He grew up in a small Midwestern town performing at the local community theater, left for New York, landed a part in a Tony-award winning Broadway show and married a Broadway star. He and his wife put together a concert and they’re taking it back to that small Midwestern town for the world première — this weekend.

“Come Dance With Me,” starring Shonn Wiley and Meredith Patterson, runs Oct. 1-3 at Croswell Opera House in Adrian, Mich. Tickets are $36 and can be purchased at www.croswell.org.

“This is something brand spankin’ new,” Wiley said.

Wiley

Wiley, an Adrian native, performed in the Tony award-winning revival of “42nd Street” on Broadway in 2001. His wife, Meredith Patterson, starred in the production. Both have performed in a variety of high-end shows and concerts of similar caliber.

“Come Dance With Me” consists of about 20 musical numbers from the 1940s and 50s, including Broadway musicals and popular music of the time, said Jere Righter, artistic director at the Croswell. Between numbers, Wiley and Patterson will tell the audience about the music and its influence on America – and also about their own lives and artistic journeys.

“It’s going to be an inside glimpse into Shonn and Meredith and how they are like every other struggling and starving artist that believes in what they’re doing and the value of live theater – and just some fun. It’s toe-tapping music; you want to sing along when you hear it,” Righter said.

This isn’t Wiley’s first time at the Croswell. Righter remembers working with him at his first Croswell show when he was 9 or 10 years old.

The show, “42nd Street,” doesn’t normally have children in the cast, but Wiley made an impression during his audition, Righter said.

“Shonn was such an outstanding dancer that they gave him a featured dance number,” Righter said. “He just had that star quality from the very beginning.”

Wiley said he enjoys coming back to Michigan.

“It’s great. I love coming home,” he said. “The support of the arts in the community of Adrian is comparable to the support of the arts here in New York. I think it’s interesting that in such a small community, you have as much of a respect for art and fine art and music and dance and theater,” Wiley said.

Patterson

When Wiley was performing in “Jersey Boys” in Chicago, Righter went with a few other people to see the show near the end of its run. All told, about 30 or 40 people from Adrian had made the trip that night, she said. After the show, they waited outside the theater for him.

“He stopped and made a big point of hanging out with the woman who babysat him when he was little,” Righter said. “He’s like the guy next door, but he’s also got that … you see people flock around him.”

Wiley and Patterson’s concert will be “celebration of Hollywood and jazz,” Patterson said.

“There isn’t a story, per se, but it does mirror our life together and in the theater, and it has a little bit of insight as to what we love about … being on stage together,” she said.

The program includes number such as “All That Jazz,” “Fly Me to the Moon” and “Dream a Little Dream of Me.”

“There’s tunes in the show that are probably well-known, that people are probably going to go ‘I know that song!’” Wiley said. “And there are going to be tunes from that era that are wonderful tunes but weren’t made as popular.”

The Croswell hasn’t had the opportunity to première a show in about 15 years, Righter said.

“It’s an opportunity for the Southeast Michigan and Northeast Ohio communities to come check something out that’s never been seen before,” Wiley said. “It’s going to be a really fun evening.”

Breathe Owl Breathe comes to Mickey Finn’s 9 p.m. Oct. 2 straight out of a log cabin in Michigan’s East Jordan Valley. The trio of Micah Middaugh on guitar and vocals, Andréa Moreno-Beals on cello and vocals, and percussionist Trevor Hobbs bring a flowing yet eclectic style to their storytelling alternative songs.
“We have a minimalist kind of approach to things and are getting more interested in textures and building textures,” Middaugh said. “Every night we’ll be rediscovered in a song.”
The three friends all live in a log cabin built by Middaugh’s family for his grandmother and grandfather. His grandparents have since vacated the place to allow the 20-somethings to record and create.

Breathe Owl Breathe

Its newest album “Magic Central,” released Sept. 28, is a product of winter days spent snowbound at the log cabin, when the band members were able to concentrate on processing all of their experiences from touring on the road into a creative flow of recordings.
“It was a time to really dig deep and record when you wanted to record and record when you didn’t want to record,” Middaugh said. “It’s amazing in both places what happened.”
The band has pressed two of its four and half albums to vinyl, and still records many of its parts on cassette tapes.
“We’re always inspired by the old,” Middaugh said.
Hobbs and Middaugh met through a mutual friend and roommate, and recorded an amateur VHS zombie movie the day they met. Middaugh met Moreno-Beals through a friend in a Dairy Queen parking lot in Boyne City, Mich., when he had just started a small band with Hobbs around five years ago. After recording a cassette tape together, Hobbs and Middaugh invited Moreno-Beals back to play a festival. They continued to write songs and compiled “Fall Album” that autumn. Hobbs and Moreno-Beals slowly migrated back to Middaugh’s cabin to continue recording.
“We recorded on this little 16 track that I have — the bones of the songs, and brought them down to outside of Ann Arbor to Jim Roll’s studio,” Middaugh said. “It sounds like swimming. We enjoy not really pinning down any ‘label’ or specific sound. A lot of times I’ll go for a run and a couple lines will come to me, and then make a song out of it.”
Breathe Owl Breathe got its name out of a vivid dream Middaugh had of a field mouse and an owl the night before the band was surprised with their first show. It opened for Little Wings at DAC in Grand Rapids.
“It was the most amazing first show we could possibly have,” Middaugh said.
Middaugh, who is also a printmaker, is turning two of the songs he wrote and recorded with Roll into children’s books. “The Listeners,” about a mole and an ostrich, and “These Train Tracks,” about train tracks that turn into a ladder, will be turned into hardcover, hand-bound books featuring Middaugh’s woodcut illustrations. Middaugh is collaborating with world-famous book binder Chad Pastotnik of Deep Wood Press. Each copy of the painstakingly hand-stitched book will include a 7-inch vinyl record in the middle, Middaugh said.
For more information on the Oct. 2 show, call Mickey Finn’s at (419) 246-3466.

“The Simpsons” has been on the air since 1989; its “Treehouse of Horror” tie-in from Bongo Comics is in its 16th year. As Jim Collins of Toledo’s JC’s Comic Stop puts it, “That’s longer than most marriages!”
Collins calls “The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror” No. 16 “the one all self-respecting Simpsons fans should pick up. One thing that makes this year’s issue special is the ‘Mars Attacks’ inspired cover, called ‘Marge Attacks.’ Bongo could have been content with that, but they decided more goodies were in order, so they also include four ‘Marge Attacks’ trading cards inside the comic. If your copy doesn’t have these, your comic shop has pulled a fast one on you.”
True to the Simpsons’ TV history, its comics also claim a coterie of incredible guest stars, and this “Treehouse of Horror” is no exception. Funny book and cartooning luminaries like Evan Dorkin, Peter Kuper and Kelly Jones all climb into Bart Simpson’s little shop of horror for stories, and as Collins reminds us, “the final story is written by rock ‘n’ roll legend Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead!”
Collins also notes that next week, “there be dragons” on the horizon: “Savage Dragon” No. 164 from Image Comics.
“Out of all the creators who left Marvel in the mid ’90s, Erik Larsen is still the only one doing his own comic,” he said. “I can respect that! Part Two of the ‘Emperor Dragon’ storyline has begun. Can this be true? Has the Dragon we’ve all known these past 15 years been a fraud? There are no rules in Larsen’s universe, nothing set in stone. Tired of the predictable? Try Savage Dragon.”

Downtown Grand Rapids will host the annual Apple Butter Festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 10.

Steve Kryder’s farm hosts the “Big Stir” two weeks before the festival to prepare 1,500 pints of apple butter. The day of the festival, Kryder and a team of volunteers make 1,000 pints on site in massive kettles. Apple butter requires three steps: boiling cider into a concentrate, peeling the apples and then cooking the two together. Kryder said he gets his apples from an orchard in Delta and the cider from an orchard in Wauseon.

“We put the apple butter on sale at 10 a.m. and it’s gone by noon,” Kryder said. “There’s a standing line of several hundred people, and never any of it left.”

According to Kryder, typically between 30,000 and 40,000 people attend the festival, depending on the weather.

“You can hardly beat them away with a stick,” Kryder said.

The event features farm exhibits, crafts, bratwurst and steel kettle bean soup. Festivities begin the night before on Oct. 9 when re-enactors set up camp along the Miami-Erie Canal.

During the day Oct. 10, military and colonial life re-enactors will showcase the history of the Maumee Valley. The festival includes live entertainment with gospel, jazz, classic rock and bluegrass bands performing all day. The Pride of Toledo Barbershop Quartet will walk the tow path and downtown between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

The event is free except for the $8 parking fee. The fee defrays the cost of event security and the free trolley service that shuttles visitors from the parking lot to the event site. Handicap accommodations are available. Leashed dogs are welcome.

For more information, visit www.applebutterfest.org.

The Annual Buddy Walk organized by the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Toledo (DSAGT) will be held 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 3 at UT’s Rocket Hall. Almost 300 walks are planned worldwide by the National Down Syndrome Society. The mile-long walk starts at noon and proceeds around UT’s campus. Registration is $15 for adults and $8 for children.

Patricia Soto, chair of the Buddy Walk, said, “Come and meet the kids, they’re of all different ages: Toddlers, tiny babies to grown ups. There’s lots of love and hugs and kisses.”

DSAGT keeps the money raised from the even in the community, mainly for resource packets given to families of newborns with Down Syndrome. Participants in the Buddy Walk can join a team of a particular child with Down Syndrome by sponsoring them. Those not officially affiliated with a team are invited to meet the children and families and walk with them.

“Our kids bring joy to so many people,” Soto said. “We want to bring awareness to the community to accept them for who they are.”

Soto is the mother of 7-year-old Luie. Luie, who has Down Syndrome, has over 100 people that have donated money to his team and will be walking alongside him Oct. 3. Included will be the Navarre High School football team, who were able to meet Luie through Soto’s nephew, Agapipo Ruiz. The players welcomed Luie with open arms, Soto said, since many of the boys had never been exposed to Down Syndrome before.

“The team made him an honorary player and gave him a jersey with his name on it,” Soto said. “I never say never, but the chances of him [Luis] playing in a pro football team are slim.”

Chris Burke, an actor with Down Syndrome who has played parts on ABC’s “Life Goes On” and CBS’s “Touched By An Angel,” will share his story prior to the walk. Burke will perform with twin brothers Joe and John DeMasi at 1:45 p.m. with their inspirational musical show. Over a thousand walkers are expected to participate this year, Soto said.

To register or donate to a participant, please visit www.dsagt.org. The Buddy Walk page is listed under “Events.”

Red Wanting Blue plays Frankie’s on Oct. 2, and according to vocalist Scott Terry, “The songs we play are personal, the songs are our lives, we don’t make shit up.” While using the descriptive ‘Americana’ or ‘American Rock’ is vague, Terry describes RWB’s art as “honest music played by honest musicians.”

RWB who hails from Columbus, Ohio is a work-driven band that has toured heavily for the last ten years without the support of any major-label backing. “The songs are the direct result of the environment we’ve been in, being on the road.” said Terry. “The songs are about dealing with the shards of what’s left of a personal life and the strange nuclear family that we’ve become.”

Red Wanting Blue

After touring the country over and over for a decade, RWB signed with Fanatic Records in March. Fortunately for RWB this affiliation has not had a negative impact on how fans view the band. Terry says “They want us to move forward and make Ohio proud and make good on the promise. Hopefully the people that have tattoos of our logo don’t have to explain that away to their kids someday.”

“We love our fans.” explains Terry, “I think we’ve been blessed with some of the most loyal fans in the world.” RWB fans have been very supportive of its move to a record label and Terry says “It’s not like we’re hanging with the hipster elite, we haven’t changed and the music remains the same. The label is very supportive of us keeping things how we like it.”

RWB fans aren’t bandwagoneers either. RWB has earned their loyal fan base by touring heavily and writing music that connects to the listener on many levels. “I’m a million dollars away from being a millionaire” jokes Terry “We don’t give ourselves any real down time, indie bands are like sharks, meaning you have to keep moving.”

RWB certainly owns it’s sound. While there are familiar elements in its music the sound is original and hard not to like. “We don’t play modern rock” says Terry, and the sound is quite unlike anything else that is permeating the music scene right now. In fact, now would be a good time to take a listen to what RWB is producing if you’re not familiar with their sound already (myspace.com/redwantingblue). Think Counting Crows meets Pearl Jam, meets pop country played by some very talented musicians.

So, what should you expect from a RWB show at Frankies? According to Terry, “The songs all matter to us and we perform them with the same care that we took in writing them in the first place. You’re not going to get a lot of special effects when we play, but we’re very happy to get sweaty and involved. We’re very passionate about our music.”

Doors for the Red Wanting Blue show open at 9pm. Advance tickets are $8 and can be purchased from Culture Clash or Ramalama Records. Tickets night of the show will be $10.

Glass artist and Toledo native Matthew Paskiet can trace his love of artistic experimentation to childhood hours watching his father work with stained glass.
“All that time I spent with him in the basement, messing around, making things, helped me learn the satisfaction of making something with my own hands,” Paskiet said. “That’s my drive, what makes me happy. I made something with my two hands and someone wants it. That is very gratifying.”

‘Dinosaurs’ by Jeff Mack, part of this year’s Hot Glass exhibit.

Years later, Paskiet had the chance to return the favor. When he started learning to blow glass, his dad was interested, too.
“I showed him smelting and fusing and he automatically gravitated toward that because of his past with stained glass,” Paskiet said.
When his father passed away in February, Paskiet lost one of his biggest fans and Toledo lost a budding glass artist.
Paskiet plans to honor his father’s memory at Hot Glass, the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo’s (ACGT) premier fundraiser, hosted every two years. The event will open with a reception on Oct. 1 and culminate in an auction on Nov. 12.
Proceeds go directly to the artists as well as to fund local arts programs, including Young Artists at Work, Artomatic 419, Gallery Loops and Art Walks, Art in TARTA, and the Parkwood Gallery. Hot Glass raised more than $80,000 in 2008.
The opening reception, which is free and open to the public, will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Edison Building Lobby, 300 Madison Ave., in Downtown Toledo. New this year, bids will be accepted opening night. Online bidding opens Oct. 4.
Paskiet contributed a murrini plate made at the Toledo Museum of Art’s Glass Pavilion and dedicated to his dad.
“It’s a special plate for me and I knew I wanted it to be for something special, a way of putting a piece of my dad in there,” Paskiet said. “He was a big supporter of mine and a big supporter of the arts. I miss him all the time.”

'Pear' by Kelly Sheehan.

The auction will include nearly 100 works from experienced artists as well as new talent, hailing from Toledo to Australia, said Jennifer Jarrett, deputy director of ACGT. Pieces range from marble-sized to large-scale sculptures, Jarrett said.
Paskiet, who owns Firenation Glass Studio and Gallery in Holland, said he’s honored to be part of Hot Glass. Other local artists include Kelly Sheehan, Scott Darlington, Tom McGlauchlin and Jeff Mack.
“I don’t think the general glass-buying public realizes the quality and caliber of the glass that’s going to be at this show,” Paskiet said. “It’s a great opportunity to support the arts scene in Toledo, see some of the best art glass around, mingle with the artists and just try something new.”
Between Oct. 1 and Nov. 12, the exhibition will be open to the public 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Friday. The gala auction is set for 6:30-10 p.m. Nov. 12. The evening will feature live and silent auctions, heavy hors d’oeurves and desserts, and a cash bar.
All artwork will be auctioned, as well as several glass experience and tour packages. Tickets are $75 per person.
To purchase tickets, contact the Arts Commission at (419) 254-2787 or hotglass@acgt.org.
For more information, visit www.acgt.org.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s former memorial chairman, Nick Haupricht, intends to file a lawsuit against the U.S. federal government.

Haupricht originally filed against Kaptur in small claims court Sept. 17. Haupricht claimed “misguidance by her staff” and sought $3,458.02 for reimbursement of advertisements in local papers, flyers as well as applications for memorial stones.

The small claims case was removed by the federal government Sept 23 due to 28 U.S.C. §§1441, 142(a)(1)&(4) and 28 U.S.C. §§2671,2674 and 2679. The removal action by the federal government claims Kaptur has federal defenses as a result of the Federal Tort Claims Act, so the case cannot be tried in small claims court.

In order for Haupricht to pursue action he has to file against the United States of America.

In December 2009, Haupricht took a leadership role as chairman for the proposed veteran’s garden at the new VA Clinic. In this role, Haupricht was in charge of arranging transportation and a temporary staging area of a memorial stone.

Haupricht sent fliers to more than 400 motorcycle clubs asking bikers to accompany the memorial to its final placement. He said Dan Foote, who is in charge of veterans’ relations in Kaptur’s office, authorized him to send out materials. Haupricht also purchased ad space in local papers.

Meanwhile, Haupricht had been working with Tony Chiaravalloti, who worked for Granites of America in Rhode Island, which housed the memorial, about moving it to Toledo. Chiaravalloti sent a letter to Haupricht stating, “We are reluctant to send the stones until we … can review plans.”

Haupricht had a blueprint of the memorial made up and sent it to Chiaravalloti. Haupricht also began work on applications for stone pavers, or memorial stones, to accompany the memorial.

In May, Haupricht had also been hosting fundraising dinners with actress Chris Noel in attendance. He hosted two dinners at local VA locations; a third scheduled dinner was canceled by Kaptur’s office.

On April 13, Haupricht received a letter from Steve Katich in Kaptur’s office stating that the work on the memorial has been postponed and for Haupricht to suspend any activity promoting the memorial stone and any fundraising for it.

“The quarry owner whose stone it is has stated in order to give the mock up stones reverence they deserve he has offered the stones to communities which either already have a memorial or are currently building one. The completion of a veterans memorial on the campus of the proposed VA outpatient clinic site in Toledo is contingent on the completion of the clinic,” Katich wrote. “Since the clinic completion has been delayed, a veterans memorial cannot move forward.”

The letter also states that a design for the memorial would depend on a design of the clinic and would take “significant planning and organization.” Katich said for Kaptur to participate in any way, House rules require the existence of a nonprofit organization to manage the funding portion of such an effort.

Haupricht said he hadn’t previously been notified of any such stipulations.

Haupricht is currently working as a volunteer for the campaign of Rich Iott, Republican candidate for 9th Congressional District and Kaptur’s opponent.

“Because I can’t get Marcy to represent me in any shape of form, I thought it was time to get one in there that will be my representative,” he said.

Haupricht began volunteering for Iott recently, but no one from Iott’s campaign is advising him in the case, he said.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.—Despite playing without two defensive starters and bringing in a struggling offense that ranked 120th in the Football Bowl Subdivision in total yards per game, Toledo was resilient down the stretch and held on to defeat Purdue 31-20 for its third road victory in consecutive weeks this season—the first time it has accomplished that feat since 1995. The win also marks the fifth-straight year the Rockets have defeated a team from a Bowl Championship Series-automatic qualifying conference, but the first time they have done so with a winning record.
“Our kids believed, and they came out and played four quarters of football,” Toledo Head Coach Tim Beckman said. “In the last three games on the road, we’ve had to come out and establish ourselves. We’ve done it either on defense in the two games prior to it, and in this game on offense.”
Sophomore quarterback Austin Dantin had 273 yards of total offense and four touchdowns against the Boilermakers. Dantin was 24-for-31 for 209 yards through the air with two touchdowns, also rushing for two more scores on the ground as he gained 64 yards on 17 carries. Sophomore wide receiver Eric Page had 10 catches for 94 yards and a touchdown, while junior running back Adonis Thomas rushed 13 times for 79 yards, averaging 6.1 yards per carry.
Defensively, Toledo was led by senior linebacker Archie Donald, who had a team-high 16 tackles to go along with his game-sealing interception. Donald ripped the ball away from Rob Henry’s intended receiver and returned it 51 yards to the Boilermakers’ 23-yard line with 2:57 left in the game.
“It was a team victory,” senior defensive end Douglas Westbrook said. “We practiced hard this week. We knew this was a Big Ten opponent, and we had to give it all we’ve got to win.
“To be great, you’ve got to go through adversity.”
On the opening drive of the game, the Rockets (3-1, 2-0 MAC) went 85 yards in 13 plays to take an early 7-0 lead over the Boilermakers (2-2, 0-0 Big Ten) at the 9:43 mark after Dantin’s five-yard touchdown pass to Page. Dantin was six-of-seven for 68 yards and racked up 21 yards rushing in Toledo’s first offensive series. Page was his main target, catching four of those passes for 55 yards and the score.
“That was huge,” Dantin said. “We always talk about that first drive—getting that first first down—and I think that was a huge point of emphasis for us to get that first first down, get the momentum rolling, and that’s exactly what we came out and did.”
The Rockets scored again with 49 seconds left in the first quarter on another touchdown pass from Dantin, this time to junior tight end Danny Noble from seven yards out to extend their lead to 14. Purdue quarterback Robert Marve dropped back to pass on the Boilermakers’ previous drive, but fell down almost immediately after his left knee buckled, and he subsequently fumbled the football in the process as freshman defensive lineman Elijah Jones recovered to give Toledo possession at the Purdue 13-yard line. Junior kicker Ryan Casano added a 34-yard field goal in the second quarter to give the Rockets a 17-0 lead by halftime.
In the third quarter, Purdue went 48 yards in 11 plays on its opening drive, capping it off with a 49-yard field goal from kicker Carson Wiggs to make the score 17-3 with 11:31 on the clock. On the fifth play of the Rockets’ ensuing possession, Dantin faked the handoff to Thomas on the read option, kept it himself and ran 58 yards around the right side and past the Boilermakers’ defense to put Toledo up 24-3.
However, Purdue scored 14 unanswered points on its next two consecutive drives, cutting the Rockets’ lead to seven with the score 24-17 by the 4:31 mark of the third quarter. The first touchdown was on a 36-yard dash up the middle by junior fullback Jared Crank, which capped a five-play, 67-yard Boilermakers’ drive that spanned 1:43. The next score came on an eight-yard touchdown pass from Rob Henry to Dan Dierking four plays after Dantin was sacked by Josh Johnson and subsequently fumbled to give Purdue the ball back.
In the fourth quarter, the Boilermakers made it 24-20 after a 22-yard field goal from Wiggs with 8:07 to play, but a 50-yard kickoff return by Page to the Purdue 47-yard line set up Toledo’s next score eight plays later when Dantin scored his second rushing touchdown of the day from one yard out to make it 31-20 with 5:24 left in the game. Donald’s interception on the Boilermakers’ following drive sealed the victory for the Rockets.
Toledo will be in action again on Oct. 2 when it takes on Wyoming (1-3, 0-1 Mountain West Conference) in the Glass Bowl at 7 p.m.

When one considers both the coverage and attention given to American football, basketball and baseball, it’s safe to say that hockey is one of the most overlooked major sports in the United States. Despite the avid hockey following right here in the city of Toledo, the same can be said for the University of Toledo Ice Hockey Club.

“We’ve been at the student union, we’ve been at the activities fair, and the number one question we get is, ‘Oh? We have a hockey team?’” said Christine Kanis, a North Olmsted, Ohio native and junior Communication major with a focus in Public Relations at the University of Toledo, who also serves as the Public Relations/Marketing Director for the UT Ice Hockey Club. “This year, we’re basically just trying to get more involvement through everyone.”

Kanis has been around hockey her whole life. Her brother Greg—a 6’3, 245-pound senior forward and Vice President for the hockey club at Toledo—has been playing the game for a long time. Serving in her first year as the Public Relations/Marketing Director for the club, Kanis has been doing her part to promote the team around campus and elsewhere to help restore this once storied program. And while a lot of that effort is aimed at getting more sponsors to help aid with the team’s expensive annual budget, much of it is also geared toward promoting the good deeds the club does for the community as well, such as their involvement with Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, among others.

“The team’s very involved,” Kanis said. “They’re always looking to help people. This year, we’re doing a kids’ night. They’re going to take tickets to all the local schools and give free admission to kids with the admission of an adult present.”

Legit Student-Athletes

“Everything is student-ran, student-funded,” junior forward Justin Phillips said. An Electrical Engineering major at UT, Phillips has been a member of the hockey club since his freshman year at Toledo. The Sylvania native and Southview grad has worked his way up the ranks the last couple of years, and now serves as President of the UT Ice Hockey Club.

“We’re always looking for sponsorships and anything to help out because we have to cover our budget, which is around $50,000 a year,” Phillips said. “So that’s a lot of money for each student to pretty much help contribute to the team.” Out of that roughly $50,000 budget, the club only gets about $9,000 from the university.

The UT Ice Hockey Club is a non-varsity team comprised of 25 full-time student-athletes at the University of Toledo, and plays between 30-35 games each season as a Division II member of the American Collegiate Hockey Association in the recently-formed Tri-State Collegiate Hockey League. Every player is required to be enrolled in at least nine credit hours each semester and maintain a minimum 2.0 GPA in order to be eligible to play. The club also charges each player an annual fee of $1,600 to participate.

On-ice practices take place every Monday and Wednesday from 7:30 p.m. to midnight, and “dry land” practices are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 to 9:30 p.m. with team Strength and Conditioning Coach Trent Cayot in the Aerobic Room at the UT Student Recreation Center. With games on Fridays and Saturdays each week, Sundays are the only off days for the Rockets.

“I play because I love the game,” Phillips said. “We all pay the fees. We all go to the workouts and go to the practices because we love to play. That’s the only reason we’re here.”

Putting in the work

Because the UT Ice Hockey Club has toiled in obscurity for the past several years, many people also don’t know that the team used to be one of the best. In 1992, the club won the Division II ACHA National Championship in the league’s inaugural season. Due to a combination of financial and organizational issues over the years, those students involved with the program during the last couple of seasons have put a lot of time and energy into helping the club return to its glory days.

“Being a student organization and not having all the overhead that a regular athletic team would, it gives those guys an opportunity to take that next step and become involved while they’re still playing and while they’re still doing something that they love,” UT Ice Hockey Club General Manager Greg Urig said. “It was pretty bare bones when I first got here, and we’ve really tried to take it to the next level now.”

Along with Phillips and Kanis, Urig is a big reason why UT hockey is starting to make a comeback. After graduating this year with his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Urig has remained with the team in the new role of General Manager to help further the program in the right direction.

Growing up in Elyria, Ohio, Urig started playing hockey at the age of four and continued all the way up through his days at Midview High School. However, it wasn’t until his junior year that he began thinking about playing college hockey, after a coach from St. Louis who was impressed with his play in a game held at Kent State approached him about attending a prospect camp. That got the ball rolling for Urig, who graduated as the valedictorian of his class in 2006 and ended up at Toledo because it was a great decision financially, was close to home and offered him an opportunity to get involved with the club.

“A good number of programs, you walk into them as a freshman and everything is different to you,” Urig said. “It’s not something where you can really get involved in, whereas with UT there was a real good opportunity to get hands on real fast and really get involved with the team as soon as I walked in the door as a freshman.

“So that’s really helped me as a student become a well-rounded person, just being able to work for the team not only on the ice, but also off the ice and seeing all of the things that go on in the background of organizing a team and keeping everybody on the ice.”

As former team captain and President, one of Urig’s responsibilities was scheduling the club’s games. He helped the team land matchups with the likes of Miami (OH), Cincinnati, Iowa, Pittsburgh and Robert Morris last season alone. Urig also helped conduct an international search for a new head coach and had a big hand in bringing Brent Figueira to the program in 2009.

A senior officer and detective for the Euclid Police Department, Figueira’s knowledge of the game from his 27 years of coaching experience in the Cleveland area was a big upgrade to the Toledo program. His position is also the only paid position of all the staff members for the club—which Urig joked isn’t that much—a testament to the true hard work and dedication of all involved with the UT Ice Hockey Club.

“We’ve got our head coach Brent Figueira, who’s really brought a level of legitimacy to the program, something that they really haven’t had since we won that national championship back in ’92,” Urig said. “We’ve always had a head coach, but we’ve never had one as hands on as coach Figueira. He’s one that’s real dedicated to the program, and he’s in it for the long haul. He really wants to see the program do well.”

The Rockets will have plenty of opportunity to reach new heights this season in Figueira’s second year. While Phillips was busy working on the club’s budget as the new team President this summer, Figueira was working on their schedule. Beginning play this season as a member of the aforementioned Tri-State Collegiate Hockey League (TSCHL) in Division II of the ACHA, the Rockets will play two league games against each member team, which includes Akron, Cincinnati, Dayton, Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Wright State.

Toledo’s 32-game schedule this season also includes back-to-back games in October against the University of Michigan’s club hockey team, in which the Rockets will host the Wolverines on their home ice at Tam-O-Shanter on Oct. 29 and travel to Ann Arbor on Oct. 30 for a matchup at Yost Ice Arena. The schedule also features the club’s second-ever outdoor games—dubbed “Winterfest”—at Ottawa Park Feb. 11 and 12 against Cleveland State. The Rockets swept the Vikings in last year’s inaugural outdoor contests at Ottawa Park last February.

“It’s right back to the old-time hockey, the way it was meant to be played,” Urig said of playing outdoors at Ottawa Park. “This year, we’re hoping to make it even bigger.” Urig and the team are planning to have different events on campus throughout the week leading up to the game to generate interest and give students a break from studying and being indoors.

Tapping into local talent

While Northwest Ohio is primarily known for its prep football scene, high school hockey in the greater Toledo area is no slouch, either. Schools like Northview, St. John’s and St. Francis all field good teams every season, and it’s something that definitely caught the attention of Urig and the UT Ice Hockey Club the last few years.

“Personally, being from Cleveland I think the following that Toledo high school hockey has is amazing,” Urig said. “That’s something we’ve tried to tap into. The problem we always run into is kids from Toledo don’t want to stay in Toledo. They want to get away, which I definitely understand. I was the same way when I was their age.”

In an effort to solve that issue, Urig and the team have organized a prospect camp for local players—now in its’ third year—to help kids understand what their options are after high school and give them information about the UT Ice Hockey Club.

“When you get up to that level when you’re about to graduate high school, there’s a lot of different directions you can go,” Urig said. “You can go play juniors, you can go play old men’s league, you can go try to walk on to a varsity team, but kids don’t really know what’s best for them. We don’t try to make anybody’s decision.

“What we’re trying to do with that camp is really educate people about here’s what options there are, here’s what you need to do at each level, and then let them make the decision on what’s best for them and what they really want to do. I think it’s just a matter of time before you start seeing big things out of our program again.”

The proof is in the pudding, too, as 10 of last year’s players were either from the Northwest Ohio or Southeast Michigan area.

More than a game

For the student-athletes that compete for the UT Ice Hockey Club, they are more than just teammates to one another. Their connection with the community and each other spans far beyond the game of hockey itself.

Take last year’s Cystic Fibrosis Foundation game against Cincinnati in the final contest of the season, for example. Yes, it was great that the team got to feel like rockstars before the game when they skated with kids in attendance, signing autographs and taking pictures. Yes, it was great that the Rockets had a great crowd on hand. And yes, it indeed was great that the team raised nearly $1,700 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. However, it was the root of the cause for that game which says it all about the UT Ice Hockey Club.

“That game [the cystic fibrosis game] is big for me,” Phillips said. “I actually started that up. My stepmom has cystic fibrosis, and she was the one that pretty much got that game money.”

Phillips’ stepmother has to have a double-lung and double-kidney transplant. According to Phillips, they’re still looking for donors for the surgery, which is supposed to happen within the next six months to a year’s time. The Rockets will have another cystic fibrosis game this year, when they take on Akron at home on Nov. 13.

“You don’t take things really for granted like you kind of used to,” Phillips said.

The game also held special meaning for Urig. “It’s just a great feeling that until you really do it, you don’t understand really what it feels like,” Urig said. “It’s hard to put into words what it’s like to walk out there in front of a huge crowd—we had a great crowd for that cystic fibrosis game—and to know that every one of those paying fans was donating all their money to a great cause. And to know that you helped bring them there, it’s a feeling beyond words.”

Urig knows both the connections and strides he’s made through his involvement with the UT Ice Hockey Club are irreplaceable experiences that will only serve to help him in life. As for the team? He still feels the best is yet to come.

“Playing hockey’s great, but really it’s those friendships that you make and those connections that you make with other people that are really going to make your college experience complete,” Urig said. “When you’re in a situation like this where you’ve got to rely on the guy next to you, and you’re working hard with that guy next to you to accomplish a common goal, that’s where you’re really going to make those bonds.

“If you want to make it happen, we can make it happen.”