The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe posted a Q and A with new Toledo Walleye coach Pat Mikesch this morning. We’ll start with the first three questions…
Question: What have your initial impressions of the community been?
Answer: “Ninety percent of my time has been downtown. But I’ve been impressed with all the parks here. We have three dogs. They’ll love getting into the trails and running. We have an older dog, Maggie. She’s a Shih Tzu that’s 16 years old now. We have two other Labs, Beano and Wally, and they are 3 years old. So they’re the active ones. [Toledo] has a very Green Bay feeling to it with the sports community downtown. And we’ve loved our time in Green Bay. It’s set up the same way with some very good neighborhood communities, great people. I think that’s good for us settling in.”
Q: How is the recruiting process going?
A: “Right now I’m just letting [the six players that are already signed] get to know me, and they’ve all done their homework. Those guys are ready to get in town. They want to win a championship, and a lot of these guys have been close. We’re talking to one free agent right now that we’re working hard on. Most of the free agents we’re talking to are still trying to see if they’re gonna get that American League contract. We want that guy who’s right on the fringe. I want players to feel comfortable that if they end up coming to Toledo, they’re coming to a great market and a place that has its own energy every night. Hockey players want to enjoy their experience and be taken care of. Overall it’s been exciting.”
Q: What attributes are you looking for in a player?
A: “Every player has their own skill set, and you’ve got to have all the pieces. Character, the hockey sense, and skating [are important]. I want to play fast. So we better have that core group that can play at that level. I want to see what their history is as far as winning. Where was their last championship team? That’s a big thing. We want to be playing late into the season, very meaningful games, so went to see their playoff stats.”
