THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, February 7, 1986 35
Ice Tim
Michael Nodler
keeps busy on
the hockey rink
and off.
BY LARRY PALADINO
Special to The Jewish News
0
n a scale of one to ten,
Michael Nodler says he
rates his love for hockey
"an 11."
"It's probably the
number one thing for me, besides
school," he says.
And school for Michael really is
two schools — Oak Park High
School and United Hebrew High
School.
The Oak Park sophomore some-
how finds time to excel at both
schools and in the highest level of
amateur hockey for a 15-year-old.
He plays for the Compuware team in
the Bantam Major AAA level. The
team belongs to the Blue Water
y .
J
,
Hockey League of the Ontario Minor
Hockey Association.
Compuware, sponsored by the
13-year-old Computer Software Co.
of Birmingham, is the only Ameri-
can team in the seven-team league.
The other members are from On-
tario, Canada. They are Windsor,
Sarnia, Chatham, Riverside, the
London Jets and the London Sabres.
Michael is one of 17 players to
make this year's team. According to
Andy Weidenbach, coach of the team
as well as hockey and arena coor-
dinator for Computer Software,
about 100 players tried out.
"Mike possesses great individual
skills," Weidenbach said. "He has
• -
good hands and skates well. He does
very well at that level."
Michael is a defenseman, one of
six on the team, but also is capable
of playing forward, Weidenbach said.
"He's definitely an offensive de-
fenseman. He's a good playmaker.
He's good with the puck."
Michael's father Al said his son
got his first taste of hockey at age 7
"and it took off from there. I
encouraged him, but most of the in-
centive came from him."
"He's got a lot of natural abil-
ity," the senior Nodler said. "When
he was .a young kid I could see in
any sport he tried he had coordina-
tion. Mostly, though, he has the de-
,.
•••••
sire himself. It's not like I have to
tell him to play. Generally at that
level if they don't have the desire
they'll get out of it right away."
Weidenbach concurred. "Kids
sacrifice a lot to play at this level of
hockey and most of them are pretty
dedicated," he said. "I don't think
Mike's missed a practice all year."
The fact that Oak Park Arena,
where the team practices, is in
Michael's neighborhood doesn't hurt,
either. But still, when a kid is 15
there are so many things that sud-
denly can occupy his time it's a
wonder Michael is able to practice
an average of four times a week,
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