwise, who knows what I would be doing. I don’t know if I would have been playing hockey if they didn’t move.

Steve: So how did you get interested in hockey then?

Landon: Friends. Actually, I played baseball, football, and hockey so I was playing sports all year round. Baseball was my favorite, then football, and then I played hockey just with my friends. I wasn’t really into it, wasn’t too talented, wasn’t good at it. Then I tried out for traveling, somehow made the A team, and then all of a sudden hockey became my favorite. I loved hockey and then gradually I dropped baseball and football when I came to high school.

Steve: Were you always a goalie then?

Landon: Yep. I started out a season skating and I was no good. The coach nicely asked me to try goalie. He put me in there and I did good. I was winning the games and I’ve been there ever since.

Steve: Were you a starting goalie on your high school team then?

Landon: The first year I played, I played behind a senior. And then the next two years I got to play.

Steve: Did you go to any tournaments or state tournaments or anything?

Landon: Yes, two out of three years. My sophomore/junior year we got to go to the Minnesota State High School Tournament.

Steve: How did you guys do?

Landon: We lost the consolation. It was Bloomington/Jefferson my sophomore year and we lost to Alexandria my junior year. And my senior year we lost to go to the tournament. Those are some great memories.

Steve: Then you mentioned from high school you went to the Danville team.

Landon: Right.

Steve: Tell me about that team. Where’s it at?

Landon: It’s in Danville, Illinois. It’s right on the border. It’s kind of central Illinois; right on the border of Indiana. It was a nine hour trip from Minnesota. We played teams all over from northern Michigan, Ohio and St. Louis.

Steve: How did you come to find out about that team?

Landon: They recruited me. I knew the goalie coach there. When I was growing up, I went to this guy. His name is Warren Strelow. I went to his camps growing up for six, seven years I bet. We got to become pretty close. He went down there to be the goalie coach, and he tracked me and he wanted me to come down there. So I went for try-outs and made the team.

Steve: And is that in the NAHL?

Landon: Right.

Steve: And how did you guys do?

Landon: We ended up losing in the playoffs. We were seeded third going into the playoffs and then we ended up losing to Compuware. If we would have beat them, we would have went to the national tournament and maybe even played Des Moines.

Steve: So had you heard about the USHL then when you were in high school?

Landon: Right.

Steve: But because of your relationship with the goalie coach, that was the way you wanted to go.

Landon: Yeah. And I wanted to try going away from home and seeing how I liked being away from home, like seeing if I would like being away going off to college.

Steve: So then how did the trade come? Was that hard on you to be traded? I mean, you were at a place where you respect the goalie coach and then you are traded.

Landon: Well, it was a totally different situation this year. The goalie coach wasn’t there; the head coach left. So it was a totally new group of coaches coming in and they recruited new people. They said I was the number one goalie coming in, and then they started playing all three of us. I just wasn’t as comfortable as I was last year, and I felt if I didn’t get much playing time there, it would have kind of been the end of my career. I talked to the coaches and they talked to teams, and I guess they ended up talking to Scott Owens and I got the great opportunity to come up here. I was excited about the move.

Steve: So what do you think? Has it been worth it?

Landon: Oh, for sure.

Steve: Why?

Landon: This league is so much older; it has got so much more experience and the players seem so much more talented. The hockey is a lot faster. I mean, there are smarter players. There are more Division I players that come out of here. The North American Hockey League is a good league but it is still young yet. It hasn’t been around that long. So I was really fortunate. I didn’t know where he was going to trade me to. Then when he said Des Moines, and knowing how well Des Moines has been in the past and how they won the national tournament last year, so I was excited to come here.

Steve: Okay. What are your plans afterwards? Now how long can you play for Des Moines? How many years of eligibility do you have?

Landon: I can play juniors for one more year. It has never really been a plan of mine. I have always wanted to get off to college as soon as possible. Right now I am looking at a Division III school in Wisconsin called River Falls. I just took a visit up there and I liked the campus. It looks like I will be going there if nothing, you know, like no Division I offers or anything come at the end of this year.

Steve: I think we have a couple of Bucs up at Wisconsin-River Falls. Do you know any of them up there? I will have to check and do some research, but I think there are some ex-Bucs that are up there. I know we have got some that have gone up there. So this will be your last year if you don’t get a Division I?

Landon: Yeah.

Steve: You want to get on to college and get playing.

Landon: That has been my plans. I mean, I didn’t even know I was playing juniors. So I will just take it one day at a time.

Steve: You never know, right? What do you plan to do in college? Do you have any special interests?

Landon: I am going to major in business, get a business degree. Hopefully maybe start a small business when I get done with it.

Steve: Really?

Landon: Yeah.

Steve: Any special interests?

Landon: Well, sporting goods. White Bear needs a sporting goods store. If we have one and we have all those kids that play hockey and stuff, it would be a good investment.

Steve: That is good. Tell me, thinking back about all your experiences in hockey, what is one of your greatest or most memorable athletic moments? Do you have one?

Landon: It would have to of been my junior year. We played Hill Murray, our rivals. They were a private school and they were ranked number one that year, and I don’t even know if we were in the top 20. We ended up playing them to go to the finals and I think we were all shy and out played them somehow. In overtime we ended up beating them 4-3, and then we ended up going on to the state tournament where we played, I think our first game we played there were like 17,000 people there watching. It was unreal.

Steve: We didn’t talk about any of your hobbies or other interests. Do you have any hobbies besides hockey? What do you like to do?

Landon: I like to golf, try to golf. I like to fish; I like to go camping. I like to do stuff outdoors.

Steve: If you could end up anywhere then, you would end up in Minnesota probably?

Landon: You mean in the future?

Steve: Yeah. You will go to college probably up north. Where would you like to end up, I guess?

Landon: After college?

Steve: Yeah.

Landon: I would probably stick around Minnesota, just cause all my family is there and everything. I could start a business there but who knows.

Steve: Okay. Anything else you would like to tell the fans here on your interview? What is your nickname?

Landon: My nickname? I have been called Lex growing up, Lex Luther, Spider Man because of arachnophobia. I am afraid of spiders. Those are pretty much it. A lot of people just call me by my last name.