DETROIT — Steve Avsharian has been a salesman for more than half of his 52 years.
Since 1982, he has been selling auto parts to the country’s largest car companies for a Southfield-based firm. He’s been through the best and worst of times, weathering a tsunami of recessions and government-induced bailouts.
He’s seen it all. He’s a survivor.
This fall, he’s taken on the most challenging selling job of his life. His “product” is the University of Detroit Mercy hockey team.
Yes, hockey. The sport was dropped from the Titans’ lineup of varsity sports in 1972 — the same year Avsharian graduated from UD and wound up his collegiate hockey career — but was resurrected four years ago.
“We’re not a club team. We’re a little more than that. We belong to the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division III,” he said. The ACHA has a membership in five divisions of nearly 500 men’s and women’s teams from all states but Hawaii.
UDM is one of 16 smaller colleges, universities and community colleges from Michigan making up the North region. Nearly halfway through its 22-game schedule, UDM is 4-6, including a 14-2 and 5-3 sweep of last weekend’s home-and-home series against Delta Community College. The other two victories came against Lawrence Tech and Northwood University.
“No one knows about us,” Avsharian said.
That makes putting a roster together his most formidable challenge. This year he managed to scrape up five new players to complement 14 returners. He’d like more, of course, speaking a bit enviously about Oakland University, which had 75 players auditioning. He’s lost a couple of players to injury and has only one goalie.
They range in age between 18 and 23 and include a pair of graduate students, who have to hustle from their night courses to make it on time for Tuesday and Wednesday night practices at 9:30. Some of the players have jobs, and some live off campus.
“The players first and foremost are here to get a good education,” Avsharian said, voicing his admiration for their dedication and commitment. “No one is here to just play hockey.”
Finances are another challenge facing Avsharian and the players. “Hockey is an expensive sport,” he said. While “we’re on good terms with the UDM athletic department,” Avsharian has had to depend on financial support from the Student Senate’s intramural sports budget.
In addition, each player chips in between $1,000 to $1,500 to help make ends meet. No buses are available to transport the team for games to Grand Rapids or Bay City or Saginaw, so players travel using their own cars.
Avsharian, whose professional hockey background includes a year in the World Hockey Association and six years in West Germany, shares coaching duties with 25-year-old Jacob Schira, a graduate of Bloomfield Hills Andover who played junior hockey for two years. “He’s a good example of hard work,” Avsharian said.
But the load of getting the hockey program off the ground is Avsharian’s to carry. He’s started spreading the word about UDM’s hockey to coaches in local high schools, and is assembling a plan to organize a boosters club, alumni and sponsors for support.
Don Horkey is a freelance writer from Shelby Township.
