Super Rookie's World

After high school I decided to go to Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan. While I didn’t earn my degree there I do have a lot of good memories and I have remained a fan of their hockey team, The Wildcats. This has been a great season for the Green and Gold as they made it all the way to the CCHA championship game against Michigan this past weekend. Despite a close 2-1 loss the Wildcats were able to rest on their season long success and earn a #3 seed in the West Regional.

This year the west regional games are being held at the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul. On any other weekend I would have been the first in line to buy tickets to this game and stand proudly with my vintage 1997 NMU hockey jersey and cheer as loudly as I could for the team to destroy the Huskies of St. Cloud State. Topping off all the excitement of NMU’s run to the playoffs is that the team is led by former Como Park Cougar, Kyle Follmer. I have known Kyle for over 14 years as he was the former stick/boy for our high school team and his dad was the assistant coach at Como during my time on the team. Kyle was a little runt and use to run around with his twin brother and do all types of crazy stuff, but now he is serious and is enjoying a great freshman season and a full scholarship at NMU after three great seasons in the USHL.

Since I am going to Kansas City over the weekend to check out the Major League Soccer opener with Sarah and a few of our friends I am going to miss the game. I am a little saddened by this, but I sent off a quick email to Kyle wishing him luck and I have a feeling that they are going to do the university proud and put together a solid run.

*Trivia: Northern Michigan University has two state of the art facilities for Football and Hockey. The football team plays in the Superior Dome which is the world’s largest wooden dome. The hockey team calls the Berry Events Center home, which opened in 1999, and is home to the US Olympic Short Track Speed Skating program.

Here is a picture of the Superior Dome:

The Superior Dome sealed the deal for me when I was just 17 years old and looking for a place to start my education, yet like the amazing tagline of, “World’s Largest Wooden Dome,” it was slightly disappointing upon embarking on my post-high school career.