also hired Tommy (T-Bone) Pomposello, a former minor leaguer, who would do everything from managing the equipment to scouting talent to helping run practice. . AJ called it a coincidence: Changes in the league made continued play impossible, he said, not the legal problem. Of course, his dads arrest played a role. He would also wash the Trashers' jerseys in Crisco and slather Vaseline on their helmets so opponents couldn't grab hold in a fight. MIKE RUPP wore a look of confusion. Through hockey, Brenda has served as an inspiration for others, from children learning the sport to those like 25-year-old Eric Vogel, a fellow goalie drafted by the expansion Southwestern Pennsylvania Magic of the Federal League in June. Defense. It was a violent league made of players on the way up, players on the way down, and some players simply holding on, happy to live in the limbo of the minor leagues. "He even bought the beer," says Paproski. Word of the incident quickly spread through the blue-collar Connecticut city, which soon embraced the fighting mentality of the Trashers. Unlike most enforcers, Wingnut could really play. Jimmy Galante was arrested on June 9, 2006, not long after the final game of the season. For himself he built a skybox equipped with a kitchenette. Ice hockey coach and former NHL forward who won a gold medal in 1980 with the U.S. Olympic hockey team. Mike DeWine and First Lady Fran DeWine are set to visit the toxic train derailment site in East Palestine Wednesday for an update on the removal of the hazardous waste from the wreck. The team played in the Wings Stadium. As with hockey, he had no real connections when he started, but he figured, How hard could it be to break in? This year we beat on the door. She would go there (the Danbury Ice Arena) every single day and sit around in the stands for a total of probably eight hours just to watch an hour of practice, Greg said. Wingfield challenged a Kalamazoo player, Josh Elzinga, to a fight. We're here to win.". Jimmy Galante purchased an expansion franchise in the United Hockey League, the equivalent of Double A baseball. Through United States Ice Rink Association Gilles has acquired his Hockey Director Certificate, Human Resources Management Certificate and Programming, Marketing and Promotions Certificate. Somehow they got the message upstairs. We had 10 goons! FGCU Ice Hockey - Evaluation Skate Information Meeting. (He also forfeited his ownership in 25 trash-hauling firms.) settled on "Welcome to the Jungle." The intimidation factor was unreal. Rumun Ndur was the only Nigerian-born player ever to make it to the NHL. The result was a kind of frontier justice. Galante named his team for the family business: the Trashers. He also played one season for the Russia Omsk of the KHL. By accepting an offer he couldn't refuse. Galantes payments were characterized as a mob tax to ensure his companies primacy in the trash trade. Stirling avoided jail time after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud. Galante, at 17, come to run a minor league hockey team with NHL talentand, in turn, take a leading role in Slap Shot meets GoodFellas meets Hoosiers? And the fans, from section 102 and beyond, still miss their team. 2006-2007 Regular Season . 's account.). They were both in waste management, and both possessed an undeniable charm that compensated for their rough edges. The gangster shrugged: What can I say, right? Before a big game a team employee might check into the visitors' hotel and pull the fire alarm. Questioned about the no-show jobs, former players laughed and changed the subject. Marc was a professional Triathlete for over 10 years. The cornerstone of Marc's approach is focusing on making each hockey player a better athlete. All get tossed. Maybe it was better that way. Then Jimmy went about being the Jerry Jones of the UHL. DeLuca ended up resigning from office because of the scandal. "You had blue-collar guys banging on the glass. That spring, when A.J. Wingnut. But Jimmy Galante was smart, and the G-men could never quite nail him. After a life-threatening hockey injury suffered at 18 years of age with a prognosis that he may never be able to play the game again, his passion for hockey and his desire to succeed expectations fueled his rehabilitation and lead him to become an all-rounded athlete who has garnered respect from coaches and players on all levels. And thats how Greg and Brenda St. Clair were introduced to hockey, enough to motivate them to attend the Trashers next game and eventually become addicted to a sport they previously knew little about. I remember asking, Why does he have the full mask? Someone told me, Hes only got one eye. Hed lost vision in the othera stick through the visor. began moonlighting as a boxing manager. Some say he did it for the same reason he owned a race-car squad: He loved to compete. Their goons fight our goons. It was all over the blogs and hockey-fight sites, the craziness. After hearing ESPN hockey commentator Barry Melrose, a co-owner of the Frostbite, trash the Trashers on the radio, an enraged A.J. Gretzky reportedly earned $100,000, which would have left little for the rest of the team. There was only one problem: it wasnt protecting her sides, leaving her exposed, and often, black and blue. Within a few weeks the town's tattoo artists had learned to replicate the trash-can logo. The Trashers were even able to land a few genuine NHL players, one of whom was Mike Rupp. At a press conference on April 1, Galante also introduced the team's 17-year-old president, who had just bought a suit for the occasion. It was populated by the die-hard, the angry, and the drunk. That team was uniquely physical, to put it nicely, Doug Christiansen, a 6-foot-5 Trashers wing, told me. A violent, brutal melee from start to finish. After he was released on $1 million bond, he was asked whether he had any comment. It was a big to-do. Although Galante claims that he never actually made contact, he was charged with assault. Someone had said Galante, with a near-monopoly on regional garbage collection, was driving out competitors. The first happens on the field, court, or ice. At 32, Todd was younger than some of the players. Mid-season, thats when we really caught fire, AJ told me. The former Director of Hockey Operations for the Jacksonville Ice and Sports Complex, Gilles is no stranger to youth hockey. After one desultory performance, he entered the dressing room carting a basket of tennis balls. Sep 30, 1984 Position D Age 38 Height 5'11" / 180 cm Place of Birth Burbank, IL, USA Weight 183 lbs / 83 kg Nation USA Shoots L Youth Team - Status Retired Brother: Adam Elzinga Team Staff profile of Joshua Elzinga also available Use/Embed statistics Default Per Game Average Coaches Played For Player Statistics Regular Season + Postseason More information about Marc can be found atwww.OptimumAthlete.com. They had, what, three goons? They had their own chants and waved body bags when opposing players lost fights. But his passion for sports never faded. And the noisemy God, the noise! Ndur charged the Kalamazoo bench and tried to kick a linesman. The wiretaps captured Galantes associates recalling a trip to Mount Kisco, New York, where they wentas Michael Gustafson, the lead assistant U.S. attorney who handled the case, would later state in courtto retain the services of a leg-breaker known as the Carpenter. Also caught on tape was Galante telling an associate to deliver a message to a would-be canary: Long Island says hello, referring to Matty the Horse Ianniello. Depending on whom you ask, Jimmy Galante was either one of its mobsters or a legit businessman whose waste-removal company had become associated with the Mafia. A.J. The story of Galantes team has become legend in Fairfield County, where I live. It held fewer than 3,000 seats, the fewest in the UHL, but it had a jewel-box intimacy. And so it was that Jimmy Galante's "property rights system," as the government called it, became one of the largest racketeering cases in U.S. history. Danbury is a blue-collar town, and they could relate to the players, Galante told me. A case involving a minor-league hockey team also nailed Matty the Horse. Id look for the guys with the best entertainment rating.. He searched two places, one actual, one virtual. ", On most Saturdays, A.J. Could there be a better symbol of the link between fans and team? He was an owner of Automated Waste Disposal, a conglomerate of at least 25 trash-hauling businesses that held a near monopoly in western Connecticut and Westchester. Rupp had played two seasons in the NHL and had even scored the decisive goal for the Devils in the 2003 Stanley Cup finals. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. AJ filled out the roster with a mix of has-beens and might-bes. Jimmy owned a stock car racing team and had long talked about becoming a sports magnate. FACE-OFF Backed by some of his father's truck drivers in 2004, A.J. Residents greeted the new hockey team with considerable excitement. That May they played their hated rival, Kalamazoo, in the Colonial Cup finals. Workers were still welding in seats 90 minutes before the first game, but opening night was a success: A sellout crowd of about 2,500 showed up, and Danbury beat Adirondack 3--1. When father and son get together, they talk family, business, the future. I know its not healthy, but I cant help myself. "Of course, if we had to do it again, would we have accepted that franchise? The fans in section 102 who had once heckled him for his one eye instantly embraced him. That matchup was marred by a brawl that kicked off when Trashers left winger Brad Wingfield attempted to fight Kalamazoo's Josh Elzinga, who declined the invitation. "I didn't know s--- about hockey either," volunteers Greg, a propane tank repairer. The Washington Capitals have signed defenseman Nick Jensen to a three-year contract extension worth an average annual value of $4.05 million. A.J. In 2015, AJ opened a boxing club across from the Danbury arena. And what's more entertaining than a bunch of crazy guys getting into fights?". Team Information. Most recently in the AAHL with Chicago Blaze. The Galantes told Trashers who were suspendedinvariably for fightingto watch the games from the 102 seats. He offered Roanoke not just a pair of current Trashers but also other players in the UHL supplemental draft that summer. Within weeks, the agent was seated beside the boss himself in the owners box at the Danbury Ice Arena, cheering as the Trashers skated out. Furthermore, according to authorities, in April 2005 Galante had met with Louis DeLuca, a longtime Connecticut state senator. How did A.J. Featured in the NETFLIX documentary Untold: Crime & Penalties, the story of the Danbury Trashers relives the short and tumultuous history of an old United Ho. In 2004, this meant buying a minor-league-hockey franchise and installing it at the local youth rink, the Danbury Ice Arena. "I said, 'Sure,' which, to my dad, was like signing a contract. In the summer of 2005, federal agents raided Galantes offices, coming away with more than $500,000 in cash and more than 5,000 boxes of documentsreceipts, account books, you name it. The league set an annual salary cap of $275,000, with a $2 luxury tax for every dollar spent above the threshold. Not that they just rubber-stamped Galante's application. She had tears in her eyes and was thanking us so much. For a few hours, hockey had given Brenda a sense of normalcy to which Vogel can relate. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. ), According to ESPN, an FBI wiretap that was capturing Galantes phone calls would later reveal that three days after Wingnut broke his leg, Galante asked his business associate Ciro Viento to call Commissioner Brosal. Having collected 563 goals over the course of his 15 seasons in various leagues, Duhart gave the Trashers a second genuine scoring threat. Still, it was clear who had the ultimate authority: Before and after some games Jimmy gave the team fiery pep talks and blistering critiques. . Not a subscriber? So why was he being greeted by this kid sporting a nascent goatee, earrings and an Allen Iverson jersey? "We're probably not going to want to participate," he said haltingly. As Wagner was escorted there, he broke free to make a dash toward the opposing bench. You in? He took a shot at us, AJ told me. The Danbury arena, meanwhile, has returned to its old existence as a youth rink. picks his words with great care when discussing what he calls "the legal issues" of the last few years. At 24, Rupp had already spent two seasons in the majors. He graduated from Manhattanville with a business management degree in 2008 and bought into a New York City company that sells heating oil and diesel fuel. He was one of those players who had everything except whatever mysterious quality it is that separates Wayne from Brent, the Yes from the Not Quite. says wistfully. Galante, then a freshman at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y., introduced himself as team president. They happily agreed. 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