Sutler The NHL Hall-of-Famer discusses his son, his career, and college hockey John Niyo Darryl Sittler is one of the names 'of hockey lore. He played 15 seasons win the NHL, from 1970 to 1985. In 1,096 games, he garnered 1,021 points for Toronto, Philadelphia and Detroit. Sittler owns the NHL record for most points in a single contest with 10 - six goals and four assists. In 1989 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. His son, Ryan, was drafted sev- enth overall in the 1992 NHL ,draft and is currently a freshman playing for Michigan. Recently, Daily Hockey Writer Brett Forrest spoke with the hockey great. Daily: When did you realize that Ryan was going to be a good player? Sittler: Well, about three years ago, when Ryan was playing at Nichols High School in Buffalo, he decided that he wanted to be a player. And he lost some weight and he started working hard at the prac- tices and on his conditioning. When he started to play on the varsity team two years ago, he started to play well and attract some attention from some :of the schools and at that point in time I didn't really know whether he'd develop into a Division I player or not. But he continued to work on his game, and he grew a little taller. He had a good shot and good hands and he was pretty smart with the puck. Things all just seemed to fall into place, and in his senior year of high school, there were a lot of col- leges recruiting him. When he got the attention from doing well, he thrived on that, and worked even that much harder at it. When you're a big kid and tall, sometimes your coordination takes a little bit to catch up to your growth, and it all sort of came together his senior year of high school - but he's still got a big step to go. He realizes that making the jump from high school hockey to playing NCAA is a big jump, and when you're a first-round pick in the NHL I think that there's pressure that you tend to put on yourself, or that the people watching you, your teammates expect a lot from you. So you have to realize that it's a learn- ing, and a developing pyramid. He's in the bottom of the pyramid and he's trying to play well and adjust to this level of play, and so far he's done a good job. D: Why did Ryan and the family choose- to have him go to college rather than the route, you took with junior hockey? Do you feel that col- lege is the right way to go right now? S: Every family or person who's in the position to make a choice has to do what they feel is best for their individual circumstances. One of the reasons why I, as a parent, was pleased that Ryan chose Michigan is, number one, it's an excellent school. Number two, it gives him a chance to live a bit of a normal lifestyle, where he can live a campus life, develop, grow up a little bit. Number three, playing in the OHL (Ontario Hockey League), because he's my son, and we have a name in the hockey world, it attracts that much more attention at the OHL level. He would be a target of the media and players and fans, a lot more than he would be playing here in the NCAA. I also think if you're going to be a player and play in the level and do well? S: Proud, and a lot of satisfac- tion, all that hard work, it's all kind of paying off for him. The Montreal Forum (where the 1992 NHL draft was held), is a special place for me. The Montreal Forum is a special place for a lot of people in hockey and for Ryan to be drafted there by the Flyers was even more special, a team that I played for. One of the things that leads up to the draft, there's a lot of hype, you're doing a lot of interviews, you're talking to played you weren't drafted until you were nineteen or twenty years of age, in your last year of Juniors. Now the kids are drafted a lot younger, at age eighteen, and I think there's more pressure on you be- cause of that. Back then you knew you were going to play junior hockey for three years and then you were drafted. At the same time, I try to remind Ryan it's just another step in the climb to make it, to fulfill his dream to play in the National Hockey League, and you just have to realize each step is not easy. It's difficult, but if you work at it you'll get to the next step, and that's basi- cally what my attitude has been all the way through. It took me two years in the National Hockey League to even feel comfortable in feeling I should be there and I was twenty-two at the time. Ryan's three or four years off where I am. We'll see what happens. D: How was a player of your stature traded twice ? Was it at- tributable to basic differences be- tween you and owner Harold Ballard in Toronto and then general manager Bob Clarke in Philadelphia? S: I never had any disagreement with Clarke in Philadelphia. In Toronto, when I got traded out of there, I was ready to move on. Hockey wasn't very much fun for us anymore. There was a new general manager, Punch Imlach, and he had a disagreement with most of the players on the team. I was ready to move on to another city. I really en- joyed playing in Philly. I played there two and a half years. What happened in the Clarke situation, he became the general manager. He was an ex-teammate and he became the general manager. He felt that making that trade was the best thing to do at the time. The timing of the trade was most disappointing. It was the day I was to be named captain of the team, and it caught me by sur- prise - it was a real shocker. It was probably the most disappointing day of my hockey career, when I got traded. I left the house that morning thinking I was going to be named captain of the team that afternoon at the luncheon, and I was traded that morning. D: How would you characterize your last year in Detroit? S: When I got there, I broke my cheekbone, so I wore a mask for a number of weeks. Then my father passed away in February, and it was just one of those difficult years. I didn't see a lot of ice time. I felt that the Detroit Red Wings didn't get the Darryl Sittler they traded for. That ended up being my last year, be- cause the Red Wings bought out my contract at the end of the year. That's how I ended up retiring. National Hockey League, you'll make the NHL regardless of what route you go. If that's your aspira- tion, if you play junior hockey or NCAA hockey, you'll still make it, What I think is important for Ryan to do is to keep working and just let the chips fall where they may. With comparing junior hockey to NCAA, if you get a few years of school un- der your belt, you can decide whether you're ready to sign a pro contract or not. If you're playing junior hockey at age nineteen, you finish playing juniors, and then you've got to make a decision to go to the minors, or go to Europe to play, or whatever. This way he can stay in -school until he's ready to turn pro. D: At the NHL draft you were a bit emotional when Ryan was picked. What does it mean to you to see him picked so high and by the Flyers, a team you played for? What does it mean to you as a father to watch him play at the Division I all the NHL teams. It's kind of a buildup for about two months previ- ous to the draft, and when it actu- ally happened, and when he was drafted as high as he was, it was very emotional for all of us, and we were happy for him. When he scored his goal tonight (against Western Michigan), there was a special feel- ing that went through me knowing how much the game means to him, and how much he loves it and the satisfaction that it gives him from playing well. I'm very proud of him to see him score that goal tonight. D: How would you compare Ryan's game to yours at the same age? S: Well, Ryan and I play two different positions. I played center, he plays left wing. He's a little big- ger than I was at that age. It's hard for me to compare us. I played ju- nior hockey and I was always a top scorer on the teams I played with, all the way through - peewee, bantam, midget and then in junior. When I Hunter moves on to captain new ship You get the idea that Freddie Hunter is some sort of Christmas present. A big, ear-to-ear grin bundled up in a shiny red ribbon. Here. Take him. He will bring you much joy. Freddie Hunter belongs to someone else now. He is no longer only ours, no longer only our special belonging. He has moved on. And like the best of them are apt to do, he has done it quietly. Preferred Provider Organization of Michigan (PPOM), a health care insurance operation based in Southfield, now can claim Freddie Hunter as a member of its team. Apparently, he has been as a big of a find for Richard Rogel, the chief executive officer of PPOM, as he was for Michigan basketball coach Steve Fisher. "He's been everything I expected - and more," Rogel said, sounding a lot like an eager child unwrapping a new toy. "He's been just great." So great, in fact, that come the ninth of November, Hunter will begin his job as co-manager of PPOM's new satellite office in South Bend, Ind. Rogel's company, which was the largest small business in the state of Michigan in 1990, currently has offices in Grand Rapids, and in Toledo and Dayton, Ohio. Expansion into Indiana is the next step. And Rogel decided that Freddie Hunter will be going down to South Bend, leading the charge. Heading into "Notre Dame territory," as Freddie puts it. But he won't be alone. Rogel added not one, but two, former Michigan basketball players to his roster this summer. Chip Armer is headed to South Bend as well. You get the idea that the guy might be a Michigan fan? "Yes. Oh, yes," Rogel says, offering the fact that he graduated from Michigan in the 1960s as a form of explanation. "He had seen some of the things we had done on the court," said Hunter, who is living in Ypsilanti while he is still working in Southfield. "And whether it figured into things or not, how you carry yourself on the court or off the court - that is important as far as peoples' perceptions of you. "After the season, both Chip and I were job hunting. We both happened to get a job reference for PPOM. (Rogel) granted us an interview. And we went in there and showed we were of worth to him." The modesty in those words is a bit awkward. And Rogel tells the story with a slightly different spin. "I was just so impressed with Freddie," Rogel said. "He is so deter- mined, so dedicated. And he is very articulate." And on Rogel went. Compliments heaped upon commendations. But the highest is this latest promotion. "It's a tremendous opportunity," said Hunter, who was also courted by Proctor & Gamble last spring. "It just shows a lot of faith and respect on the part of the CEO in Chip and myself; in what we've done since we've been here. "I relish the opportunity. It's a great challenge, and I'm ready to go at it 100 percent." Ready, in part, because of what PPOM is all about. They still help defray health care costs just like other Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO), but they do it with a different philosophy. "I think the three things (Rogel) said that are the driving force behind the company are, 'The patient is first, the patient is first, the patient is first.' The team, the team, the team. The two mottos don't sound much different. Maybe athletics does have some relationship with the real world, after all. "We offer a lot more freedom for the patient. As long as we keep serving the patient, then I'm happy," said Hunter, who graduated in May with a double-major in psychology and sociology. In the six months since, he has tapped into a gold mine of opportunity. The PPOM network now consists of 80 hospitals, 6,000 physicians, and about 500,000 eligible patients. It is the largest PPO in the state of Michigan. And Freddie Hunter and Chip Armer are to be captains of the newest ship in the fleet. "It'll be our responsibility to start a network, because we have to get physicians, and then when we get a physician network we can start recruiting to employers." The heart of the PPO is the network. This is a bit of company propa- ganda that Hunter will gladly spread. In South Bend, he and Armer will give the speech hundreds of times. Their first job will be to recruit physicians who will agree to accept their fee screens, which are PPOM's reimbursement for procedural codes. "Then we can recruit employer groups and different companies," Hunter said. "They can have their patients go to our network. It reduces health care costs tremendously." And that is the name of the game. Reducing costs. "Since we don't pay any claims, we just set our screens," Hunter said. "And since we don't control any money, our only driving force is to be effective in cutting health care costs and servicing our doctors." He's gone from cutting down the lane to cutting health care costs, seemingly in no time. And while he is starting to fill the scrapbooks with new accomplishments, the memories of his last two years at Michigan haven't all faded away. What does he remember most? "Video-wise, seeing Juwan (Howard) start doing the Cabbage Patch after we beat Ohio State to get to the Final Four. That always sticks in my mind." But the rest, he says, is just a jumbled, emotional flashback. "It was short, but sweet," he says. "I feel lucky just to have gotten the chance to do that. "Just as a student to get a chance to walk on and experience all the joy I had as a player, plus all the friendships I made with the players and coaches. I'm definitely blessed in that respect." The blessings came as a result of some hard work, though. Freddie Hunter almost never made it. He came to Michigan as a good student from a good high school (University of Detroit Jesuit). But his grades faltered early on, and he transferred to U-M Dearborn to work on his grades, taking classes part- time and working to pay for his tuition. He came back with new determination. Not just to graduate, but to play basketball, too. And when all was said and done, he had done both. He took full course-loads, and captained a team that advanced to the NCAA championship game. Those are the sort of experiences that define a leader, Rogel says, as he discusses why Hunter has joined the company's fasttrack. Hunter agrees. "It was a great experience," said Hunter, who plans to go back and get his Master's degree once he gets settled in. "It taught me a lot about myself and about relating with people. It'll be nothing but a plus for me Davidson, 'M' spikers badger Wisconsin, 3-1 by Scott Burton Riding the wave of hot play by Fiona Davidson, the Michigan wom- en's volleyball team continued its mid-season resurgence Friday night, taking out Wisconsin in four intense, emotion-packed games. With the win, the Wolverines swept their season-series with the Badgers for the first time in eight years. Their Big Ten record im- proved to 8-4, 15-6 overall. More important than the Big Ten standings, however, was the fact that the win sent a strong message to the NCAA selection committee. With its performance this weekend, Michigan is hoping to prove it belongs among the top eight teams in its region that qualify for the NCAA tournament. Michigan was ranked ninth going into the match. The first game against Wisconsin featured remarkable play from Davidson, who helped her team come back from a early 4-0 deficit. She pounded four kills in the span of n~,cht nasw to Iand Miri to P'itvht consin's serve, lent her hand in sev- eral key blocks, and capped a nine- point run with a service ace. Chris White then closed the game at 15-6 with a service ace. Michigan finished its domination of the match in the fourth game. Wisconsin managed only three kills and clinched the contest for the Wol- verines with a net violation at match- point, giving Michigan a 15-4 win. Davidson finished with impres- sive totals for the match. She ap- proached a career high in blocks- with eight, racked-up 15 kills against only three errors for a sparkling .521 hitting percentage, and added two aces. The rest of the Wolverines had similarly strong performances. Setter Tarnisha Thompson totaled 42 as- sists and blasted two, monstrous kills. Outside hitters JoAnna Collias and Michelle Horrigan added 11 kills each, with Collias recording 19 digs. For the Wolverines, the match represented what the players have been aiming for for the entire sea- .. a 3ca t s . w. 4 ti ay aw :i . w3. . :eC:,a \ xc. : :.{? ': . - . s. ...a>3. n ,va..t ..v. .:.. .. . .... .....: ...... ... . ,....,,