Dan VanderMyde in action during his last game call of the Mona Shores Sailors versus the Reeths Puffer Rockets.
By Jason Goorman
LocalSportsJournal.com
He ended it where it all started ... on the original home ice that was once called, L.C. Walker Arena.
Longtime hockey public address announcer Dan Vandermyde decided his last call for the Mona Shores varsity hockey program was going to be at the place his years announcing athletic contests all started at, the LC Walker Arena in downtown Muskegon. The arena has since been renamed to Trinity Health Arena.
“I started in the fall of 1988 when hockey became a varsity sport for the Sailors, and back when it was still their home ice,” said Vandermyde, who has also been the announcer for home Mona Shores football games since 1991. “It’s just so much fun, you see players go on through their high school careers and there’s always those new kids coming up.”
The Grand Rapids native and Vietnam veteran unplugged from the mic he’s been calling games on for the past 36 years after the Sailors’ 5-5 tie with rival Reeths-Puffer on Dec. 21.
Thirty-six years in the making comes with lots of great memories for Vandermyde who got his start calling hockey games for the Muskegon Lumberjacks in the mid 1980s.
Names like Mona Shores’ Justin Abdelkader and Western Michigan Christian’s Dan Bylsma are two players that went on to careers in the National Hockey League, but are guys that will always stick out to Vandermyde. But it’s not just the greatest players that made his days fun in the old hockey barn. It was the every day players and their families who made calling hockey games special for him. Vandermyde also was on the microphone for the Sailors’ incredible 2000 state championship run.
“I love Mona Shores, the fans are so appreciative,” said Vandermyde, who will continue to be on PA duties for Mona Shores football and softball games along with Roosevelt Park softball contests. “You see parents, siblings, and kids and you have to feel the mood of the crowd to be good at what you do.”
Being the PA guy for home games is an important assignment, a job Vandermyde is passionate about. His deep care for being a home team’s announcer stems from when he landed his first professional job, being a disc jockey in Saigon during the Vietnam war.
Vandermyde is a Purple Heart recipient and served under the 101st Airborne Division as a demolitions specialist for his first assignment in Vietnam. He survived a North Vietnamese attack in January of 1972 that left him wounded while 30 of his brothers in arms sadly lost their lives.
“I was sleeping when we started taking small-arms fire and mortar fire,” Vandermyde said in a Muskegon Chronicle article in 1988. “The next thing we knew, Charlie was coming through the wire.”
During the attack, Vandermyde was ordered to destroy the firebase’s artillery, and took a piece of shrapnel to his back while completing his key task.
That moment in the war is something Vandermyde carries with him to this day, but it was a moment he was able to turn into his break to inspire others through a microphone.
While recovering in a military hospital, Vandermyde was visited on a chance encounter with the Sergeant Major of the American Forces Network. As the leader was leaving Vandermyde’s side, he told him he wanted to be a broadcaster.
The idea to be on the air didn’t come out of nowhere. Vandermyde discovered the Army’s broadcasting school while he was serving in Germany before being shipped out to Vietnam. He also was part of WLAV radio station’s Junior Achievement program during his junior year of high school.
“He got me an audition, got me to go straight to Saigon and be a disc jockey with the American Armed Forces Radio,” said Vandermyde about how being wounded in Vietnam gave him his first professional break on a live microphone with an audience. “The thing about my time on the radio in Vietnam is, you were actually trying to bring home to them, you wanted to make it sound like you’re listening to hometown radio.”
That idea of bringing the hometown feeling to soldiers in combat followed Vandermyde all the way back to his home in West Michigan where he continued his career in the US Army and landed jobs in radio and television. He served 6 years of active duty and 25 years in the Guard and Reserve, retiring at the rank of Command Sergeant Major, the highest possible enlisted rank in the Army. He also took over calling Muskegon Lumberjacks games, and later, Muskegon Fury home matchups.
“Claude Karel had been the longtime announcer ... he had a heart attack and the Lumberjacks needed me to take his place,” said Vandermyde who also ran morning shows for WZZM-TV 13 and WMUS radio.
Vandermyde admits he was not a hockey expert, but he had a cool and fun demeanor on the mic. His hockey greenness was exposed when he had to announce his first penalty for the Lumberjacks.
“My first game, the referee came up to me and said, ‘I know this is your first time, so I’ll come over and tell you what the penalties are,” said Vandermyde, who has also been a softball umpire for more than three decades. “There was a penalty on (Jock) Callander, the referee signals with both arms straight forward, I got it all written up and called the penalty, ‘Callander, two minutes for pass interference.’ The referee came over asking, ‘what did you say? That was two minutes for cross checking!”
The mixup between football and hockey terms instantly earned Vandermyde the love of the fans.
“’’Hello Muskegon, it’s Hockey Night in hockey town’, became the phrase Vandermyde trademarked when he’d start the night for Lumberjacks and Fury hockey games and Mona Shores games. The saying had a similar feel to his war-time disc jockey days when he yodeled, ‘gooood morning Vietnam’ - the phrase that brought a hometown feeling to GI’s stuck in the mire fighting against the Viet Cong.
That hometown pulse stuck with Vandermyde as he became a stable presence for a storied hockey tradition in Muskegon.
“Being in the box, people are always willing to come and say, ‘hi’,” said Vandermyde. “I always enjoy it when a kid finds me and later you bring the kid to turn up the lights, it’s the little things that kids think about.”
Vandermyde’s genuine love for Mona Shores athletics spills out over the loud speakers and it infects those who are at the game and it also inspires kids.
Britta Cleveland was one of those Mona Shores students who Vandermyde said he inspired. Cleveland went on to a successful career in radio with WMUS and B93 in Grand Rapids.
“She came up to me and said she loved listening and she asked how to get into radio and I helped her and she made quite a name with Clear Channel (Radio) and a career in media,” said Vandermyde.
There is so much to being a PA man that brings lots of fun, and it also attracts the family. Vandermyde’s daughter Teresa Dunson announces now too.
“She’s 30 years behind me, but she’s coming into it,” said Vandermyde. “She’s my backup for softball and also calls games at Lakeshore (Sports Centre).”
While Vandermyde might be stepping away from Mona Shores hockey, he will always have a special place in his heart for the program.
“Shores hockey, I love Coach Chris Benedict like a son. ‘Benny’ has always been close to my heart. I said I miss you guys, I want you to know that it wasn’t an easy decision to make,” said Vandermyde. “It’s not easy to sit down on that ice for me anymore, and when you’re in there, you don’t get a break and it definitely is not warm.”
Though the old hockey barn is cold, it’s a place Vandermyde will always consider to be a warm and comfortable place, much like home.
After all, he’s done all he can to make the kids of Norton Shores feel like they’re at home.
LocalSportsJournal.com
He ended it where it all started ... on the original home ice that was once called, L.C. Walker Arena.
Longtime hockey public address announcer Dan Vandermyde decided his last call for the Mona Shores varsity hockey program was going to be at the place his years announcing athletic contests all started at, the LC Walker Arena in downtown Muskegon. The arena has since been renamed to Trinity Health Arena.
“I started in the fall of 1988 when hockey became a varsity sport for the Sailors, and back when it was still their home ice,” said Vandermyde, who has also been the announcer for home Mona Shores football games since 1991. “It’s just so much fun, you see players go on through their high school careers and there’s always those new kids coming up.”
The Grand Rapids native and Vietnam veteran unplugged from the mic he’s been calling games on for the past 36 years after the Sailors’ 5-5 tie with rival Reeths-Puffer on Dec. 21.
Thirty-six years in the making comes with lots of great memories for Vandermyde who got his start calling hockey games for the Muskegon Lumberjacks in the mid 1980s.
Names like Mona Shores’ Justin Abdelkader and Western Michigan Christian’s Dan Bylsma are two players that went on to careers in the National Hockey League, but are guys that will always stick out to Vandermyde. But it’s not just the greatest players that made his days fun in the old hockey barn. It was the every day players and their families who made calling hockey games special for him. Vandermyde also was on the microphone for the Sailors’ incredible 2000 state championship run.
“I love Mona Shores, the fans are so appreciative,” said Vandermyde, who will continue to be on PA duties for Mona Shores football and softball games along with Roosevelt Park softball contests. “You see parents, siblings, and kids and you have to feel the mood of the crowd to be good at what you do.”
Being the PA guy for home games is an important assignment, a job Vandermyde is passionate about. His deep care for being a home team’s announcer stems from when he landed his first professional job, being a disc jockey in Saigon during the Vietnam war.
Vandermyde is a Purple Heart recipient and served under the 101st Airborne Division as a demolitions specialist for his first assignment in Vietnam. He survived a North Vietnamese attack in January of 1972 that left him wounded while 30 of his brothers in arms sadly lost their lives.
“I was sleeping when we started taking small-arms fire and mortar fire,” Vandermyde said in a Muskegon Chronicle article in 1988. “The next thing we knew, Charlie was coming through the wire.”
During the attack, Vandermyde was ordered to destroy the firebase’s artillery, and took a piece of shrapnel to his back while completing his key task.
That moment in the war is something Vandermyde carries with him to this day, but it was a moment he was able to turn into his break to inspire others through a microphone.
While recovering in a military hospital, Vandermyde was visited on a chance encounter with the Sergeant Major of the American Forces Network. As the leader was leaving Vandermyde’s side, he told him he wanted to be a broadcaster.
The idea to be on the air didn’t come out of nowhere. Vandermyde discovered the Army’s broadcasting school while he was serving in Germany before being shipped out to Vietnam. He also was part of WLAV radio station’s Junior Achievement program during his junior year of high school.
“He got me an audition, got me to go straight to Saigon and be a disc jockey with the American Armed Forces Radio,” said Vandermyde about how being wounded in Vietnam gave him his first professional break on a live microphone with an audience. “The thing about my time on the radio in Vietnam is, you were actually trying to bring home to them, you wanted to make it sound like you’re listening to hometown radio.”
That idea of bringing the hometown feeling to soldiers in combat followed Vandermyde all the way back to his home in West Michigan where he continued his career in the US Army and landed jobs in radio and television. He served 6 years of active duty and 25 years in the Guard and Reserve, retiring at the rank of Command Sergeant Major, the highest possible enlisted rank in the Army. He also took over calling Muskegon Lumberjacks games, and later, Muskegon Fury home matchups.
“Claude Karel had been the longtime announcer ... he had a heart attack and the Lumberjacks needed me to take his place,” said Vandermyde who also ran morning shows for WZZM-TV 13 and WMUS radio.
Vandermyde admits he was not a hockey expert, but he had a cool and fun demeanor on the mic. His hockey greenness was exposed when he had to announce his first penalty for the Lumberjacks.
“My first game, the referee came up to me and said, ‘I know this is your first time, so I’ll come over and tell you what the penalties are,” said Vandermyde, who has also been a softball umpire for more than three decades. “There was a penalty on (Jock) Callander, the referee signals with both arms straight forward, I got it all written up and called the penalty, ‘Callander, two minutes for pass interference.’ The referee came over asking, ‘what did you say? That was two minutes for cross checking!”
The mixup between football and hockey terms instantly earned Vandermyde the love of the fans.
“’’Hello Muskegon, it’s Hockey Night in hockey town’, became the phrase Vandermyde trademarked when he’d start the night for Lumberjacks and Fury hockey games and Mona Shores games. The saying had a similar feel to his war-time disc jockey days when he yodeled, ‘gooood morning Vietnam’ - the phrase that brought a hometown feeling to GI’s stuck in the mire fighting against the Viet Cong.
That hometown pulse stuck with Vandermyde as he became a stable presence for a storied hockey tradition in Muskegon.
“Being in the box, people are always willing to come and say, ‘hi’,” said Vandermyde. “I always enjoy it when a kid finds me and later you bring the kid to turn up the lights, it’s the little things that kids think about.”
Vandermyde’s genuine love for Mona Shores athletics spills out over the loud speakers and it infects those who are at the game and it also inspires kids.
Britta Cleveland was one of those Mona Shores students who Vandermyde said he inspired. Cleveland went on to a successful career in radio with WMUS and B93 in Grand Rapids.
“She came up to me and said she loved listening and she asked how to get into radio and I helped her and she made quite a name with Clear Channel (Radio) and a career in media,” said Vandermyde.
There is so much to being a PA man that brings lots of fun, and it also attracts the family. Vandermyde’s daughter Teresa Dunson announces now too.
“She’s 30 years behind me, but she’s coming into it,” said Vandermyde. “She’s my backup for softball and also calls games at Lakeshore (Sports Centre).”
While Vandermyde might be stepping away from Mona Shores hockey, he will always have a special place in his heart for the program.
“Shores hockey, I love Coach Chris Benedict like a son. ‘Benny’ has always been close to my heart. I said I miss you guys, I want you to know that it wasn’t an easy decision to make,” said Vandermyde. “It’s not easy to sit down on that ice for me anymore, and when you’re in there, you don’t get a break and it definitely is not warm.”
Though the old hockey barn is cold, it’s a place Vandermyde will always consider to be a warm and comfortable place, much like home.
After all, he’s done all he can to make the kids of Norton Shores feel like they’re at home.
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