CENTRAL TEXAS – Six years after vowing to never write another column Legendary Sports radio icon The Warrior, after painfully long negotiations with Pro Hockey News, has decided to return to the on-line journal that he once spurned.
Ok great opening statement but truth of the matter is The Warrior is returning to the Journal because after an on again off again tumultuous eight year relationship with former Border City Bandit General Manager Bobbi Barath Prue The Warrior finds solace in once again being a columnist.
Once the most read minor league hockey columnist in the history of the internet, the Warrior met up with Ms Prue at the final WPHL league meetings in 2001 and was smitten with her. Leaving the USA to sometimes spend months at a time in Alberta Canada with Prue and her two young children Warrior stopped following Minor Pro hockey and began to lose interest in his column, choosing instead to immerse himself in the Stony Plain Alberta community.
That led to a new love in The Stony Plain Eagles of the Men’s SR AAA the highest level of amateur hockey in all of Canada. When Theo Fluery returned to participate in the Men’s SR AAA provincial play downs with Horse Lake The Warrior seized the opportunity to broadcast his return game against Stony Plain drawing over 13,000 listeners to game 1 of that series.
The Warrior began his broadcasting career in Central Texas hosting his own sports radio show and serving as a guest analyst for the Central Texas Stampede prior to singing on full time just prior to the start of the 2000-2001 season. Warrior has won many awards for his work as a talk show host. 
Warrior began his writing career in 1999, writing first for www.inthecrease.com and then for the Pro hockey news from 2005 through 2006. While at In the Crease, The Warrior became not only the most read but the most hated sports columnist for his often controversial views of minor pro hockey.
Former New York Islander Bob Bourne once referred to him as “The Don Cherry of Texas.” Players often voiced their displeasure of their teams by feeding The Warrior insider information in hope being spared a “Warrior grilling” and to be named to the All Warrior Team or winning a Warrior Award.
The highlight of his stay was uncovering the New Mexico Scorpion salary cap violations during the 2000-2001 season, subsequently, the Scorpions organization was fined an undisclosed amount and had 34 points deducted from their record costing the team a playoff spot.
The Warrior took a lot of grieve for breaking the story , but his efforts were rewarded when an undisclosed source within the WPHL office leaked the information on the impeding action to the Warrior 4 hours prior to the official press release.
The Warrior, a divorced father of two (Mary Beth 27, Bradley 25) has returned to Central Texas where he is employed as CEO with www.kingofdodge.com . He can often being heard on Sirius Mad Dog Radio 123 where host evening Dino Costa has given him free reign to give his take on the world of sports.
“Look, The Warrior is excited to return to the national limelight but if you are looking for me to just rip people, then you got the wrong guy. The Warrior just wants to voice his opinion on a wide variety of subjects pertaining to Hockey at all levels. I will just give a different take and spent a lot of time with past future and current players,” The Warrior continued “ Its just nice to be back.”
The Column will consist of two articles, who is hot, who is not section, and other top 5 segments pertaining to hockey. It’s a format that made the Warrior successful and has been used by other columnist with varying degrees of success.
Warrior Thoughts: It’s interesting to see what has transpired with the original 6 franchises in the Western Professional Hockey League. El Paso, Central Texas, New Mexico, Waco and Austin have all been terminated, gone black, suspended operations or whatever, but what was thought to be the weakest franchise Amarillo keeps churning along. There so much talk in other sports about minority hiring, but the NHL and the rest of its lower tiered teams don’t want to discuss Canada’s ugly treatment of its Native Americans. For every Ted Nolan, who semi was given a chance there are the Travis and Jerry Cunningham’s of Alberta that have been tearing up men’s Sr AAA in Canada that should have been giving better opportunity playing in the minor pro circuit.
Give The Warrior his choice of 6 Native Americans, (First Nation) 6 Albertans farm boys and 6 non college American players and The Warrior could win it all in the Central Hockey League. Granted Warrior has never really coached, but I have never curled either and I wouldn’t let that stop me from winning a Briar or two. Ok the phone’s not ringing.
Wow the recession has hit just about every where, and when the federal government is done investigating Bernie Madof , the former Chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange and the admitted operator of the Ponzi scheme that killed Wall Street, maybe they should look into Shawn Horcoff’s contract with Edmonton. Hard to phantom a guy in the twilight of a mediocre career getting paid 33 million.
Lesson learned by NHL owners: Instead of force feeding AHL teams to cities that have successful CHL franchise like they did in San Antonio and face fan resentment they have chosen to have the CHL franchises go black a year then introducing a new franchise See Austin and the New AHL Stars. See Oklahoma City and the yet to be named Edmonton Oiler franchise.
Former CHL President and current Phoenix Coyotes Asst. GM Brad Treliving, must have thought he had returned to Fort Worth when he saw under 4,000 fans during a recent game against the Los Angeles Kings.
Hey Bettman (NHL commissioner) southern expansion is a colossal failure. Want to help the NHL? Say good bye to the Ducks, Coyotes, Predators, Thrashers, Panthers and Hurricanes. Reintroduce yourself to southern Ontario, Hartford, Quebec and retraction. Pet peeve: Minor coaches at the Pewee Rep level that think not posting player stats or scores of games on league websites builds team unity. Ok why do they even keep score? Why don’t they just play 60 minutes with the clock turned off and at the end of each game give each player a blue ribbon and an MVP trophy? That’s the problem with kids today; they spend so much time being told they smell good, that they never know when they stink. Progress charted is progress improved. Here is a novel idea let the kids play, stop putting in your juvenile systems, post their stats and make sure you tell those that don’t put up stats how important their roles on the teams are. Let the parents teach life lessons and you just teach hockey and sportsmanship. The Warrior doesn’t worry who is coaching the kids; it’s who’s coaching the coaches. Damn what is next banning the honor role? Quote from Steve Cherwonak former media director for the WPHL and CHL on the Warriors return. “While the Warrior may be ready to return to pro hockey, I’m not sure pro hockey is ready for the Warrior. Live long and prosper TW!” Good to see Doug Shedden coaching the Canadian team in the Spangler Cup in December. Shedden did a great job in St Johns for Toronto’s AHL team, then John Ferguson JR fired him to replace him with his crony Paul Maurice setting the stage for JR to fire Maple Leaf coach Pat Quinn to replace him with Maurice. How did that work out for ya JR? I hate the Leafs and hope they never make the playoffs again. Be nice to see Quinn or Former Oiler coach Craig MacTavish when he gets another gig, give Shedden a shot at the NHL level. Louisiana IceGators (SPHL) coach Brent Sapergia was ejected after tossing a temper tantrum caught on tape and has become a YouTube sensation. Choreographed tantrums are juvenile and boring. As far as tantrums go, Elmira Coach GM Rob Nichols threw the best one ever but they came from passion not for YouTube. Follow the Warrior via twitter @www.twitter.com/warriorsports. Or email him prohockeynews@kingofdodge.com
Or thewarrior@prohockeynews.com
Publisher’s Note: The Warrior has been a friend, foe, adversary, and colleague for many years. He is one of those people you love or hate with a passion. There is no middle ground. As he says, in this his first column, there will be no ripping of players or hockey people. That was not a condition of his return to these pages.
I remember reading The Warrior years back and hating myself for reaching the end or every story. Feeling dirty but entertained. His takes on who is hot and who is not have been great reads in the past and we look forward to his takes over the 2009-2010 season.
Pro Hockey News is proud of its staff of writers, columnists, photographers and editors. Their contributions to these pages entertain, educate and demonstrate the passion for the sport worldwide. The Warrior will add to the mix and engage our readers with a different take on the game and those who play and manage the game. For the next few weeks his column will appear under The Business Banner of these pages. Welcome back to The Warrior. Comment@prohockeynews.com
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