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‘That’s just Doro’: Trojans veteran Dorowicz willing to play through the pain
By Annalise Posein and Josh Chalmers (SAIT Journalism Program)
CALGARY — For the past three years, a familiar refrain among the SAIT Trojans men’s hockey coaches has been: “That’s just Doro.”
When forward Kyle Dorowicz comes off the ice in a playoff game and hands his teeth to the trainer . . .
“That’s just Doro.”
When, in the intermission of that same game, Dorowicz tries to pull out the remainder of one of those broken teeth with pliers . . .
“That’s just Doro.”
Dorowicz blocked a shot with his wrist Oct. 17 against the Augustana Vikings, and went on to finish the game. When he removed his glove after the game, he found his wrist to be three times its normal size, due to a scaphoid fracture that required a cast.
Dorowicz showed up to practice 10 days later having already shed the cast, one day short of doctor’s recommendations. He had removed the cast himself, not wanting to bother a doctor or wait in a hospital.
How did he remove it? “With tin snips,” says the 23-year-old from Olds, Alta. “I couldn’t scratch (beneath the cast) and it was really itchy, so I had to get it off.”
That, again, is just Doro.
The three-time defending Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference champion Trojans (8-2-1), who are two points back of Mount Royal University for top spot in the ACAC, tangle twice this weekend with the NAIT Ooks (7-5-0). The twin bill begins Friday, Nov. 20 in Edmonton and continues on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 6 p.m. at SAIT Arena.
Saturday’s contest, like all SAIT men’s hockey home games, will be broadcast on Revolution 103, SAIT’s campus radio station. The pre-game show starts at 5:45 p.m.; listen live at http://radio.sait.ca
Friday’s game at NAIT will mark Dorowicz’s fifth game back in uniform after a four-game absence due to injury. In the past year Dorowicz has endured an ankle sprain, a fractured nasal cavity, the non-surgical removal of those two front teeth, and that fractured scaphoid. And those are just the injuries that he remembers.
It’s not the injuries that are astounding, but Dorowicz’s willingness to play through the pain.
“If I still think I can help (the team),” he says, “I still try to play and fill in a role.”
The efforts of Dorowicz don’t go unnoticed by his coaches.
“Doro is one of those guys that wears the Trojan emblem on his sleeve. He does the little things that aren’t always easy to do — blocking shots and getting injured and playing through those injuries. He never complains about it. Never lets anyone know exactly where he is in terms of health or how it is affecting his play,” says Trojans associate coach Jim McLean.
Dorowicz was honoured last year with the Trojan of the Year award, a relatively new piece of hardware unveiled at the 2007-08 SAIT athletics banquet. The award goes to the person who best exemplifies the three characteristics of a Trojan: courage, determination and spirit.
“That was pretty special,” he says. “That was the best award I think I’ve ever received. For sure the highest sense of achievement I’ve had.”
As a veteran defensive centre, Dorowicz plays a role that is not necessarily recognized by fans, but his leadership on and off the ice is invaluable to the team. “I think a big thing Doro does is his ability to bring on first-year players and really show them the systems. That’s a hard thing to do when you’re a veteran player,” McLean says.
In fact, Dorowicz is a multi-dimensional player. At 19, he was named top defensive player for his hometown Olds Grizzlys of the Alberta Junior Hockey League; one year later, he topped the Grizzlys in point production with 19 goals and 45 assists.
Dorowicz, who has a goal, three points and 17 penalty minutes in seven SAIT games this season, says there are many talented offensive players on this Trojans team, so his defensive capabilities are more valuable to his team:
“I’m not really flashy,” he says. “I don’t really do too much out there that gets noticed all the time . . . (I am) getting hit with pucks and blocking shots and playing hurt.”
Dorowicz has already completed his business diploma at SAIT and is working towards his process operations certificate. While he hasn’t decided entirely what he wants to do after school, he does say that he would like to eventually own his own business.
As for the challenge of winning four straight ACAC titles — the Ooks of 1983 through ’87 are the only team to manage that feat — Dorowicz is up for the challenge.
“Once you’re on the top staying there is tough. There definitely is pressure to keep going once you’ve done it before,” he says. “There is pressure, but we’re going to handle it.”
