In the Spotlight
By P.J. Slinger
Pat Westrum, who played on the University of Minnesota hockey team from 1968-70 and then professionally for 10 years, actually didn't begin playing hockey until he was in eighth grade.
Nowadays that just doesn't happen.
But Westrum, now the father of three, thought it would be a good idea to make his kids wait before participating in organized sports.
Then reality set in.
A friend of his had a young son who was playing hockey and that team needed more players. So Westrum allowed his eldest son, Ryan, to play when he was seven years old.
"I just let Erik tag along," he said of the then five-year-old who is now a senior forward for the University of Minnesota. "But they both started out pushing folding chairs on the ice."
So instead of starting out later in life with hockey, Erik Westrum was already a rink rat by age six.
"Back then it was fine to get them started early like at five or six because they didn't have to play hockey, but just skate," Pat Westrum said. "But now kids get so wrapped up in it that it takes away their imagination. They aren't out there just skating and playing on their own. Now parents are forcing the kids to be one-hour hockey players."
But Erik Westrum wasn't, and certainly isn't, a one-hour hockey kid. Now he's the Gophers' leading scorer with 23 points in 16 games through December 4. He was a third-team All-WCHA player last season after scoring 53 points in 39 games.
"Hockey was just part of dad's life, like it is with me now," Erik said. "Everything revolves around hockey. I was kind of grown into it. When I was growing up, there were always pictures of us with hockey sticks."
Erik said part of the reason he became so interested in hockey was because his older brother was playing it.
"Little brothers always want to do what their bigger brothers do," he said. "And it was kind of a competition with him. So I was always playing with kids a year or two older than me."
Ryan Westrum went on to play for the Gophers as a back-up goalie for one season.
Erik's idol was a guy by the name of Wayne Gretzky.
"I even used to dress my sister's Ken dolls in Gretzky clothes," Westrum said.
But Erik's role model was, and is, his father. After college, Pat Westrum played for the St. Paul Fighting Saints and then for the Boston Bruins organization for 10 years.
"The year I was born was the year he quit playing hockey," Erik said.
And that allowed Pat Westrum to become a hockey coach. Pat coached Erik every year but one, even through high school. During Erik's junior year, his Apple Valley High School team won the Minnesota state tournament.
That team included other WCHA notables such as Karl Goehring, Brad DeFauw and Chris Sikich.
"It was an unbelievable team," Erik said.
Playing on that unbelievable team helped get Westrum noticed by Division I schools.
"I went to all the games at the 'U' and by my sophomore year I figured I had a legitimate chance to play for the Gophers," he said. "That's what I wanted to do. Follow in my dad's footsteps."
So then all it took was an interest on the part of the Gophers. And that didn't take long.
"Pretty much my first conversation with (former Minnesota coach Doug) Woog I knew I was going to go there," Erik said.
But it wasn't just talent that got Westrum this far.
"My mom (Sandy) was athletic too, so I'm sure a lot of my talent is genetic, but if I didn't work out, it would be wasted," he said. "I get better every year, I don't plateau. I'm 100 times better than I was as a senior in high school. That's what I pride myself on. A lot of times players reach a certain level and don't get any better."
His father agreed.
"Erik is just so dedicated," he said. "He works out three-and-a-half hours a day, six days a week. His skills have improved every year. Erik was aggressive and always played with the bigger kids. He just loves to play. And he has great hockey sense."
And while Westrum is certainly a top caliber player on the ice, his school work doesn't suffer. Erik said it's his mother, a second-grade teacher, who keeps him going in that regard. He was named to the WCHA All-Academic team last year and attends the highly-respected Carlson School of Business at Minnesota.
But after graduation, Westrum hopes to parlay his hockey skills into a professional career before he has to use his business degree. Westrum, who has 53 career goals and 77 assists for 130 total points at Minnesota through Dec. 4, 2000, was drafted by the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes in 1997. He said each year at Minnesota has been memorable.
"My freshman year it was great because I was fulfilling a part of my dream," he said. "We weren't as successful as we wanted to be the first two years, but toward the end of last season everyone was having fun again. It reminded my of my high school team when we'd walk in the locker room and we'd all be laughing and having fun. It's like that now."
Previous Spotlights
Nov. 29 - Wisconsin's Jeff Dessner
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