Personal

John Damrath, “J.D.” to nearly everyone, began his hockey life like most rink rats, on the frozen ponds near his home – southern Illinois ponds, in his case. He was already a hockey leader, rounding up boys, girls and under age siblings to help drag sticks, pucks, gloves, brooms and shovels to clear the tailings ponds near Wood River Shell Oil refineries, which provided ideal game sites. On occasion, he even enlisted the help of his parents, convincing them to provide headlight illumination from the family car for the rare night game. These games were  often accompanied by the KMOX evening broadcast with Dan Kelly calling the St. Louis Blues games – and one night when they actually defeated the God-like Montreal Canadiens, all present thought they  had died and gone to hockey heaven. JD’s love of the game was truly contagious and still is.

That passion, combined with an amazing ability to teach kids of all ages make him a natural born coach. His philosophy allows all the athletes to participate and strive toward their goals, and thereby the team’s goals.

As a goalie, JD was usually the first in the dressing room and the last to leave. He’s needed a special type of work ethic to stay on track throughout his career. He played at every level of hockey from the time skates could be strapped on until reaching his happiest goal of walking on to The Ohio State University team in 1980. Highlights of his career at Ohio State include beating Michigan in Ann Arbor before a packed house and sending the seniors out with a win over Miami (OH) in their last-ever game as Buckeyes.

After playing and earning his civil engineering degree from OSU, and earning his P.E. designation, he continued playing on various adult teams, as well as coaching his 3 children, all while beginning a successful engineering construction business in Livonia, Michigan. At age 40, his adult team won the Michigan State Championship. He earned OSU’s prestigious William Oxley Thompson Award for Outstanding Career Achievement before the age of 35 and his company was named one of America’s “Hottest New Small Businesses” by Entrepreneur Magazine. Though his professional career took him to “enemy” territory, he trained his family well in Buckeye traditions such as mowing script Ohio into his snow-covered yard among his Wolverine neighbors.