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If pugilism is needed to win, so be it

With the opener tonight, that's the message Parrots coach Bruce Ramsay is conveying to his team, and any ACHL opponents.

By BRANT JAMES, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 18, 2002

Two themes crystallize into Bruce Ramsay's vision for the St. Pete Parrots: play with aggression; defend the castle.

If either objective involves dropping the gloves, so be it.

The Parrots who play their first Atlantic Coast Hockey League game at 7:30 tonight in Macon, Ga., are an amalgam of Ramsay's style as a minor-league tough guy for 11 seasons, and the teams on which the coach/general manager won four championships.

"Over the years," he said, "my successful teams had a mix of everything. We were always one of the toughest teams in the league, but we also had one of the top scorers, good defense, and we worked together."

Assistant coach/left wing John Gurskis, 26, who averaged 21.5 goals and 22 assists the past two seasons with Wichita (CHL) is the team's most proven professional scoring threat.

Expect the team to enact one of Ramsay's primary tenets when it plays its first two home games, against Jacksonville on Saturday and Knoxville on Sunday at the Times Arena at Bayfront Center. Both begin at 7:30.

"When they come to our house, that's our home," he said. "Someone comes to your home and tries to steal points off you, what do you do? Someone tries to come to my home and steal my baby, they're not leaving my house. That's the kind of attitude we have to have here."

ACHL teams of young, often untested pros will play with 16-man rosters that likely will change often. The $400-per-week player contracts are voidable at any time by management. Ramsay said he would not keep a player from signing to play in a more advanced league, such as the ECHL, but estimated only three or four of his players would advance as far as the AHL.

Wariness surrounds the latest professional sports venture at the Bayfront Center, but the Parrots, like the ACHL itself, seem to have a more firm foundation than failed basketball and roller-hockey teams that have played there. This incarnation of the ACHL was created by ECHL co-founder and Parrots owner Bill Coffey. Ramsay has brought in Gary Cook, a veteran minor-league personnel director who won a title with Ramsay at Thunder Bay in 1994-95, to evaluate players. Ramsay also signed six former teammates to his roster, including Gurskis, wing Jon Austin and defenseman Andrew Dickson.

"My greatest thrill here would be to have people move up, because that looks good for all of us," Ramsay said. "The thing is, you have to do something to get noticed. If you're a scorer, score. If you're a hitter, hit. If you're a fighter, fight."

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