Part 28: Rogers TV play-by-play voice Doug Anderson

If there was one constant to Rogers Community Television’s telecasts of Brampton Battalion games, it was the voice and presence of play-by-play man Doug Anderson.

Anderson worked the Battalion’s inaugural home game, a 5-1 loss to the Kitchener Rangers on Oct. 9, 1998, and expects to be behind the microphone March 17 when the Troops host the Peterborough Petes in the final regular-season game of a 15-year stay in Brampton.

“It was a sad day when the announcement was made that the team was moving to North Bay,” said Anderson, who called the North Bay Centennials’ final road game March 24, 2002, a 6-5 overtime loss to the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors in the third game of an Eastern Conference quarterfinal. “It’ll be a sad day when they play their last game here. I’ve tried not to think too much about the last few games of the season, and it will probably hit me next season when it comes to the first week and I have nowhere to go.

“It’s disheartening and disappointing, but the writing has been on the wall for a while through no fault of Scott Abbott’s. He’s done everything he could to keep the club here. But 15 seasons is a pretty good run.”

Anderson, who has worked for the past two years with colour commentator Peter Kourtis and host Laura Barney, auditioned and landed the job after calling high school and minor hockey tournaments and games for the junior A Streetsville Derbys.

“In the early years I probably did six games as the host, play-by-play and colour guy,” said Anderson. “The first season it was more about having OHL hockey in Brampton. It was a big deal here. Like any expansion team, you knew they weren’t going to be very competitive early, but they went on a run over the next two or three seasons where they played some very solid hockey. The first season was tough, but there was a lot of young talent, like a 15-year-old Jason Spezza.”

In the Battalion’s first three seasons Anderson also called games for the Mississauga IceDogs, who entered the OHL in 1998-99 with the Troops.

“In the fourth season Rogers came to me and asked me to choose between the Battalion and IceDogs, or they would choose for me. I chose the Battalion because I got along with everyone here, from the front office to the arena guys. I was treated well and felt like a part of the organization. In Mississauga there was a real separation for me personally.  It was a revolving door of owners and coaches, but the IceDogs had some terrific players and played some exciting games.”

Among Anderson’s partners in the Battalion’s early years was Sam Cosentino, who would go on to call games for the Majors with former Battalion public address announcer Dan Dunleavy before signing with Sportsnet as its junior hockey analyst.

“In the early days there was very little feedback on the commentary or production values, and the Rogers people went about producing the games the best they could,” said Cosentino.  “You knew there weren’t millions of people watching, so you weren’t afraid to make a mistake. Doug was great at carrying the play, and I learned quickly from him, and from all my years watching hockey, that the colour guy really speaks up only between the whistles.

“It could be a challenge in those days, because you might have people not show up or people working in unfamiliar areas. Doug and I had to cover up a lot of things so the viewer at home would think everything was fine, when behind the scenes we might have been undermanned. Doug made it a lot easier. On many nights and afternoons he made the game look a lot better than it might have been behind the scenes.”

Said Anderson: “Sam is so talented and another guy who really does his homework. I’ve worked with great people here, like Mark Heron, Michelle Sturino, Mike Hancock and my current partners, Laura and Peter.

“We do a lot of research for games. We’re not reporters, but we take a lot of pride in doing the best job we can with what we have. For on-air staff it’s the best training ground, because things can be thrown at you out of the blue. It really helps people make the transition from Rogers OHL games to Sportsnet’s games because the graphics are the same, the music is the same, and most of the production values are similar as well.”

Said Barney: “Doug was intimidating to work with at first. He’s an amazing, welcoming guy, and I would be getting ready to go on and trying to memorize every stat and Doug already knows everything and everyone. He told me in my first game, ‘If you don’t know it now, you won’t know it 15 minutes from now.’ I thought that he was totally right and I just calmed right down. He’s great at giving feedback too. He always knows how to lighten the mood.”

Battalion games haven’t always been as available on Rogers as they were in 2012-13, when all but five of 68 games were shown live. In 2000-01, Rogers showed 21 games, including 11 at home, and showed all 34 home games for the first time in 2007-08. For three seasons, starting in 2010-11, Rogers telecast a maximum of 65 games, with only visits to the OHL’s three United States-based teams, the Erie Otters, Plymouth Whalers and Saginaw Spirit, unavailable.

“In my opinion, there’s nobody better in the OHL than Doug,” said Battalion president Mike Griffin. “He’s passionate, intelligent and knowledgeable. He cares about the team and the organization. I have a ton of respect for him. I don’t know whether we’ll be able to find a match for Doug in North Bay, but if we could take him up there and lock him in the TV booth I’d be a happy guy.”

Over the years, Anderson said, he’s seen the production values and quality of the Rogers telecasts grow tremendously.

“It’s community television, so it’s a volunteer-based thing from the camera guys to the on-air guys. The guys behind the scenes don’t always do this for a living or have a lot of experience, so it becomes a teaching thing. You learn as you go. There were a lot of mistakes made.

“But the technology has come so far, with high-definition cameras, better sound and better trucks. Rogers has invested millions of dollars into equipment, and the OHL is trying to make sure all teams meet a certain standard. Rogers had turned the OHL into its own property, not just locally, but so that everyone in Ontario has access to almost every OHL game.”

Anderson has a number of fond memories of his time calling Battalion games.

“The first would have to be the run to the Memorial Cup in 2009 that fell short against the Windsor Spitfires in the final. It was great watching Wojtek Wolski become one of the best offensive players the OHL has had and watching the combination of Matt Duchene and Cody Hodgson. We’ve seen tremendous players come through here who have gone on to the NHL, but there are a lot of guys who didn’t get to the NHL, like Aaron van Leusen, who left it on the ice every night.”

Anderson isn’t sure what lies ahead once the Battalion’s final season ends.

“I don’t have a lot of prospects for hockey next season. If the opportunity came up somewhere, I’d love to keep doing OHL games. I did recently sign a contract with Red Bull to be the voice of their Crashed Ice events, but I’ll certainly miss the 34 regular-season home dates we had here with the Battalion.”

Part 27: Public address announcer Jason Davidson

The Brampton Battalion’s military theme extended beyond the name, the colour of the sweaters and the “Quartermaster” retail store.

The club eschewed the traditional announcement of “last minute to play in the period” in favour of “one minute to ceasefire.”

“It’s a real distinct announcement,” said Jason Davidson, who began making the call as the Battalion’s public-address announcer in 2005-06. “It’s something different, and they’ve kept it here, which is nice. The first time you hear it you might think, ‘What was that?’ but they really are keeping with the military theme.  In eight seasons here I have never said ‘last minute to play in the period.’

“If you’re off by a second or a half-second, Scott Abbott notices right away, so my eyes are always on the clock when it’s winding down to one minute left.”

A 33-year-old native of Montreal, Davidson, who works as an associate producer for cbcsports.ca, succeeded Shadd Dales, who left to become the radio voice of the Windsor Spitfires.

“I was referred to this position by Brent Cousland, who was a former producer for Rogers. I met with Mike Griffin and Phil Ercolani, and they told me the job was mine if I wanted it. I did a couple of mike tests and I was good to go. It was a great gig to have during the hockey season.”

In addition to goals, assists, penalties and informing fans that a period or game was into its final minute, Davidson also announced countless between-periods promotions and mini-games involving youth hockey players.

“It was an intimidating gig when I started. I had to get used to the whole format and the certain announcements that have to come at certain times. But through repetition I got more comfortable in the role. I’m better on the mike when there’s a real jazzed-up crowd in here.”

Crowds at the Powerade Centre rarely were more jazzed up than in 2008-09, when the Battalion ousted the Belleville Bulls in six games to win the Eastern Conference title and advanced to the OHL Championship Series, where they lost in five games to the Windsor Spitfires.

“This place was rocking in 2009, and I remember the one call I didn’t want to screw up was when David Branch presented the Bobby Orr Trophy to Cody Hodgson. People always said there weren’t enough fans or they weren’t into it, but if you got more than 3,000 people in here this place was loud and I had a hard time hearing myself.”

The bilingual Davidson appreciated his perch above the media row at the Bunker even more after working some games at the 2011 Memorial Cup tournament, held at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga.

“My spot here might be the best vantage point for an announcer in the OHL. The PA booth in Mississauga is tucked into a corner, and you don’t see all the action. You feel removed from the game because they have windows in the booth, so you can’t really hear the crowd. Here you can interact with the fans and you feel part of the game.”

Davidson, who won’t accompany the club to North Bay, eventually will make his distinctive end-of-period or end-of game call for the last time.

“It could get emotional for a lot of people who’ve been associated with this team for a long time. Sundays won’t be the same, I know that, and I guess I’ll watch a lot more football games. Some road trips to North Bay will probably be in order too. Even if I’m no longer working for the team, I’ll always feel a connection to it. I’ll support them, and it’s great to see the kind of setup they’re going to have in North Bay.”

Battalion president Mike Griffin said Davidson came a long way in his years as the club’s in-arena voice.

“He came in here as a nervous young guy. He came in wet behind the ears, and there were days that he came in knowing he was going to get a comment about what didn’t go right, but he just got better and better. He’s at the stage now where he doesn’t need a script. He knows what to say and when to say it. He was another real gem who was able to develop here and, if we could pick him up and take him to North Bay, we’d be very fortunate.”

 

Part 26: Dr. Gary Abraham

Gary Abraham is the only father to have had three sons chosen by the Brampton Battalion in the Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection.

He’s also been the head of the club’s medical staff for each of its 15 seasons.

Abraham’s oldest son, Brayden, a left winger, was a 15th-round pick in 2006, while middle son Spencer, a defenceman, was taken in the same round in 2009 and youngest son Bryce, also a defenceman, was a 10th-round choice in 2011.

To date, Spencer is the only member of the Abraham clan to play in the OHL. He skated in 116 games over three seasons with the Troops, scoring nine goals and adding 33 assists for 42 points, before being traded to the Erie Otters on Oct. 3.

“My kids grew up watching and idolizing the guys on the Battalion,” Dr. Abraham said in a recent telephone interview from his Brampton office. “When they were smaller, they would pretty much beg me to take them to every game. They would emulate those guys more than NHL players. They really identified with them. I have countless stories of my kids playing on our backyard rink pretending to be those guys. They enjoyed everything about the league. They collected all the pucks from the different teams.”

Spencer Abraham, who turns 20 on March 18, remembered attending the Battalion’s first home game, a 5-1 loss to the Kitchener Rangers on Oct. 9, 1998.

“I celebrated five or six birthdays here, and I’ve seen plenty of games here,” he said Dec. 9, when the Otters made their last trip to the Powerade Centre. “My day had a pretty close relationship to the organization from the beginning, and it’s become part of our life. To play a couple of seasons here was a dream come true. As a kid I would play on my backyard rink and pretend I was Jason Spezza or Raffi Torres. It was pretty exciting to put on that sweater for real.”

Said Dr. Abraham: “I didn’t put my kids in hockey for this reason, but to see Spencer play his first game for the Battalion in Kitchener in an exhibition game was an unbelievable thrill. I was pretty nervous, and to see him skate around in that uniform was for me as a parent a proud moment.”

Abraham first got to know Battalion owner Scott Abbott and Stan Butler, director of hockey operations and head coach, when both were engaged with Junior A teams. Abraham was involved with the Junior A Bramalea Blues, owned for many years by his father, Joe.

“At that time Scott owned the Caledon Canadians, and I knew him a bit through that,” said Abraham. “I had probably sent my resume on to him when he was awarded an OHL franchise, and he probably forwarded it to Stan.

“I can remember sitting down with Stan probably a year before the Battalion started. I knew of him, and Stan knew my dad from when Stan was coaching at Wexford.”

Abraham said that during his time with the Battalion the biggest change he has seen medically is the diagnosis and treatment of concussions.

“I stitched more players up in other years. There were a lot more facial injuries and a lot more fights in previous years, so that’s changed. The players have always been well cared for here. I’ve always been a fairly conservative doctor, and Stan has always been supportive of the decisions I would make. We haven’t changed how we’ve taken care of the Battalion’s players. We’ve always had good trainers with the Battalion, and to be a successful doctor in the OHL you need to have the respect of the coach, because if they don’t respect your decision the relationship won’t work.”

Abraham said he’s disappointed the Battalion is heading to North Bay for next season.

“I don’t know where the 15 years have gone. I’m happy they’re going somewhere where they’ll receive more support. I think the players will enjoy that experience. Having a son who plays in the OHL gives me a chance to go to other cities and see how the teams are received, and when you see that you notice there was something that was missing in Brampton for the players.”

Said Spencer : “When I found out the team was moving it was kind of upsetting. It wasn’t just a team I played for moving; it was a personal thing because it’s been a part of my life for so long. I was a 15th-round pick, so I knew nobody would be giving me much of a chance to make the team, but I’ve known Stan for a long time and I knew he would give me an honest chance to make the team if I worked as hard as I could. I had my mind set on playing here. Putting on a sweater with my name on it for the first time is a feeling I’ll never forget.”

Dr. Abraham said he’d like to remain involved with the OHL in some capacity after the Battalion departs.

“I spoke to Stan about potentially being involved in the OHL as a consultant. I might be able to help out as a medical advisor with new policies they might be considering or act as a liaison with teams.  I hope Spencer will be back for one more OHL season. I’ll miss going to the rink, and I’ll miss seeing the players in the office as their family doctor when they’re here.”

Said Spencer: “He’s a big hockey fan, and he’s driven us to rinks across Ontario since we were little kids. He has really enjoyed being part of it. To see one of his kids play for them was pretty exciting for him. I think it’s something he’ll miss, but we’ll still be Battalion fans.”

Part 25: Director of Scouting Bob Wetick

Bob Wetick doesn’t know how many minor hockey games he’s scouted for the Brampton Battalion, but he has a good idea.

“Depending on how many tournaments you go to, you’re probably looking at about 200 games a year,” Wetick said between periods of a recent Battalion game at the Powerade Centre. “You can do the math from there.”

Wetick has been the club’s director of scouting since its inaugural Ontario Hockey League season of 1998-99. He oversees a five-man scouting staff numbering Steve Blinn, Jason Day, John Evans, Dave Gray and Errol Hook.  Blinn, who lives in the Sudbury area, and Gray, who lives in Whitby, have been with the club since its inception.  Evans, a resident of the Ottawa area, joined the Battalion in 2002-03, while Day, a Windsor resident, and Hook, based in Aurora, joined the staff in 2004.

Evans had been head scout for the Barrie Colts and Sudbury Wolves, while Hook held the same position with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.

Wetick, recently retired from the Ontario ministry of the attorney general’s office, first met Stan Butler, Battalion director of hockey operations and head coach, when Butler was coaching the Wexford Raiders bantams.

“I started out scouting in Toronto for Michigan State University, and that’s what I was doing when I met Stan,” said Wetick. “I moved to the OHL’s central scouting department for two years, then spent three years with the Kitchener Rangers.”

Wetick, a Toronto resident, has presided over each of the Battalion’s Priority Selections.  The Troops have chosen 275 players, with 118 having played at least one game with the club.

Wetick and Butler started preparing for the Battalion’s first season by choosing eight players in the expansion draft, among them defenceman Jason Maleyko, who would be captain for the club’s first three seasons after being picked from the Oshawa Generals, and left winger Scott Thompson, plucked from the London Knights. Thompson recorded 95 points in 183 games with the Battalion.

The Battalion picked 32 players over 28 rounds in its first Priority Selection, starting with defenceman Jay Harrison. Twelve other players from that process, including longtime contributors Jeff Bateman, David Chant, Tyler Hanchuck, Kurt MacSweyn, Raffi Torres and Aaron van Leusen, would see action with the Troops.

“In any expansion scenario, you’re going to get other teams’ 19th or 20th player, if you’re lucky,” said Wetick. “We had to fill in with a lot of kids we picked. We were choosing over 20 rounds or more then. We had to basically see anyone who could walk and chew gum and had any sort of potential at all, because we needed that roster. There are no quick fixes, and we had to bite the bullet that first season and hope to improve.”

In 2000 the OHL changed the Priority Selection to focus on 16-year-old players. Wetick said that the development of prospects then became paramount, as immediate help from recruits wasn’t as readily available as when players were chosen from the junior A and junior B ranks.

“It’s a slow process now. We look at kids at the minor midget level and we try to project what they’ll be like down the road. We try to have an understanding of what the club will be looking for and how Stan wants the players to play and whether they can fit in here.

“There are a number of things we look at. What kind of desire does a player have to play the game? What kind of sacrifices is he willing to make to excel at this level? Even in the National Football League, where they spend a lot more money on scouting than we do, they have a hard time trying to quantify how players will react at their level. I wish we had some sort of device that measures heart and desire and told us why some players are successful and other ones aren’t.”

Wetick said the stability of the Battalion organization, with Butler and owner Scott Abbott still at the helm, is a big asset when trying to recruit players.

“It’s really magnified now. The first part is taking the player, then you have to recruit the player to come and play. That’s where you see the impact of stable ownership and stable management. Nobody wants to go to an unknown situation with constant change. Down the road in Mississauga, there’s been a great deal of change, and sometimes that can really impair your ability to retain your picks and convince them to come. If you look at any successful sports franchise, you’ll see that stability and consistency are very important.”

Wetick, who will continue his duties when the Battalion relocates to North Bay, said Butler’s commitment to development helps his job too.

“Stan has never been huge on trades. He focuses more on developing our players and not making trades for the sake of making them. The big issue at this level is how patient clubs are with maintaining the development of their players and not panicking.”

Wetick conceded that there’s more than a little luck involved in finding players who are able to come in and contribute.

“How did we get Torres in the sixth round? Look at a guy like Matt Clark. We had some inside information on him, and it took him two years to get here, but now he’s a potential National Hockey League player.  Brent Burns was a smart player whom we liked when he was a little over five-feet-11 playing right wing for the Jr. Canadiens. We could see he had the hockey intelligence, but who knew when we took him in the third round that he would be a first-round NHL pick?”