|
|
|
Interviewing Chris Holtzman, Director of RoadHogs |
|
|
|
|
Written by Glen Trainor
|
|
Monday, 05 September 2005 |
|
Page 1 of 2  BeerLeagueHockey.com interviews Chris Holtzman, Director of "RoadHogs : The Other Half of the Season." Road Hogs follows the Rockford IceHogs, a Double-A minor league hockey team of the UHL while they experience life on the road. We talk to Director Chris Toltzman about the making of the movie and what it's like to capture the experiences of the players, coaches and staff.
BLH:A lot of hockey fans across North America may not be familiar with the Ice Hogs as they are a young franchise. Can you give a little background of the team, and hockey's place in the city of Rockford, Illinois?
Chris:Rockford gained a United Hockey League franchise in 1999 when the Thunder Bay Thunder Cats moved from Ontario to Illinois. Since that time the IceHogs have struggled to put a winning team on the ice ( 1 winning season out of 6 ) despite being near the top in league attendance with an average of 3,400 fans per game.
Even though the area has never had a professional hockey team before the IceHogs came to town, there were a lot of people who really knew the game well. The youth hockey scene in Rockford was pretty big, and the Rockford Icemen, a combined-high school team, have won the state championship 8 years in a row.
There is a CBA team (Rockford Lightning) and an independent minor league baseball team (Rockford RiverHawks) that both draw less than half what the IceHogs draw at the gate.
BLH:You picked a good time to make the documentary with the IceHogs having their best season in franchise history, and coming within one game of the Colonial Cup Finals.
Chris:I had great timing! Even though I had already made plans to approach the team and whomever would be the head coach about my idea of doing a documentary for the 2004-2005 season, once Steve Martinson was named coach and we saw the caliber of players he was brining to Rockford, it became obvious that if we were going to do the movie, this would be the year to do it.
Then, when the season was well underway and Rockford was consistently winning, their winning ways actually became a concern for me. As a fan/employee of the team for 6 years, I was afraid that I could become a distraction to a team that, for the first time ever, had a chance of brining the Colonial Cup to Rockford. When I expressed my concerns to Coach Martinson he assured me that if a player finds me and my cameras distracting, that player doesn't have what it takes to be a professional hockey player and should get out of the game! That's all it took to ease my mind and I proceeded with the film!
BLH: Chris, people know you as the Public Address Announcer for the IceHogs. When they think of this film being made by the "PA guy" their first impression may be off some guy walking around with a digital camcorder in his hand. With your broadcasting experience this is simply just not the case. Do you want to enlighten people with some of your background?
Chris:I have been doing video professionally for more than 10 years and in that time I have been very fortunate to have won several awards for work I've done for sports teams. I picked up an Emmy Award in 1999 for a production I did for the Chicago Bears and Tribune Company and another Emmy Award in 2003 for a production I did for the Rockford IceHogs and 23 WIFR, a CBS affiliate in Rockford. I left 23 in the spring of 2004 and started my own production company, seven11 Productions. We specialize in high quality productions like television commercials, industrial and sales videos.
For the film I used all broadcast quality equipment, and I think it really shows in the final result. People who order the film will immediately be impressed with the production values- it looks like something that could be on television. And who know, maybe someday it will!!
BLH:Do you play? When did you become a fan?
Chris: I have never had a pair of skates on my feet! In fact, I was not a fan of hockey until after I got the job of announcing for the IceHogs! The past 6 years I feel like I've been going to "hockey college"- I love the sport so much I am finding myself learning as much about the game as possible.
In the 6 years I've been announcing hockey I've missed 1 out of roughly 250 games. It's not luck- I simply don't want to miss a single game. There's drama, excitement, heartbreak, frustration, anger- multiplied by 60 minutes! If anybody can think of a better spectator sport I'd like to know it.
BLH: Hockey players, whether at a semi-pro level, pro level or even adult recreational, know that there are some extreme characters in the dressing room. I'm familiar with Robin Big Snake of the Ice hogs from his days with the Vancouver Giants. If his antics on the ice are representative on what happens off the ice, these road trips could be hazardous.
Chris: While I haven't seen Robin Big Snake play yet, I am aware of his reputation and it is no surprise that Coach Martinson signed him. Martinson has a track record of taking players that are supposedly uncontrollable and turning them into team players. Bruce Watson is a great example. Before coming to Rockford last year Watson had a reputation of being un-coachable, yet under Martinson he became a regular contributor to the team. He single-handedly made a play in overtime that won the game and the first round series against Kalamazoo in last year's playoffs.
One thing the movie explains well is the fact that road trips are carefully orchestrated to minimize down-time for the players. From setting the departure time to making hotel arrangements, teams want the road trips to be as short as possible. That is usually accomplished by leaving town right after the game and either heading home or to the next road game destination. There isn't time to grab a few golden sodas at a bar or go pick up women at a club and that keeps the players out of trouble.
But there are exceptions. Rockford played two games in Kansas City this past season. However, those two games were on a Wednesday and Saturday night, giving the boys 2 full days off in a large city with a lot of distractions. From what I understand good times were had by all, but that was the only road trip all year where that happened. Unfortunately it was a trip I was not scheduled to be on.
...interview continued on next page
<< Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>
|
|
|
|
News and Editorial 
