1-On-1 with Colin Theisen
This week on the Tucson Roadrunners Insider Podcast, “Voice of the Roadrunners” Adrian Denny and TucsonRoadrunners.com’s Kim Cota-Robles were joined by forward Colin Theisen ahead of his second full pro season in Arizona. The full episode, including the former Arizona State University Captain Colin talking about his new house and his dog, can be found on the iHeartRadio App or by listening below.
Listen to “Colin's Comin', Coverage From Rookie Faceoff” on Spreaker.Q: How’s the summer been? Are you back in Michigan?
It went great, bought a house and everything back in Michigan. We got a bunch of work done on the house. I tried to do most of it myself with the help of some family members, so it has been a little bit busy of a summer but it has been good.
Q: Tell us about the new house?
Right when we moved in, I think about July 10th, the first project was refinishing the hardwood floor. That took me about 30-40 hours of work and then we redid our kitchen, both bathrooms and a bunch of flooring on other parts of the house. It’s looking good now, still got a lot more projects to go, but that’s for next summer.
Q: Anything fun? Any weekend getaways amidst all of the new house stuff?
We went to Sunset Beach, North Carolina, my mom has a place down there, so we went down there for about a half of a week, and I played a lot of golf, that’s for sure.
Q: Any Roadrunners you’ve seen this offseason or been in contact with as you get ready to come back since we last all saw each other in April?
Yeah, I’ve talked to quite a few of them, obviously Doaner (Josh Doan), playing with him (at Arizona State University), but Smitty (Nathan Smith) and I had a camp here in Michigan so I was with him for a week so that was pretty fun. Other than that, I didn’t see anyone in person, but I’ve been talking to a lot of them.
Q: How do you strategize your offseason training, skating, staying in shape etc?
A lot of the guys do different things. Some guys work with a skating coach, a lot have trainers for off of the ice, strength and training and all of that. I have coaches here that I work with in the beginning of the summer just to familiarize myself with the drills that they want me to do; to work on myself and my edges and then I continue working on that with my other group that I skate with. We skate 2-3 times a week here starting in July. It’s just us, and we’ll start with some skill drills and then a little bit of conditioning; and then everyone plays little small area games to get ready for the season coming soon. Like I said, a lot of the guys are different so some people might have trainers throughout the whole summer and stuff like that, but we have a good group of guys down here and they’re all pros, so it is fun.
Q: What’s the plan to get back to Arizona? Do you drive? Is there an animal?
We’ll probably load up our car with whatever we can, and then well ship that out and both fly out there with the dog.
Q: Tell us about the dog?
Her name is Nori, she’s a bernedoodle. We got her the year that I played at ASU. We actually got her in Mesa, so she’s an Arizona pup. She’s almost two years old, she turns two in December. She’s still crazy, she’s a lot of fun
Q: Outside of Josh (Doan), have you met any other ASU supporters down in Tucson?
I think just walking down in Tucson I’ve seen a couple of ASU shirts, but other than Josh, no. I mean no one that I’ve talked to opens up about ASU in U of A territory.
Q: Growing up in Michigan, were you a Red Wings fan, did you have a favorite player?
Yeah, I was a huge Red Wings fan, growing up I went to a lot of games, living just south of Detroit there. I had two favorite players, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk were my two favorite players growing up.
Q: Looking at the schedule this year, you’ve always got a good deal of family support for our trips to the Midwest. Who all is in that group that comes to see you when we’re out in Iowa, Chicago and also came to see you in college and juniors?
A lot of my buddies from Monroe go, lots of family, my billet family in Dubuque, I’m still really close with, they’ll definitely be at the Iowa game, probably the Chicago game as well. They came to quite a few of my Notre Dame games. It’s always cool to have all of the support out there, watching me play. I really feel blessed to have them.