First Interview (Updated)

I know what your thinking....He went over to the Wells Fargo Sports Complex and gave Steve Cobb the earful he deserves regarding Seawolf Hockey! Sorry. Oh, I know! Andrew went over and talked to Dave Shyiak, and asked the hard hitting questions and actually got some useful answers. Sorry. Well, he must have talked to D and got him to come back so you longer have to read from me anymore! Sorry. It's my first interview folks, definitely special but leaves something wanted after. It took place behind the safety and security of keyboards, and is probably not what you are expecting. 

This is an interview of a newly made Seawolf fan. He has an interesting story of how it happened (in part you can blame Gary Bettman; who has had three lockouts in his 19 year tenure, and is on his way to having only the second complete season lost due to a strike/lockout, both of these would be for the NHL). He has found a hobby, and is quite good at it. Below is an email interview with the Chance Waddell, who we might thank for a new jersey design someday.

First of all, how are you? Get many gifts this holiday season? Give many gifts?

I'm pretty good, I did give and receive quite a few gifts, including the UAA road jersey I got for Christmas that I'm wearing right now!

Not really question number two, but you get the idea ( ; Have you ever lived in Alaska?

No I have never lived in Alaska sadly. The only states I've ever been to are Missouri, Iowa, Illinois (I live on the tri-state border), and about 20 miles deep into Arkansas.

What made you a Seawolf Fan? 

This will sound really stupid, but what made me a Seawolf fan is that I was at a truck stop about 10 miles from my house this summer and I was checking out their hat rack, and I found a Seawolf hat! And I absolutely fell in love with it! So I bought the hat a few days later and began wearing it everywhere (as I am right now) and was feeling fresh every second that I had it on. Well then the lockout happened, and I needed an NHL alternative, so I remembered the hat and thought that Anchorage seemed like as good an alternative as any! And that's how it happened!

How long have you been a fan?

So I've been a fan since like June or July or something, so not very long.

Do you really do these concepts in Paint? 

I really do these concepts on paint!

Do you have a blank template with the jerseys outline, say maybe adjust the interior lines, and just fill in the color as you see fit?

I do start with a blank template with just the interior lines, then I add some color and stripes, and then I do a HELL OF A LOT of copy and pasting with the logos and numbers and stripes and such and end up with a completed jersey!

You have done multiple concept jerseys for other teams, what is your absolute favorite one?

My absolute favorite is this bad boy right here that is currently rated 4 1/2 out of 5 after 602 votes on icethetics.info (yes, I am tooting my own horn right now).

If any, which was the most challenging i.e. almost make you want to rage quit?

This would be the one...

Have any teams actually talked to about your concept jerseys?

I wish they would! But sadly I haven't been contacted, but in all honesty the reason I wanted to see how much UAA fans liked these was because if they were well like enough I was considering sending them in to Cobb to see if I get a response.

How do you get in the creative spirit?

Lots and lots of Pink Floyd and Linkin Park...that's about it.

Do have a specific name for them? As I have just been calling them concept jerseys.

Nah I don't, I just call them jersey concepts. But if you want to come up with a fun name for them then go for it man!

You can only choose one of your creations became a reality, which one and why?

I would probably choose the Blues concept I talked about earlier because I am a HARDCORE Blues fan, and I would LOVE for them to wear one of my jerseys. LET"S GO BLUES!!!

I couldn't help to notice more of your work on icethetics.info, in what capacity do you have with them?

I am not really a part of Icethetics per say  but that's where I send in all my concepts and it seems to me like I have a pretty good standing with the site's operator, Chris Smith.

How did you become a part of them?

I guess you could say I became a part of Icethetics when they started having jersey design competitions for their fantasy league some months ago, and I decided that I would try my hand at designing some and see if I could win a few, which ended up happening twice!

How long do you plan to be apart of them?

I plan to deal with Icethetics for as long as I possibly can because I like Chris and the Icethetics community as a whole, and I really enjoy the experience.

Do you get to watch much hockey live in person?

I do get to watch quite a bit of live hockey and I usually end up going to about two Blues games a year, with St. Louis being three hours south of where I live. I've been to two preseason games, two home openers, two regular season games, and two playoff games, one of which was Game 5 against the Sharks last year when they won their first playoff series in 10 years and it was easily the best day of my life.

Why aren't the Alaska Aces the St. Louis' AA team nowadays?

The main reason that the Aces are no longer the AA team of the Blues is more or less travel costs. The Blues switched affiliations to the Evansville IceMen, and Evansville, Indiana is much closer than Anchorage of course.

If there is noise on our end for maybe a tweak, or say one more design of a UAA hockey jersey, would you be down?

Of course I would be down for that! I would love to hear what kinds of suggestions you guys come up with and I would gladly see what I could do to make you guys happy!

And now for your viewing pleasure, here are some familiar jerseys:

Combo view:

Up-close views:

And, a nice Alternate concept:

You can view Chance's and other jersey concepts at click here, and view the combo away/home concepts here (go vote!). Right before posting, the UAA jerseys are down to four stars at 466 votes. As far as I'm concerned, that is not good enough. If you have any tips, or just want to reach out to Chance Waddell you can get a hold of him at chancewaddell33@gmail.com. I personally like all three, but the gold jersey has always held a special place in my heart. The NY Rangers text is unique touch, but the bottom row of lines kinda draws my eye. If they were the same width, my picky eyes would be more happy (I hate to be nit picky). There are more thin than the arm rows, I wonder how the bottom would look with something along the lines that the Carolina Hurricanes have. But it would have to be relevant to Alaska, I can't think of exactly what and I guess that's why I don't do this. If you have a take, let us know in the comments down below. Chance will be checking in sometime soon to see our verdict.