On Monday the 10th of November, I called Brad Krolak for a small interview about how the team was doing. I ended up taking 6 pages of notes and spent over two hours of talking hockey. We discussed the games the Bobcats played earlier in the year, how he started playing hockey, and about the time he spent in junior hockey with the Toledo Cherokees. I am pretty much going to spread out the interview across the next couple of articles. If I didn’t, you’d be spending all day reading the novel I’d have to write!

I was happy that Brad let me come over for an interview at “The House.” “The House” is where Brad Krolak, Nick Bilanow, Zac Hernandez, Matt Shenk, and Frank Kubas all live (sorry if I missed someone). I’ll tell you that I got lost on the way there. I had to go to The C.I. where Nick Bilanow, also known as Billy, works to ask him for directions. So, after that set back, I finally found the house and made my way up to Brad’s room. His room is just like any other college kid’s room. It had posters on the wall, clothes on the floor, and a Doug Gilmour (NHL Toronto defensemen) jersey on the wall.

Brad first played hockey when his older brother, Curt Krolak, signed him up for hockey when he was 6 years old. His brother bought him hockey gear and paid his way to play in the pee wee league that year. Curt was a hockey player all of his life and he wanted Brad to enjoy the game he loved. Brad’s parents didn’t want him to play because of the tough road his brother faced during his career. Curt suffered a back injury a few years before he started to get scholarships for hockey. Western Michigan (NCAA Hockey) had taken away his scholarship when they found out he had a history of a back injury and felt he was unfit to play. Curt and his parents went to numerous doctors to sign waivers clearing him to play. Western Michigan refused to accept those waivers because a football player, with an old back injury, had sued the school when he became paralyzed during a game. Curt continued college hockey despite his set backs. He played division one hockey with The University of Alabama-Huntsville and made it to the semi pro leagues of the CHL and the ECHL. Many people of Columbus, Ohio might have seen him because he had played for the Columbus Chill (ECHL) before he had retired from the game. This is why his parents didn’t want Brad to play at first because of Curt’s long, hard road. Today, Brad and his parents are thankful that Curt played a large role in the development of Brad’s hockey career.

Brad’s favorite team in the NHL is the Chicago Blackhawks. This is because he is from Chicago, Illinois. His favorite player is Doug Gilmour who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He received a Doug Gilmour jersey as a present when he was 13 years old. Looking around his room, I found numerous awards and mementos from Hockey. He has won the CSCHL second team all league defense for the 2002 – 2003 season and first team defenseman for the ACHA Nationals. I also found two pucks next to the awards. One puck was for his first goal on 11/03/00 against Western Michigan. Brad said that, “all freshmen get first goal puck. The seniors ask the referee for the puck and give it to the team manager for the rest of the duration of the game. Then they pass it on to the first time goal scorer to the OU team.” Since that day, Brad takes that puck to every home game and puts it in a special place in his locker. He also has a “player of the game” puck that the coaches decided to give him at the end of the game. He had earned the puck during last year’s home game against Kent State for his excellent performance during the game.

I love to ask the players to give me a story that they would like to talk about. These stories often give insight to the team as well as a player’s history. Brad wanted me to tell you about his days with the Toledo Cherokees. This is because he and quite a few of the OU players had played with him or after him with that team. Unfortunately, this article is running a bit too long, so I will continue Brad’s interview about his junior hockey experience in the near future, and provide features on your other favorite Bobcats.

Rich Vertanen first played as a Bobcat back in the second half of the 1999/2000 season. Before he came to OU, like many of the other players on the team, he has had a long history of playing hockey as a youth. Rich was born in Wisconsin and lived there until he was 8 years old. His favorite NFL football team is the Green Bay Packers. He then moved on to Watertown, New York where he had played hockey against one of OU’s assistant coaches in the midget leagues as a child. His stay in Watertown was short lived and he moved to Canfield, Ohio, which is close to Youngstown. He traveled to Pittsburgh to play hockey during his high school years because of the lack of competition in the Youngstown area.

After graduation in 1997, Rich moved on in his hockey career to the next level. Many players after or during high school go on to the junior level of hockey. This is either to prepare for professional leagues or to prepare for college hockey. The next level took him all the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico. He played for the Ice Breakers for a year in the West Coast League. In that league, he played OU’s Paul Guthrie. Paul had played for the Colorado Cougars and they speak of their days in that league whenever they meet.

When his year with the Icebreakers ended in winter of 1998, he moved on to Toledo. He played with the Toledo Cherokees along with other OU players, such as Brad Krolak, Nick Bilanow, and Zac Hernandez. For the next year or two in Rich’s career is quite confusing because of the number of teams he had played with from the time in Toledo untill the time he started in 2000 with the Bobcats. He left Toledo and went to British Columbia where he was scouted by former OU hockey head coach Craig McCarthy. When Coach McCarthy spoke to Rich, Rich asked coach to consider looking at his old friends Brad, Nick, and Zac in Toledo.

Rich had played Junior A hockey in the fall of 1999 in Ontario. He wanted to see if he could try to make it into a professional league. When he got hurt, he played at Youngstown State University. OU had already started classes for fall quarter and Rich had to wait until winter quarter to start playing hockey with the Bobcats.

As a freshman, Rich chose the electrical engineering program at OU. Many of his most memorable moments came from his first year. One of these moments came in winter of 2000 against Penn State. It was the Saturday game after the big Friday night fight. The fight left OU with 15 players including the goalies. Penn State had a few more players than the Bobcats on Saturday. The bobcats ended up beating Penn State in overtime 2-1.

One of the most shocking moments in his career came against Eastern Michigan later that same year. He had broken his leg when he had tangle up with an opposing player. His leg had snapped in half above the ankle. The foot was able to bend up and kick his calf. Rich knew exactly what had happened. The play moved down the ice and no one was able to pay attention to Rich. He had to crawl all the way to the bench where his team had to drag him into the bench. Rich played the next 3 years for the Bobcats with a 5 inch metal plate held to his bone with 6 screws.  He says it hurts today when the weather changes because the metal in his leg expands and contracts.

Rich was upset that he wasn’t able to play in the ACHA National Tournament that year. He had to listen to it on the radio in bed as the Bobcats lost to Eastern Michigan in triple overtime. The last 3 months of last year was memorable to him because it was his last time that he would play with the Bobcats. He is very disappointed they didn’t win against Illinois in the CSCHL finals in overtime. Rich also feels the same way about the ACHA finals against Penn State also. Rich has a hard time watching the games now as an alumni because he wants to go back out there and help out. He told me that this year’s team is hungry to get back at Penn State and try to get a taste of the National Championship this year. He believes that this year’s freshmen are playing well and have a good chance of achieving their goals.

Rich misses playing with his old line mates Frank Kubas and Kurt Millar. He is finishing his electrical engineering major this year and still hangs out with his friends Tony Arkeilpane and Russ Scurto

Until then, enjoy some of the best hockey I have ever seen as a fan and look for more of my articles in the future.